Restore More: Emotionally

Eunice (right) playing games with other Elim House residents.

Crossing the Yalu River

Eunice is 30 years old and recently left Elim House after we helped her secure a new apartment, one that her assailant would not know about. She came to us at the end of 2020 with a history of emotional and sexual trauma. She arrived in China in the summer of 2015 after claiming to fall asleep on the North Korea side of the Yalu River and waking up while being rescued by an elderly woman on China’s side of the river. She told us about being trapped in a relationship with a Chinese man for several years. This man kept her locked in the house out of fear of her running away. Eunice was forced to have sex with him regularly and became pregant but later miscarried after being physically abused by the same man.

She met a missionary who paid to get her safely to South Korea by way of Thailand. Eunice doesn’t clearly recall how she got to Thailand or how long she was there. She suffered from frequent nightmares. She was also exposed to the gospel during her time in Thailand. The constant nightmares even drove Eunice to pray for God to end her life. Much of what she shared with us about her time was disjointed but there was no suspicion by our team that she was intentionally being deceitful. Similar to many other North Korean refugees we’ve helped, it pointed to the severity of trauma she had lived through.

Arriving at Elim House

Upon graduating from Hanawon in 2018, she was able to reconnect with her missionary benefactor to whom she was eternally grateful for getting her to South Korea. To her shock, he had changed into a completely different person and had even left the church, by the time they met face-to-face. He turned from being a father figure to Eunice to a sexual predator, assaulting her for close to a year. She became pregnant and ultimately had an abortion. The thought of having his baby was more than she could bear. She was afraid, angry, couldn’t keep her mind focused, had thoughts of suicide and eventually called a police woman who had helped her in the past. This is how Eunice was ultimately referred to Elim House.

Imagine a lifetime of oppression, sexual, physical and emotional abuse further compounded by having to adapt to a completely foreign and the fast-paced culture of South Korea. Her age may be 30 but Eunice's cognitive level and her maturity do not reflect her age. She is quick to blame her forgetfulness to shirk responsibilities and has a tough time navigating through stressful situations.

Hana Foundation’s annual Settlement Survey of North Korean Refugees in South Korea from 2020 reported again that North Korean refugees living in South Korea experience suicidal impulses at a rate that is more than double that of South Korean natives, 13 percent and 5.2 percent respectively. This rate increased almost 5 percent from 2019 to 2020 for North Korean refugees.

Whether the respondent experienced any suicidal impulse

Looking deeper into the data shows that 14.4 percent of North Korean refugee women experienced suicidal impulses, which is 70 percent more than that of North Korean men (8.5 percent). The leading reason cited by refugee women is “physical or mental illness or disorder” at 30 percent.

Experience of and reasons for any suicidal impulse

Rescue from Loss

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 4:4-5

The word “redeem” came up during a Bible study of Galatians 4:4-5, which was a foriegn concept to our Elim House residents, including Eunice. As the Holy Spirit worked in their hearts, they were able to relate it to their experience of being sold to Chinese men as forced brides, like slaves. Their eyes lit up as they made this connection and they completely froze. The women understood the weight of enslavement more than most people because of their painful past experiences. The Greek word for “redeem” used in Galatians 4:5 can be translated as “ransom or rescue from loss”. It was amazing to see the idea click in the minds of these women who at that moment knew exactly what it meant to be redeemed.

Like most Elim House residents, Eunice was scheduled to meet regularly with a therapist who specializes in counseling North Korean refugees. Though she’s living on her own now, we pray that Eunice will continue her counseling and work towards healing the painful wounds of her past. Eunice’s story is a tragic example of how great the emotional damage is for many North Koreans who have walked in her same shoes.

Eunice at her new apartment.

Restore More

“Restore More” is our focus for this Giving Tuesday. Through Elim House, our aim is to restore more North Korean women in 2022, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Isaiah 26:3 says “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” This is our continued prayer for women who have suffered as Eunice did. Our goal is to raise $45,000 this Giving Tuesday so that we can help meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of more North Korean women and their children living in South Korea who may never otherwise experience the perfect and healing peace of God and to put their trust in Him.

Top North Korean Headlines - November 2021

NORTH KOREANS ARE TOLD TO EAT LESS UNTIL 2025 AND RESORT TO BLACK SWANS FOR MEAT

• Amid an emergency food crisis, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for full efforts directed at farming and urged his citizens to “tighten their belts” until at least 2025.

• The price of some goods has skyrocketed as a result.  According to NK News, a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of bananas in North Korea could cost up to $45.

• Meanwhile, Rimjing-gang (a Japan-based website operated by North Korean defectors) reported that the central bank in North Korea has been printing money coupons worth about $1 since August, since paper and ink were no longer being imported from China.

• A resident from Sinuiju City, which borders China’s Dandong, told Radio Free Asia that “[when] the authorities tell them that they need to conserve and consume less food until 2025...they can do nothing but feel great despair...[some] of the residents are saying that the situation right now is so serious they don’t know if they can even survive the coming winter.  They say that telling us to endure hardship until 2025 is the same as telling us to starve to death”.

• In response, the North Korean government is promoting the consumption of black swans to help alleviate the crippling food shortage, describing the water bird's meat as “delicious and has medicinal value”.

• A black swan centre has recently opened at the Kwangpho Duck Farm in North Korea’s east coast at Jongphyong county.  However, the government has remained silent regarding plans to distribute swan meat to its people.

Source:
https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-breeding-black-swans-people-eat-dire-food-crisis-2021-10
https://www.asiapress.org/rimjin-gang/2021/10/society-economy/donpyo/
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/shortage-10262021174250.html

NORTH KOREA CASTS ASIDE PESTICIDE-POISONED FARMERS

• The North Korean government has refused to take responsibility to treat poisoned farmers who had been forced to spray pesticides on crops without protective measures.

• According to a resident from a southwest county in North Korea, most North Korean farmers do not even have basic items like work gloves.

• It is reported that the government routinely enslaves its citizens for farm work and they perform free labor for prolonged hours due to shortages in farming equipment and vehicles.  As a result of prolonged and repeated exposure to pesticides, North Korean farmers develop life-threatening liver diseases, which they may only resort to folk remedies, such as eating a lot of buckwheat and mung beans, for treatment as they cannot afford proper medical treatments.

• Even though the doctor of a poisoned farmer from Kangso county in South Pyongan province confirmed that the “many years of mobilisation for pesticide spraying duty was likely the cause of the disease”, the farmers’ fates are sealed as they concluded that “their only reward for all their hard labour is an illness that breaks their bodies”.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/farms-11022021165345.html

NORTH KOREA WARNS OF RETALIATION AGAINST DEFECTORS’ FAMILIES

• According to Daily NK, three team members from North Korea’s Ministry of State Security had been driving a truck laden with documents containing detailed information about defectors who are publicly active in South Korea since 15 October.

• The group from Pyongyang also gave instructions to local ministry officials to “inform the defectors’ families of party policy… to unconditionally exclude [the relatives of defectors] who openly engage in malicious propaganda against the Motherland… down to second cousins”.

• Local ministry officials were also told to closely watch the families of defectors and continuously report with comprehensive materials once a year based on investigations into the activities of defectors on a so-called “blacklist”.

• Since the Ministry of State Security is aware that defectors remain in contact with their families in North Korea, they indirectly warn defectors who live in South Korea by threatening to “execute party policy” on their families based on the number of times the defectors engage in public activities, including appearances on TV programs or Youtube videos.  

• The trio has reportedly told families of defectors “not to believe everything people who went to the South say when they say they are living well [as] those people are being treated like trash in a trash heap in North Korea”.

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-threatens-families-publicy-active-defectors-living-south-korea/

PILOT PROGRAM ALLOWS CANADIANS TO PRIVATELY SPONSOR NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES

• A Toronto-based human rights organization, HanVoice, recently created a pilot sponsorship program in partnership with the Canadian government to resettle five North Korean refugee families from Thailand to Canada within the next two years, with a vision that “this can be a spark that opens up new pathways around the world for North Koreans.”  Under the new program, Canadian citizens will for the first time be able to privately sponsor North Koreans settling in Canada.

• Among the refugees in Thailand, which is a major transit country for North Koreans because it does not repatriate them back to North Korea or China, Canada will prioritize families of North Korean women who have survived or are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence at “the hands of brokers and Chinese husbands that they’ve met along the transit path”, which comprise 80% of all North Korean refugees.

• According to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, applicants will need to meet admissibility criteria to enter Canada, including health, criminality and security screening.  “Once in Canada, these individuals would be supported by HanVoice for their first year.  HanVoice will be responsible for providing emotional and financial support to applicants and their families”.  The sponsorship period could be extended to a maximum of 36 months in exceptional cases.

Source:
https://hanvoice.ca/blog/pressrelease
https://apnews.com/article/canada-china-toronto-seoul-south-korea-bc7679693fc60196aebce2bbe3cda1c5
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-pilot-program-allows-canadians-to-privately-sponsor-north-korean-refugees-1.6228200
https://www.nknews.org/2021/10/canadians-to-privately-sponsor-north-korean-refugees-under-new-program/

Restore More: Physically

Kristine having a meal with other refugees at Elim House.

Kristine came to Elim House with the physical markings of abuse: bruises and scars. She ran away from her husband who was regularly beating her and her two teenage boys. This man refused counseling and held her boys hostage so that he could receive government benefits, which left deep psychological wounds in her boys as confirmed by a counselor.

Kristine, like 80 percent of North Korean refugees like her, was also sold in China’s expansive sex trade.

A study published in April 2021 by School of Social Welfare at Yonsei University, “showed that victims of human trafficking and sexual assault during their journey to South Korea were at a greater risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) in South Korea.” This study analyzed a sample of adult North Korean refugee women to better understand the “possible link between or co-occurrence of acts of sexual violence (SV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated against NK refugee women.” This field of research is relatively nascent and we’re encouraged to see more work starting in this area.

Physical Abuse

Many Elim House residents are victims of intimate partner violence, some coming to us severely beaten and bruised. During her time at Elim House, Kristine was brutally attacked by her partner when she unexpectedly ran into him while dropping off her boys at his apartment. Based on the study cited above and knowing that 80 percent of the refugee women in China have been trafficked, it is both sad yet not surprising to encounter such a high percentage of North Korean women who have been subjected to violence and abuse.

Sexual Abuse

Eunice came to Elim House in December 2020 to flee from a man who had sexually assaulted her over the course of a year. He was also the same man who had helped pay for her escape from China to Korea and was someone she looked to as her benefactor and father-figure. After confronting him, Eunice needed temporary shelter while making arrangements with government aid organizations to help her find a new apartment, one that this man would not know about. She was with us for almost six months and during her time at Elim House, we were able to connect her to counseling services to address the trauma she had lived through.

Kristine during a special midnight worship.

Housing Insecurity

Kelly, who came to us in October, works as a janitor at a local library. She was homeless and had secretly been sleeping at her place of work, constantly in fear of being found out and fired. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence among North Korean refugees who might arrive at Elim House after finishing their stay at government run facilities or halfway homes after being released from prison.

We’re happy to share that within the first few weeks of her stay at Elim House, Kelly has started the process to get own apartment. There are many more steps ahead of her with the need to provide the right documents to get the assistance she needs. If all goes well, she may have her own place in about eight months.

Financial Insecurity

Kristine, who came to meet and trust Jesus during her time at Elim House, was faced with financial harassment and a lawsuit from people with whom she did business with in South Korea. She was sued by someone whom she employed at one point that had later taken advantage of her small business. He was reported to the police and spent time in jail as a result. However, upon release, he sued Kristine to be compensated for his termination (which is standard practice in Korea) and the court sided with the employee. Like many refugees in South Korea, Kristine earns a living performing unskilled work at local small businesses, which makes it difficult to climb out of large amounts of debt.

Types of Jobs

Even North Korean refugees who aren’t experiencing constant financial duress feel a sense of financial insecurity, mainly driven by the desire to have more money. A few of our residents have corroborated that North Korean women in South Korea are recruited by people in the US with offers of temporary and traveler’s visas to work in America. They’re lured with opportunities to make six-figures in a few months working in the sex trade. Because most of these women were sold from North Korea to Chinese men or families, the sad reality is that they don’t think much about their involvement in prostitution, especially it it means the prospect of making a small fortune.

Kristine (second from left) at an outing with refugees and caretakers.

Restore More

“Restore More” is our focus for this Giving Tuesday. Through Elim House, our aim is to restore more North Korean women in 2022, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Paul reminds us in Colossians 3:12 that we are “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” and that we bear the image of our creator (3:9).

Our goal is to raise $45,000 this Giving Tuesday which will cover Elim House operations for six months. We are prepared to house and serve up to 40 North Korean refugee women in crisis in 2022. Will you help us meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of more North Korean women and their children living in South Korea who may never otherwise be confronted by the love of Christ and comprehend their inherent value.

China’s Most Wanted: A North Korean Defector’s Prison Break

Zhu Xianjian. Photo: Handout

Jilin prison authorities issued a bounty notice offering up to $23,000 for the capture of a North Korean defector who broke out of Jilin prison on October 18, 2021.  Chinese authorities identified the fugitive as 39-year-old Zhu Xianjian, who had been sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in 2014 on counts of illegal border crossing into China, larceny and armed robbery.

Zhu’s Defection from North Korea

Chinese court documents state that on July 21, 2013, Zhu, a coal miner from North Hamgyong, had illegally crossed the border after swimming across a river from North Korea to China and had entered into an elderly female victim’s house in Tumen City through a broken window at around 1 a.m. the following morning.  Zhu was discovered by the victim as he took her bag containing 1,482 RMB (around $232 USD), six sugar cubes, five bank deposit books, two identification cards, a handkerchief and a fan.  He then stabbed her in the back with a knife in order to resist arrest, resulting in the victim being seriously injured.

Later that day, Zhu broke into a neighboring male victim’s house where he stole a mobile phone, a wallet, and a pair of shoes, and subsequently stole from a third victim’s house six boxes of North Korea cigarettes, a shirt, a pair of shorts, a bag, a folding knife, a towel, a pair of socks, and two cans of beer, before being caught by the police.

According to the judgment, Zhu did not deny any of the allegations made against him. It is also interesting to note that the court had separately highlighted the seriousness of Zhu’s illegal border crossing into China, which is reflected by sentencing him at Jilin prison, one of the five prisons for the most serious felons in Jilin Province according to state media.

Zhu’s 11 years and three months sentence was later reduced twice in 2017 and 2020 respectively for good behavior and a show of remorse.  At the time of Zhu’s escape, he had less than two years of jail term to serve before being deported back to North Korea on August 21, 2023.

Zhu’s Prison Break

A surveillance video from Jilin prison shows Zhu and fellow inmates working in the prison yard when he suddenly climbed to the rooftop of a shed on the edge of the prison, and used what appeared to be a rope to damage the electric fences around the facility, before scaling the fence to flee. Upon jumping off a six-meter prison wall, the five foot three Zhu ran into the dark and has remained at large to this date.  

Many Chinese social media users speculate that Zhu only managed to escape because the prison guards could not leave prison grounds to chase him.  According to statements from prisons in Guizhou and Guangdong provinces, Chinese authorities have ordered a closed duty system where prison guards were required to stay within the facility compound for at least seven days in accordance with the state’s Covid-19 control measures.  Meanwhile, prison guards in Tianjin, a city near Beijing, spend 14 days in centralized quarantine facilities before working 14-day shifts inside prisons to reduce risk of infection.

Becoming China’s Most Wanted

The Chinese authorities offer $15,600 for information that helps capture Zhu and the reward could rise to $23,400 for clues that lead directly to his arrest (which is considered a handsome reward considering the average monthly salary in Jilin city is $2,142).  Additionally, officials made it clear that whoever knowingly fails to report or aids Zhu will be investigated for legal responsibility.

Meanwhile, local police issued notices warning citizens “to pay attention, not to provoke [Zhu], who is extremely dangerous”.  In addition to performing extensive roadside searches and blocking off the entrances to nearby villages, the police have also conducted a house-to-house search for Zhu and expanded their search radius to 350km away in Inner Mongolia.

The news of Zhu’s escape soon drew more than 22 million views on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform. However, the escalating public attention triggered censorship by the authorities, leading to the removal of the bounty notice from Jilin prison’s social media account and posts related to Zhu’s prison break, including posts shared by “insiders” suggesting that Zhu had previously served in the North Korean Special Forces thus is familiar with the use of weapons and that “he ran away to avoid being repatriated back to North Korea where he would be killed, therefore he would have freedom if he escapes from prison, and even if he is caught, he would not be sentenced to death in China”. According to Human Rights Watch, there are currently an estimated 450 North Korean men held in Jilin prison waiting to be deported after serving their sentence.

Squid Game for North Koreans

“Squid Game” Netflix

Disclaimers

*Spoiler alert - If you haven’t watched this show but plan to, don’t read any further.

**Violence alert. “Squid Game” has several depictions of murder, death and human depravity. We strongly suggest discretion for sensitive audiences.

A group of 456 people who are destitute and desperate are gathered on an undisclosed island in a series of gladiatorial games to win a single, massive cash prize. The games are traditional Korean children’s games with consequences that are far from childlike. With every contestant’s death, the prize pot grows. Welcome to “Squid Game,” Netflix’s newest hit sensation.

A commentary on the pitfalls that befall many North Korean defectors, the show references many of the struggles they face in South Korea’s highly competitive economy.

After one year of working with refugees at Elim House, Crossing Borders has witnessed first-hand the many hardships that beset North Korean refugees in their new home. They enter South Korea full of hopes for wealth and prosperity. These dreams often trap many North Koreans who will go to great lengths to fulfill them. “Squid Game” highlights this struggle for all who live in South Korea.

A North Korean Defector

One of the main characters is a North Korean defector woman, Sae-byuk or ”Player 067.” Like many North Korean refugees, her story is tragic and filled with many struggles. She lands in South Korea with her sibling, a young boy. She lost her father while escaping North Korea. Her mother is trapped in North Korea and Sae-byuk desperately wants to get her out.

Episode Two details Sae-byuk’s struggles as she speaks to a broker, someone who is paid to smuggle North Koreans to freedom. Many North Koreans like Sae-byuk are swindled by brokers, who harrass defectors for money even after they have been paid. In the episode, the broker says that he will need the equivalent of $33,000 USD to get her mother out of North Korea, even though Sae-byuk had already paid him in full.

North Korean refugees that Crossing Borders has helped along the Underground Railroad have detailed their horror stories about degenerate and deceptive brokers. One woman who Crossing Borders helped in China reported that she was sexually assaulted by one of her brokers.

Korean culture and values are traditionally centered around family. Family is everything, for both North and South Koreans. Sae-byuk is strapped for cash. Her younger brother is in an orphanage and she is unable to care for him. She is wracked with guilt as she fights to get her brother out of the orphanage and her mother out of North Korea. This longing for family runs deep in North Korean culture as many refugees will hustle to make money not simply to become rich but to get their families out of dire circumstances.

Consider how difficult it might be for someone whose identity is anchored to her family and to constantly remember that  a family member is trapped in North Korea. They read the same gloomy reports as the rest of the world does. The key difference is that someone they love has no way to escape. Everyday they are left to wonder what is happening to their loved ones. This feeling of hopelessness is captured candidly in “Squid Game.”

Within the carefully manicured walls of the game, most characters form alliances with others, despite the fact that, in order to “win” the game, the winner must witness the death of all the other contestants. Sae-byuk doesn’t trust anyone. Perhaps it is because of her time in North Korea. Perhaps she knows that, at the end of the day, she must fend for herself. She seems to understand this better than anybody else. As other characters form alliances and make friends, Sae-byuk avoids getting too close to the other contestants. She is reluctant to share any details about herself with others.

Capitalism or communism?

Someone in North Korea must have a Netflix account because the country’s propaganda department put out a statement on the show saying, “‘Squid Game’ gained popularity because it exposes the reality of South Korean capitalist culture,” North Korean news outlet Arirang Meari said. It is “a world where only money matters—a hell-like horror.”

But the show’s commentary on totalitarianism was apparently lost on the North Korean propagandists.

The judges of the games point to the “pure and fair” ideology of the Squid Games. But in order to make the games “pure and fair” they must keep players in paltry conditions. Like North Korea, the keepers of Squid Games resort to food deprivation as a means to control its people. Uniformity and equality are emphasized as ideals, extending to player uniforms, rations, rules of participation. This communal fairness is not unfamiliar to North Koreans, whose communist government calls for the same philosophy of impartiality. Such values are, both in communism and capitalism, ideals that are rarely achieved.

Many commentators agree with North Korea about the show’s critique of capitalism in South Korea. What awaits the players outside of the games are the consequences (personal and societal) of capitalism - a sense of immobility and powerlessness that defines life for many Koreans, but North Koreans especially. They are the byproducts of the often cruel and competitive South Korean version of capitalism where one must be fierce and relentless in order to succeed. And even when one does succeed, it doesn’t always work out.

The character Sang-woo or “Player 218” embodies this pitfall. He is a legend in his neighborhood for his academic success. Despite graduating from Seoul National University’s business school -- South Korea’s equivalent of Harvard -- he still finds himself desperate and in need due to embezzlement and overwhelming debt.

In capitalist South Korea, one can do everything right and still find oneself at the point of desperation. North Koreans enter into the South and learn the roadmap to a better life: education, material success, a comfortable life, security. But from what we have observed, these promises are just as empty as the promises of communism. 

All are brought to a point where they must choose whether they want to be involved in this totalitarian game or be released back to the pitfalls of capitalism. Episode Two is an inflection point in the show. Blood-weary players ask to end the games in order to spare their lives. As they vote to decide the future of this game, one player cries out, “Have you all gone crazy? We have to leave.”

“So what if we leave? Tell me, what changes? It’s just as bad out there as it is in here,” Player 212 says.

“Where am I supposed to go? Out there I don’t stand a chance. I do in here,” another player retorts.

To stay or leave?

This debate in episode two poses a question that all North Korean refugees have faced, is it better to stay or leave?

North Korean refugees have faced many junctures in their lives where they must decide on whether to stay or whether to leave. As absurd as the premise of “Squid Game” is, is North Korea more or less absurd? Which reality is stranger, a dystopian game of red light green light or surviving in the so-called communist utopia that North Korea claims to be? 

It is an essential question that Crossing Borders has counseled many refugees through. Consider the question on whether to stay enslaved in a forced marriage in China or to take a chance on the Underground Railroad for freedom in South Korea. Even before Elim House opened, we didn’t tell our refugees that all would be well in South Korea. Though they will be given a legal ID and up to $20,000 to start a new life but, as we have witnessed in the past year, this freedom and funds are far from salvation.

What Crossing Borders does when helping a refugee answer the question of whether they should stay or leave is arm each person with the information they need to make the right decision for themselves. Like in the show, there are no perfect answers.

Unhappy ending

As Sae-byuk slowly dies in episode eight, she tries to get a guarantee from one of the two remaining players to take care of her brother if he wins. In the scrum of the bloody game, he is unable to promise her before she dies. Player 456 does indeed help Sae-byuk’s brother, but she dies with the uncertainty.

This is the tragedy of the North Korean experience, that many die trying to secure a future for themselves and their families. Most die without achieving their goals or securing something better for their loved ones.

This is why Crossing Borders focuses on sharing the hope of Christ with these people. Worldly success is fleeting and deceptive, happiness is often elusive, but the love of God is unchanging. No matter what happens to these people and regardless of where they go, it is our hope that they find the one thing that will help them transcend the daily struggles of their lives and find a joy that is unbreakable.

Why North Koreans don’t Escape to Russia instead of China

Background

An estimated 10,000 North Koreans live in Russia. As one of the three border countries to North Korea along with China and South Korea, Russia’s refugee policies have never been sympathetic to North Koreans. Alec Luhn of ForeignPolicy.com reported in 2017 that according to the Civic Assistance human rights group in Russia, only two North Korean applicants out of 211 were granted refugee status in Russia between 2004 and 2014, while 90 out of 170 applicants were granted temporary refugee status, which lasts for only a year. The situation for North Korean refugees became even more challenging when Russia and North Korea signed an agreement in 2014 to repatriate citizens living illegally in each other’s countries (the “2014 Deportation Agreement”). 

North Korean refugees in Russia can be divided into two groups: those who enter Russia legally as laborers and escape from their work sites located in the country’s far east, and those who illegally cross the border. The first group is perhaps the most popular form of escape. There is a history of escapes by North Korean laborers due to the extremely harsh living conditions at the North Korean-controlled logging camps. Under the circumstances, most escapees attempt to work in farms or factories owned by Russians in return for shelter or minimal wage. However, since they are often left homeless and vulnerable to exploitation and risk of deportation, escapees are likely to find themselves with no choice but to commit theft in order to survive the bitter winters. This has understandably caused antipathy among the local communities towards North Korean refugees, which in turn makes their lives more difficult as illegal aliens in society.

Why China and Not Russia?

Between North Korea’s two neighboring countries, there are five main reasons why North Koreans might choose to defect to China and not Russia.

First, as northeastern China is home to the largest population of ethnic Koreans living outside of the Korean Peninsula, North Korean refugees easily blend in and can hide among the Chinese as they journey along the underground network to freedom. As compared to hiding in Russia, the culturally diverse environment in China further allows North Korean refugees to communicate with and seek help from ethnic Koreans, often passing off as Korean-speaking Chinese without immediately raising suspicion.

Second, stemming from the reason above, China has a much more established underground network comprising experienced brokers and Christian missionary groups than Russia. Although it is never safe to remain in the bordering towns due to constant inspections undertaken by the Chinese authorities, North Korean refugees also have a chance to earn money while living in China and might find work at one of the many Korean restaurants and companies operated by ethnic Koreans or South Koreans who are sympathetic towards the refugees.

Third, North Korea shares a 839 mile (1,350 km) border with China, which increases the chances for refugees to successfully cross without detection, compared to the mere 11 mile (18 km) heavily-patrolled border with Russia. In particular, some parts of the Yalu river dividing North Korean and China’s border city, Dandong, are narrow and relatively easier to crawl over in the winter when the river freezes or to swim across in the summer.

Fourth, due to the relatively less-guarded border between China and North Korea compared to that between Russia and North Korea, it is much easier for North Korean refugees to return home with food and money, especially if their family remains in North Korea. There is a long history where North Korean refugees wandered back and forth between China and Korea since 1865 when Koreans were allowed to live and farm in Machuria during the Qing Dynasty, and it has been reported that in some circumstances, refugees who surrender themselves to Korean border guards claiming to have crossed the border to China for business purposes may simply pay a bribe and go unpunished. 

Finally, compared to China’s climate which is similar to that in North Korea, it is much more difficult for refugees who are on the run to survive the harsh weather conditions and long Siberian winters in Russia without shelter.

Friendly Ties Between North Korea and Russia

Although Russia has ratified a number of international law treaties which are favourable to the protection of refugees, the signing of the 2014 Deportation Agreement controversially undermines the same. To date, the Russian government has not yet clarified its legal and political stance.

For instance, although Russia is a signatory to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and recognises the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, the 2017 Choe Myong Bok case sparked much public debate and remains largely controversial to this day. Choe legally arrived in Russia in 1999 to work as part of a group of labourers in a logging camp run by North Korean authorities. He has since lived in Russia with his partner and their two young children without legal documents after escaping from the camp in 2002. Choe was arrested in 2017 and received a deportation order from the Vsevolozhsky District Court. Despite a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights ordering Russia not to deport Choe back to North Korea where he is likely to face torture or even death, his fate remains uncertain due to 2014 Deportation Agreement. It should be noted that Choe was not the first North Korean refugee who had been caught in Russia. A fellow refugee, Ryu En Nam, was forcibly repatriated back to North Korea in 2008 and tortured to death by being roped to the back of a moving train.

After almost entirely dissipating in the 90’s, Russia and North Korea’s political and economic relationships have greatly improved. In the spring of 2014 Russia made moves to strengthen its ties with North Korea, including signing an economic agreement to raise bilateral trade from $112 million to $1 billion by 2020 and investing $340 million in a joint venture to build a railway stretching between the two countries. North Korean labor is extremely cheap and it is to Russia’s benefit that North Korea’s options are limited. Russia is expected to strictly comply with the 2014 Deportation Agreement and avoid the risk of becoming a new destination for North Koreans refugees.

Learn more about which countries North Korean defectors flee to in this article.

Top North Korean Headlines - October 2021

NORTH KOREA BEGAN TO ACCEPT COVID AID FROM WHO

• COVID-19 medical supplies from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other UN agencies arrived in North Korea, which signals that the regime is easing one of the world’s strictest pandemic border closures.

• The medicines and medical supplies sent by the WHO include personal protective equipment, gloves, masks and COVID-10 test reagents.

• According to the WHO office in Pyongyang, North Korea’s Public Health Ministry permitted items that had been stranded in China since January 2020 to be shipped through the Chinese seaport of Dalian a few months earlier.

• Considering the devastating effects the strict border controls have on North Korea’s economy, which was already suffering the fallout from international sanctions, it appears Pyongyang is ready to reopen its border for trade as well as to receive foreign aid.

Source: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20211008000645&np=1&mp=1

THE LAST EUROPEAN EMBASSY SHUTS DOWN IN PYONGYANG

• It is reported that the Romania embassy in Pyongyang had closed on 9 October 2021 due to harsh COVID-19 restrictions.  The two remaining Romanian diplomats had left North Korea via China, meaning there are now no European diplomats left in North Korea.

• The exodus of North Korea’s last western presence has been described by John Everard, the UK’s former Ambassador to North Korea, as a loss that significantly deepens its isolation from the rest of the world since Sweden opened the first foreign embassy in Pyongyang in the 1970s.

• Sources also indicate that there would be uncertainties over the reopening of the embassy due to the high costs involved in re-securing the facilities.

• Following the collective exit of diplomats since the pandemic, the only countries to retain an embassy in North Korea are China, Cuba, Egypt, Laos, Mongolia, Palestine, Russia, Syria and Vietnam.

Source: https://www.nknews.org/2021/10/romania-closes-embassy-in-pyongyang-as-more-diplomats-leave-north-korea/

NORTH KOREAN SHOT DEAD AT THE CHINA-NORTH KOREA BORDER

• A local North Korean man was “fired upon and shot dead” when the Storm Corps discovered him returning to the country from China on 30 September 2021.  

• It is reported that many Hoeryong residents witnessed the border patrol fishing his body out of the Tumen River on 2 October 2021.

• The border patrol had later cremated the body and the Ministry of State Security was reportedly high-handed with the family when turning over the remains, claiming that the cremation complies with the “state’s highest emergency quarantine system” and that they “should accept this without complaint...[as the man had] engaged in treason by violating state quarantine policy in going to China”.  The family was also ordered to mourn in silence at home.

• The man was in his 50s and had been missing since mid-September.  His neighbours speculated that he had left somewhere because he had nothing to eat.  It was later revealed that due to his gradually worsening financial situation, he had crossed the border to visit a relative in China.

Source: https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korean-shot-dead-near-china-north-korea-border-last-week/

PYONGYANG’S GOAL TO BUILD 10,000 NEW APARTMENTS IN 2021

• During the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021, North Korea had pledged to build 50,000 new homes in Pyongyang by 2025, the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling party, by building 10,000 homes each year.

• The new apartments are to be built in five Pyongyang districts: Songhwa and Songsin districts in east Pyongyang, Sep. 9 District in central Pyongyang, and Sopo and Kumchon districts in west Pyongyang.  Tens of thousands of square meters of land in Mangyondae, the western area of Pyongyang and the birthplace of Kim Il-sung, had been cleared for this construction project.

• However, North Korea’s mass-scale construction project faces serious difficulties amid economic challenges and the pandemic.  In particular, power and heating issues as a result of chronic energy shortages pose additional challenges to workers on site.  Sources further suggest that not only have mines and farms suspended production due to blackouts, residents of central Pyongyang have also experienced electricity shortages.

Source: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021/10/103_316758.html ; https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-faces-difficulties-in-completing-10000-new-homes-in-pyongyang-by-the-end-of-the-year/

A Painful Chuseok - A Thankful Heart

Chuseok is one of the biggest national holidays in both North and South Korea. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. This year it will land on September 21 and celebrations typically span three full days starting on the day before the actual holiday. The celebration is focused around the harvest and is similar to Thanksgiving in the US but culturally, the holiday has the importance of Christmas in the West. 

During Chuseok the entire peninsula shuts down and people return to their hometowns to celebrate. Festivities include a large, traditional meal and the most traditional observers pay homage to their ancestors by visiting their gravesites. For a second year, we expect celebrations on both sides of the DMZ will be muted as COVID-19 restrictions will impair the movement of people in both countries. 

There is one population who will not be visiting their hometowns during Chuseok: North Korean refugees. These people are permanently severed from their families and friends who are still caught in the country. They cannot call or write into North Korea. There is no form of Zoom or Facetime they can use to virtually join these celebrations. Most ties are all but severed.

Consider what it might feel like to be alone on Christmas as the world around joins their families to celebrate. North Koreans already feel isolated in South Korea but this shared holiday highlights this cold reality.

North Korean refugees in South Korea typically gather with fellow North Korean friends and engage in heavy drinking, according to our staff in South Korea. In the absence of immediate family, they gather with people who come from the same hometown in North Korea. Some celebrate with people who they came into South Korea with, people they can share their earliest memories of their new country.

The holiday starts with families visiting the gravesites of their ancestors to pay respect, something that is impossible for North Korean refugees to do. Chuseok celebrations then focus on food, specifically songpyeon, a rice cake with sweet fillings such as red bean, chestnuts, dates or honey. But for North Koreans, reminders of how food ran dry during the famine often pepper their feelings of nostalgia with pain.

Elim House resident “Kristine” remembers when she was a little girl in her hometown eating songpyeon and traditional Korean vegetables such as bean sprouts. In North Korea before the famine, Kristine’s family made a large amount of songpyeon and brought it to her grandparents' tomb.  After bowing three times, she remembers sitting around and feasting. The famine changed all of this, she said.

When the famine took hold in the late 90s, there was nothing to eat and no more rice cake to make on Chuseok. This is when she decided to make the dangerous journey across the river to China.

This Chuseok, our South Korea team will celebrate with our Elim House residents  and enjoy traditional food and activities together like a family. The celebration will be centered around God’s goodness in the lives of the refugees. Though this holiday is often a painful reminder of the homes and families they left, there is much to be thankful for: a safe place to stay, people who are there to help them rebuild their lives, and the love of their Heavenly Father.

The Impact on Refugees from China’s relationship with the Taliban

The eyes of the world are on Afghanistan right now. The Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country has caused consternation to foreign powers, including the U.S. Worse, it’s put numerous people groups (including women and Christians) at risk. However, one group of people has received much less attention: Uyghur people from China, living as refugees in Afghanistan.

The Chinese government has been carefully improving its relations with the Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers, since as early as July. The relationship could be mutually beneficial: China gets to pursue its business interests in the country, and Afghanistan receives some much-needed investments. The Chinese government is unlikely to interfere with the Taliban’s rule or balk at human rights violations.

The collateral damage of this diplomatic relationship? Refugees from China. Much like how North Korea seeks to extradite refugees living in China, Beijing wishes to see Uyghurs in Afghanistan returned to the country. Recent history indicates that Afghanistan’s “close diplomatic ties with China results in persecution of Uyghurs.”

Those close ties appear to be what the Taliban is seeking. It’s unlikely this new government will have qualms about extraditing even second-generation Uyghur refugees to China—regardless of the persecution they’ll face when they arrive.

China’s Xinjiang region, home to a large number of Uyghurs, has also recently been the site of mass detention campaigns—all under the guise of a “war on terror.” Uyghur people have been arrested for seeming overly religious, or for violations as small as “disturb[ing] other persons by visiting them without reasons.” Detainees are sent to internment camps, ostensibly for “voluntary job training.”

The plight of Uyghurs in China has received more press over the past few years, but Beijing continues to deny any human rights abuses. It insists that the detention camps are for re-education or “job training.” However, the Chinese government has increasingly attempted to extradite Uyghurs from countries allied with China. The “war on terror” has resulted not only in mass arrests within China, but also peril for Uyghurs throughout Asia—and now Afghanistan.

The Chinese treatment of Uyghurs sheds light on the predicament of other groups in China, such as North Korean refugees. While North Koreans may not end up in Chinese detention camps, they have no rights under Chinese law and are subject to repatriation to North Korea, just like Uyghurs in Afghanistan and other countries are extradited to China.

China’s new relationship with the Taliban is a bad sign not only for Uyghurs in Afghanistan, but also for oppressed groups within its own borders. Beijing’s willingness to overlook human rights abuses in Afghanistan, and its own treatment of Uyghurs in China, clearly signals that human rights are low on its priority list.

It’s likely that North Korean refugees, and other minority groups within China, including the church, will only face more persecution in the coming months. Both these groups and the organizations that work to help them will need prayer and support more than ever.

Top North Korean headlines - September 2021

Hackers in North Korea attack Defector in South Korea

Hacker Group in North Korea Targets Defector

Prominent NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR’S ACCOUNTS HACKED

• A hacking group linked to the DPRK, known as ScarCruft or Venus 121, had allegedly hacked into North Korean defector Kang Mi-jin's email account, as well as her accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

• In total, at least four of Kang’s accounts using different passwords across different platforms were compromised.

• Over the course of several weeks, the attackers impersonated Kang by sending a malicious document to a contact working on DPRK issues and sent a message to NKnet’s (an organisation focusing on DPRK human rights issues) executive director Eun Kyoung Kwon to congratulate her on a new job.

• However, the odd choice of words made Kwon suspicious of the message. “The language the hacker used was not explicitly awkward from a South Korean point of view, but there was definitely a subtle North Korean nuance in the phrases,” Kwon told NK News.

Read More: NKNews.org

NORTH KOREA builds quarantine facility to RESUME TRADE WITH CHINA

• North Korea’s unification minister announced that its trade with China plunged 82.1% on-year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

• In addition to North Korea’s focus on addressing recent challenges in relation to protracted sanctions, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent flood damages, the North is also building a quarantine facility in the border area to encourage import of goods to address its continued instability in the supply and demand in rice, food and medicine.

• Nevertheless, North Korea, which claims to be COVID-free, continues to impose stringent controls at its borders.

• Read more: Korea Herald

NORTH KOREA TURNS DOWN 3 MILLION SINOVAC VACCINE DOSES

• North Korea requested that the COVID-19 vaccines from the Covax program (which aims to help poorer nations obtain vaccines) be redirected to countries experiencing surges in view of global vaccine shortages.

• It was alleged that some 37,291 North Korean health care workers and people experiencing flu-like symptoms had been tested and all were found to be negative.

• North Korea has previously rejected shipments of around 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines and multiple offers of Sputnik vaccines from Russia, expressing concerns over potential side effects and doubt over the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Read More: AsiaOne & BBC

KIM JONG UN SUMMONED TO APPEAR BEFORE JAPANESE COURT

• Kim Jong Un has been summoned to face demands for compensation by 5 ethnic Korean residents of Japan for alleged human rights abuses in North Korea after joining a resettlement program.

• About 93,000 ethnic Korean residents of Japan and their families who faced discrimination in Japan went to North Korea “for a better life” under the resettlement program (which continued until 1984). However, they did not receive free healthcare, education, jobs and other benefits as promised by North Korea, and were instead assigned manual work at mines, forests or farms.

• The plaintiffs demanded 100 million yen ($900,000 USD) each in compensation from North Korea.

• Kim is not expected to appear in court for the October 14 hearing. This is a rare instance in which a foreign leader is not granted sovereign immunity, said Kenji Fukuda, a lawyer representing the five plaintiffs. (Sovereign immunity refers to the international law doctrine that one state has no right to judge the actions of another by the standards of its national law, thus rendering it free from civil suit or criminal prosecution.)

• Although Fukuda said he is not expecting Kim to provide compensation even if ordered by the court, it is hoped that the case can set a precedent for future negotiations between Japan and North Korea on seeking the North’s responsibility and normalizing diplomatic ties.

Read More: South China Morning Post

Top North Korean headlines - August 2021

Heavy rain and flooding in North Korea cause mass evacuation

The EU ready to provide aid to North Korea

• Over 5,000 people in North Korea evacuated as floods damaged over 1,000 homes.

• Sinuiju, a city neighboring the North Korea/China border instructed residents to evacuate to nearby mountains or highlands should an emergency siren sound.

• A European Union’s Humanitarian Aid Department official told a Radio Free Asia that they stand “ready to provide assistance if border measures are loosened to allow for the import of aid materials and entry of international humanitarian personnel”.

Read More:
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210811000808
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/flood-08092021204331.html

North Korea’s economy shrank to smallest size since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011

• North Korea’s economy in 2020 contracted the most since their deadly famine in the 1990s due to the coronavirus, natural disasters and international sanctions.

• According to a recent Bank of Korea report, North Korea’s exports last year dropped 68% to just $90 million, while imports fell 74%.

• Economic hardship has not stopped Kim’s nuclear arsenal growth, producing enough fissile material annually for about six nuclear bombs.

  Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-30/north-korea-s-economy-contracted-most-in-two-decades-in-2020

Speculations of why North Korea skipped the 2020 Summer Olympics

• COVID-19 was the biggest reason for North Korea’s decision not to participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

• When North Korea does show up at the Olympics, sports often take a back seat to politics.

• If North Korea participated in Tokyo, they could have seen success in weightlifting, boxing, women’s wrestling and women’s marathon.

• Kim Jong Un may use the North’s absence from the Tokyo Games as a way to signal to his people that he values protecting them from the coronavirus more than the possible glory of medals

Read More:
https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-tokyo-coronavirus-pandemic-winter-olympics-1d50342d7fba7e334041c8526724b3cb

North Korea’s lack of response to offers for COVID-19 vaccines

• The US, South Korea, China, and Russia are among a list of countries that have offered vaccines to Pyongyang.

• The offers have gone unheeded. Kim Jong Un’s regime refuses help and spares no efforts to brag about the superiority of its health care system through their propaganda machinery.

• A lack of refrigeration facilities to properly transport and store vaccines also likely inhibits North Korea’s responsiveness for access to outside vaccines

• Even if North Korea manages to secure vaccines, the quantity will be barely enough to vaccinate even just a fraction of the population of 25 million North Koreans.

• Pyongyang may find any public gesture of COVID-19 aid from Seoul as “humiliating.” And that Kim considers North Korea’s supposed virus-free status as “one of the greatest feats of his leadership.”

Read More:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/09/north-korea-covid-pandemic-vaccine-strategy-pyongyang/

How God Prepared Cindy to be a Social Worker at Elim House

Cindy, our Elim House Social Worker, hard at work

Meet Cindy, our first team member in South Korea and Elim House’s social worker

Korea requires a licensed social worker to be on staff for a shelter for abused women like Elim House. We shared in February that God had brought us a candidate who was a pastor’s wife and had served North Korean refugees in her church for the past three years. She goes by “Cindy” and has been a huge blessing to both our Elim House residents and our missionaries. We had a chance to sit down with Cindy to get to know her better and ask her a few questions why she chooses to serve North Korean refugees.

What made you want to work with NK refugees?

While working with my husband at our church, I met North Korean refugee women and their children. I came to know their pain and life situations and realized that no one seemed to really understand them. But I was sure that God’s love could heal them just like God’s love did not give up on me. With that hope I was able to start working with them.

How has God prepared you for your role at Elim House?

Through serving in the children’s ministry and a ministry helping with resettlement of North Korean refugees at Onnuri Church, we got to know more about the lives of North Koreans in South Korea, including their culture and the harsh realities they face. At first it was shocking to me and I felt helpless, but I began to realize that the only thing that would give them true freedom from their suffering was the gospel.

I initially served the North Korean refugee population as a volunteer. And three years ago, I decided to formally work with them and started studying to be a social worker.

It seems that is how God has prepared me to be a social worker at Elim House today.

What has been the most challenging experience at Elim House?

The most challenging experience at Elim House has been when I served our residents with the utmost consideration and heart, only to have my efforts shunned and shot back at me like arrows. I was hurt by the actions of some of our residents and I have regrets regarding my reaction to them as well. I feel there are still many things I do not know about North Korean refugees. But because I am also a person in need of God’s love, I am able to relate to them in this way. God has been teaching me a lot through our most difficult residents.

What has been the most blessing experience at Elim House?

It is a blessing for me that God has allowed me to meet a healthy organization like Crossing Borders, a warm missionary couple with loving hearts that always respects and praises me and a women’s shelter that operates with biblical values like Elim House.

Please share some prayer requests with us.

Pray for refugee women who need healing and recovery at Elim House.

Please pray that I will be able to carry out the role of a social worker wisely and fruitfully.

China Operations: 2021 Mid-year Update

A New Opening in China

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Crossing Borders has been unable to send our missionaries to China. Chinese regulations as of 2020 were such that any foreign traveler would have to quarantine for 14 days in a government-run facility in Beijing and then quarantine for another seven days if the traveler’s final destination was outside of Beijing. Even if our missionaries quarantined, movement is limited within China. Citizens including our field workers are routinely questioned at toll booths and by phone for traveling within the country.

Adding to the existing challenges of restricted travel, China has systematically deported most foreign missionaries from its borders. This has been the trend for several years now but the pandemic has accelerated it. Most foreign missionaries that Crossing Borders is in contact with have been expelled and not allowed to return.

By God’s grace, Crossing Borders’ missionaries were not expelled. But at the beginning of this year, we held internal discussions about how we could provide the level of information that we usually report to our donors and partners throughout the year with our missionaries no longer in China. As a stop-gap, we use coded language over the phone or internet to check in on our refugees. This ensures that our services are being administered properly and that there is no abuse, but it does not give us personal details into the lives of the refugees in our network. Those stories that are the hallmark of any Crossing Borders update are just not available for us at the moment. More importantly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to closely enforce the accountability that has kept our organization on the ground for so long.

Despite these overwhelming challenges, we prayed that God would keep the door open in China for us. Miraculously, we believe that God has answered our prayers.

The pastor in our network is trustworthy and a man who has served with much integrity for over a decade. While God has gifted this pastor in caring for refugees, he is not as strong in the area of administration and keeping detailed notes.  Finding field workers who are gifted in both areas has been a challenge within our network in Northeast China.

But a candidate recently emerged from our network who fits the qualifications that we need. She has experience working with large corporations that require details and accountability while also having compassion and a heart to serve North Korean refugees. As a Chinese citizen, she will have no problems with getting in and out of the country. She is truly an answered prayer.

We continue to pray for openings for our US staff to be able to visit, but we are confident that the staff that we have in place will be able to carry our work forward into the future.

The Underground Railroad in 2021

South Korea reported that in the second quarter of 2021, a mere two North Korean refugees came into the country. Our staff in China has noticed the difference as well. Our refugees in China often talked about the possibility of leaving the country, but these murmurs have stopped.

There are multiple factors that have contributed to the near halt of the Underground Railroad for North Koreans.  According to one of the pastors on our staff, the Chinese government has built a barrier on one of the major escape routes out of China. More concerning is the fact that North Korea went on complete lockdown when the pandemic became a real threat. The country shares a border with China and most of its trade is conducted with China. Shutting its country borders meant that movement between the two countries all but halted.

Many refugees who take the Underground Railroad have family in South Korea. These relatives pay for the expensive defections. And brokers arrange pickups at precise locations along the border at exact times. This activity has all but stopped.

A partner organization also told us that the brokers who normally use this route to shuttle North Koreans to freedom now cater to a different kind of clientele. Instead of North Koreans with no rights, wealthy Chinese are using their services to flee their own country from an ever encroaching government.

There is also the changing posture of the South Korean government towards these refugees. The Moon administration has taken a more skeptical approach to North Korean defector groups. They have cut funding to help North Korean defectors entering the country. They put all of the 289 defector groups in South Korea under investigation last year to make sure their paperwork was filed properly.

Our partners on the ground in South Korea have felt the pinch as well. Many of the organizations that Crossing Borders is in touch with have experienced sharp government cuts in their funding. Some are barely hanging on financially.

This perfect storm of events has led to this near cutting-off of North Koreans reaching South Korea. In the 18 years Crossing Borders has been operating in China, we feel as if our work has entered a different chapter. All of the organizations that were active when we started are now gone. Though there is much uncertainty in the near term, God allows us to continue our work. Through these unknowns, we look forward to seeing how God will continue to reveal his plans for North Koreans.

North Korea’s Ominous Mysteries

Top North Korean headlines from July 2021

Only Two Defectors

• South Korea reported in July the fewest number of North Koreans to have ever reached South Korea in a quarter, as only one male and one female North Korean defector arrived in South Korea from April through June 2021.

• From January through March of 2021, 31 defectors reached South Korea.

• In the past 10 years, the number of North Koreans arriving on an annual basis had never dropped below 1,000. In 2020, 229 North Korean defectors entered South Korea - a 78% drop in persons.

Read More:
https://www.nknews.org/2021/07/just-two-north-korean-defectors-reach-south-korea-from-april-to-june/ 

Choi Hyunmi, from North Korean defector to a South Korea woman boxing champ

• Choi Hyunmi’s talents were noticed at a young age and she was told  she could become a boxer who “can delight General Kim Jong Il”

• She and her family left North Korea when she was 13 and arrived in South Korea by way of Vietnam

• She went back to boxing after a classmate insulted her North Korea background

• Choi became a member of South Korea’s national team in 2006, turned pro and clinched the World Boxing Association’s vacant featherweight crown in 2008

• Agents from the US, Japan and Germany have approached her about being naturalized in those countries, which Choi turned down. 

• Reasons being: worries about another tough resettlement, and the immense pride that she’s had representing South Korea

  Read more: https://apnews.com/article/sports-2020-tokyo-olympics-south-korea-great-britain-olympic-team-ireland-olympic-team-6ec5a04a1abede44839e2a2790ff42f7

Kim Jong Un’s Dramatic Weight Loss

• “The biggest wild card” in assessing the stability of North Korea is no other than the health of its leader, Kim Jong Un, as stated by Senior fellow of Center for Strategic and International Studies and former CIA analyst on North Korea, Sue Mi Terry.

• The significant weight loss over the course of recent weeks has launched a frenzy of speculation. It is unclear whether Kim’s loss of weight indicates that his health has become dramatically better or worse.

• Uncertainty and confusion regarding the sudden change reveals the sheer lack of information coming out of North Korea and the deterioration of intelligence on its leaders throughout the pandemic.

Read More:
https://www.ft.com/content/1cfce6b6-fcf0-470d-98e2-3124a76d38e7

Kim Jong Un ’s appearance on February 8, left, compared with June 15, right. © AP

Food Shortages or Famine

• “The people’s food situation is now getting tense,” announced Kim Jong Un to the North Korean state media in a recent public statement. “It is essential for the whole party and state to concentrate on farming.”

• Recent flooding and agricultural disasters caused by 2020 droughts and typhoons has sorely affected North Korea’s annual yield of grain.

• The Korea Development Institute in Seoul reported in June that North Korea required 5.2 million tons of food in 2020, yet produced only 4 million tons.

• The fear of ongoing flooding damaging food production in 2021 has resulted in criminal sentences for “soil plunderers” - farmers who take soil near rivers for their farmland. Those who steal river soil, thus increasing the risk of flooding, “will be punished as ‘anti-party’ elements for consciously neglecting [government directives],” noted an anonymous North Korean source in Pyongyang.

Read More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/1/humanitarian-disaster-looms-in-north-korea
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/farm-07162021201141.html
https://www.38north.org/2021/07/is-the-north-korean-economy-under-kim-jong-un-in-danger-arduous-march-in-the-age-of-covid-19/

Elim House: 2021 Mid-year Update

Elim House officially opened one year ago in July of 2020. Since opening, we’ve hired one full time staff, our missionaries have endured two rounds of 14-day quarantine, three children have come to Elim House with the four women that resided there and our fifth resident arrived this July. While the number of residents that we took in were fewer than we anticipated, God in his wisdom knew that that was exactly what we could handle.

“Julie’s” arrival

“Julie” (pseudonym used to protect refugee identities) was our fourth and most recent resident that came to Elim House in January, 2021. While her husband was asleep, Julie fled her house with her son to stay with a close friend. This friend took her to a medical center in Seoul where she received medical care and also was seen by counselors who treat North Korean refugees. Julie was referred to us at that point.

Julie and her husband are both North Korean refugees and had lived in South Korea for five years. She shared with us her fears that she might not leave her house alive if she returned to her husband one more time. Even if they were to divorce, she believed she would have to live the rest of her life in hiding from him.

One evening our missionaries gathered all the residents, including Julie, to lead them in a Bible study and to share the gospel. Julie, who was not a believer, was immediately very curious to know about Jesus and the gospel. As she followed along, when asked if she would repent her sin and commit her life to Christ, she responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!”

As her husband persisted in wanting to reconcile with Julie, she returned back home after about a month of staying at Elim House. She had set conditional terms of seeking counseling together, which seems to have been fruitful as Julie recently shared with us that her husband treats her much better. It is a blessing to see her life change so dramatically in the short time we’ve known her. Julie and her husband even invited our missionaries over for a meal at their house soon.

Elevated COVID levels and Elim House

While South Korea had the spread of COVID-19 under control during the better part of 2020, spikes and continued elevated levels in 2021 have placed the entire country under strict restrictions. Under the latest curbs, people are advised to stay home as much as possible. These limitations have also slowed down the number of North Korean refugees referred to Elim House given the elevated risks of moving into a shared facility with strangers. As such, we had not taken in any new residents since Julie came to us in January until just last week.

“Heather” wanted to be admitted to Seoul Medical Center but was referred to us since the hospital was at capacity. Heather is 44 years old, was sold to a man in China at the age of 21, was captured, sent back and jailed in North Korea until 2006. She was sold again to a farmer in China in 2007 and where she lived until she arrived in Korea in 2021. Abuse has followed her through every season and every country including South Korea. Heather has been diagnosed with severe depression and cries uncontrollably when she is by herself. Elim House will be a short time of respite while she waits to be admitted to the hospital and we pray God will work powerfully in the coming days.

Elim House residents

We shared in October about our first resident “Cathy” who came to us after a thwarted suicide attempt of jumping from a bridge. She was very receptive to the care and love given by our missionaries and even confessed her faith in Jesus after hearing about him over the course of two months. It was unexpected and unfortunate when we discovered that she had stolen money from another resident and left Elim House in February. We have not seen or heard from Cathy since. We pray constantly that her heart might be fertile soil and not rocky soil and that the gospel truth she accepted is still at work in heart. We hope to see her again.

In our first quarter update we shared a little bit about another resident who joined us in December. She had been sexually assaulted by a man whom she personally knew and trusted. During her time with us, she was able to get legal advice on her situation and request government assistance to relocate to a new apartment. She officially left Elim House in June and our missionaries shared that it was bittersweet and akin to sending a daughter off from their home to get married.

Finally “Kristine”, who has been with us since November, has made good progress with the counsel of lawyers to clear up her legal Korean identity on record with the government which will then open the door to gain custody of her two sons. She continues to grow in her faith and we are so encouraged to see Kristine cling to God’s word when she encounters setbacks.

Drive-by Banchan and other updates

We shared about hiring our first South Korea team member in our first quarter update. “Cindy,” the full time social worker for Elim House, has been an amazing addition to our team and a huge blessing to both the residents and our missionaries. Kristine recently shared with our missionaries how she has witnessed the love and care Cindy has for North Korean refugees that come to Elim House.

“I want to be a martyr while serving banchan (Korean side dishes typically served with each meal),” is how this amazing woman and mother of four serves Elim House residents and our missionaries. She is a friend of Cindy and has blessed us with several “drive by” banchan drop-offs.

While our missionaries returned back to the States for their COVID shots, a kind neighborhood grandmother planted flowers in the garden at Elim House.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. - Isaiah 26:3

The past year of learning to care for refugees in South Korea in the midst of COVID has stretched the faith and abilities of the Crossing Borders team. COVID numbers may continue to climb in South Korea and we may encounter more unexpected hurdles but we know the only way to navigate uncharted waters is for us to trust God and keep our minds steadfastly on him.

A Tale of Two Famines

The Great Chinese Famine

Though the devastation of the Great North Korean Famine is still fresh in our minds, many experts report that the greatest and deadliest famine in human history took place in China during 1959-61.

In 1958 Mao Zedong launched the Great Leap Forward, an effort to mobilize China's massive population to fast track in just a few years economic advances that took other nations many decades to accomplish. The movement focused China’s peasant population on steel mining and manufacturing, forcing them to split time between farming and smelting steel in makeshift backyard furnaces. As a result of this shift, grain harvest plummeted during this period.

Earlier in the 1950s, unable to provide for its impoverished communities, the Chinese government had formed communes to teach its people how to work collectively towards self-reliance. With the Great Leap Forward, Mao increased the size of these communes twentyfold to over 5,000 families per commune. The utopian fantasy was to push these communes to be self-sufficient in agriculture, industry, governance, education and health care.

In the face of declining crop production, but to demonstrate the perceived superiority of communal farming, provinces grossly exaggerated their grain haul figures. These inflated counts were then used to justify sending a greater share of grain to cities, leaving nothing for peasants to eat. Millions were forced to starve. It is estimated that a third of China's provinces were in a famine by the spring of 1959. The estimated death toll from this great famine ranges from 36-45 million lives.

Fleeing from China to North Korea

As China suffered famine and financial turmoil, neighboring North Korea was undergoing economic growth. Ethnic Koreans of Chinese nationality, known as “Joseon-jok”, saw this as an opportunity to go to a place with familiar language, family ties and most importantly, where they would not die of starvation. With the upside of escaping the persecution they often faced in China, it was also not too difficult to swap one authoritarian regime for another in North Korea.

The Great North Korean Famine

Fast forward three decades to 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and with it dissolved one of North Korea’s few trade relationships. Trade from the Soviet Union dissipated from about 60 percent of North Korea’s economy in 1988 to virtually nothing.

Between 1990 to 1995, North Korea was struck by a series of natural disasters ranging from cold fronts to multiple years of flooding that decimated grain production. Even with outside food aid, a broken distribution system controlled by a corrupt government led to the death of upwards of 3.5 million citizens during the North Korean famine which spanned from 1995 to 1998. As the infrastructure of the country unraveled into chaos, between 100,000 to 300,000 North Korean defectors made their way out of the country seeking refuge and resources.

Flight from North Korea to China?

The world is closely monitoring North Korea for signs of another famine, which is primarily a result of halted trade and commerce with the outside world in reaction to COVID-19. If North Korea does face another major famine, it could lead to another mass exodus similar to what the world witnessed during the great North Korean famine of the 1990s.

A Different China Today

Much has changed in China over the past 30 years. President Xi Jinping said recently during the 100 year celebration of the Chinese Communist Party that they "will never allow anyone to bully, oppress or subjugate China". The irony is that China is perceived to be bullying others as China’s communist regime continues to grow in power and cunning. A new Pew poll from June 30, 2021 found that a majority of people surveyed in 15 out of 17 nations around the world view China negatively. The primary reasons being: ground zero for COVID-19, aggression against self-ruled Taiwan and in the South China Sea, not to mention dwindling freedoms in Hong Kong and human rights violations in Tibet and Xinjiang province.

China also actively captures and returns defectors back to North Korea. The North Korean refugees in our network who live in China constantly live under this very real threat. We have witnessed the Church in China under attack and most missionaries we know have left. If another mass migration from North Korea takes place, we fear for the safety of the refugees as surveillance and monitoring continues to increase. China’s leaders conveniently make little mention of its speckled history. We hope the people of China remember the devastation of their own famine if North Korean refugees start to cross over the Tumen and Yalu river again.

North Korea’s Culture War

North Korea’s “fashion police” and sentencing children

• North Korea has literally enacted “fashion police” through youth organizations that report on clothing such as skinny jeans, lip or nose piercings, or branded western clothing.

• Police are now authorized to detain anyone foreign clothing or hairstyles.

• Secret police conduct raids searching for any DVDs or USBs smuggled from China or South Korea.

• Three boys and four girls in North Korea were recently sentenced to five years at North Korea’s re-education camps for crimes worthy of a “life sentence of re-education through labor” or “execution.”

• The children were found guilty of watching and sharing South Korean media - film and television - with their classmates.

• In the past three years North Korean police have increased their surveillance and raids on North Koreans suspected of being influenced by South Korean culture.

Read More:

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/may/26/north-korea-bans-skinny-jeans

https://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-crack-down-on-foreign-influence/a-57813764 

K-Pop is a “vicious cancer” on the North Korean youth

• Kim Jong Un recently denounced Korean pop music culture, as well as its “attire, hairstyles, speeches, behaviors” to be a corruption in the North Korean youth and a “vicious cancer”.

• Kim Jong Un has dedicated several speeches in the past month about the “anti-socialist and nonnsocialist’ influence of South Korean dramas and K-pop.

• While state propaganda in North Korea states that South Korea is starving and poor, South Korean media portrays the opposite, and smuggled media threatens the North Korean government’s ability to be the single source of information for its citizens.

• Jiro Ishimaru, chief editor of Asia Press International, noted that Kim Jong Un sees South Korean media as a “cultural invasion” that may cause the North Korean people to “start considering the South an alternative Korea to replace the North.”

Read More:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/world/asia/kim-jong-un-k-pop.html

Inside North Korea

Wild fluctuations in food prices while North Korea’s preaches self-reliance

• “I don’t understand why food prices and exchange rates are constantly changing,” remarked a North Korean resident of Pyongyang, as the prices of food fluctuated dramatically in the span of a few days.

• According to some sources, food prices were suddenly more expensive in evenings than in mornings for unknown reasons.

• Citizens report fears and concerns about food prices increasing dramatically as their hopes for North Korea resuming trade on the border with China are dwindling.

• One Pyongyang resident, seeing the price of rice grow by 50% in the span of a month, stated: “I have lived in Pyongyang for more than 20 years, but I’ve never seen such high food prices.”

• In response to the growing concerns, North Korea has begun to enforce ideological education sessions for its citizens, focusing on the North Korean concepts of “juche” - self-reliance in North Korea’s economic and cultural isolation from the world.

• The government has released studies emphasizing independence from imports and stabilization through self-sufficiency.

• Sources indicate that not all North Koreans are quick to accept what seems like an “unrealistic” expectation upon them from the government. “Some residents shouted that they are too busy making ends meet or tending to their vegetable gardens and cannot understand why the authorities are trying to tie their feet by making them come learn about ideology three times a week,” said a North Korean citizen.

Read more:

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/self-reliance-06112021180051.html

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/food-06142021163437.html

North Korea has appointed a new and secret “second-in-command”

• According to excerpts of a North Korean government document, North Korea has recently created the position of a second-in-command to leader Kim Jong Un.

• It is unclear who now occupies the position. Experts believe that there are several candidates.

  • Jo Yong Won is one of Kim Jong Un’s most tenured aides and serves in the Worker’s Party’s central committee.

  • Kim Tok Hun is one of the highest ranking officials in the North Korean government.

• Kim Yo Jong, sister to Kim Jong Un, despite her growing influence and publicity, is not likely to have taken the position, as she is not a member of the North Korean Politburo Standing Committee, the highest echelon of North Korea’s leaders.

• Director of North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, Cheong Seong-chang, stated that Kim Jong Un’s delegation of power to ease his growing centralization of power may indicate that the North Korean leader is confident in his “grip on power”.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/02/asia/north-korea-new-position-intl-hnk/index.html

Is North Korea Panicked About Another Famine?

Food Insecurity Definition

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines “food insecurity” as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.”

According to the USDA’s 2020-2030 International Food Security Assessment, “an estimated 59.2 percent of North Korea’s population is food-insecure in 2020, rising slightly to 59.8 percent when the effects of the COVID-19 macro shock are taken into account.” That is approximately 15.3 million people or three in five North Koreans.

Worst Decline in Recent History

We shared our concerns in January about North Korea potentially entering into yet another famine.

The Financial Times reported in February that North Korea was facing the worst economic decline since the infamous North Korean famine of the 90’s. “Following a triple hit from the strict border closures, economic sanctions and devastating flooding last year, the economy is suffering its worst decline since famine killed millions of people in the mid-1990s”

In March, Geneva-based Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) rated the severity of North Korea’s Humanitarian Conditions 4.5 out of 5, which is a “measure of conditions and status of the people affected, including info about the distribution of severity”. “The ACAPS report estimated “chronic food insecurity and limited access to basic services, such as healthcare and clean water, have left more than 10 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.”

Admitted Failings of Kim Jong Un

Kim Jong Un addressed party members in a political conference this past April and stated that the nation was facing its “worst-ever situation.” The North Korean dictator was likely making reference to the catastrophic failure of his five-year plan introduced in May 2016 that promised to bring North Korea to economic independence.

Experts are referring to North Korea’s current economic crisis in the pandemic as “the Great Leap Backwards” as the nation is struggling to respond to fears of economic collapse, complete loss of food security, and inability to vaccinate its 25 million citizens.

Urgent Party Central Committee Meeting

North Korea’s state-run news outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) recently announced the call for another, larger political meeting called a plenum in early June. Kim Jong Un reportedly stressed the necessity to call a plenary meeting to “solve pending problems urgent for the economic work and people’s living.” All these items could point to a country in distress and panic.

Tighter Control with Closed Borders

North Korea was quick to respond to COVID-19 by completely sealing its borders to all foreigners, including trade, tourism and international relations. According to Daminov Ildar of The Diplomat, this also meant “no defections, no migration, no dangerous external information coming from abroad.” This enabled the North Korean government to enforce a greater measure of censorship as “every single product that entered North Korea in 2020 was thoroughly checked and paranoidally disinfected, while most goods were not even allowed to come in.”

This also shrank the number of North Korean defectors entering into South Korea, which dropped nearly 80% year-over year from 1,047 (2019) to 229 (2020). This is easily the fewest North Korean defectors since The Ministry of Unification began publishing this metric in 1998.

Another Famine?

The world does not have an accurate count of how many North Koreans died between 1994 and 1998 during the great North Korean famine. Higher estimates speculate that two to three million North Koreans perished during this period. The famine also exposed cracks in North Korean ideologies and its system of misinformation. Disenfranchised with the government and out of the need to survive, an informal free market system emerged and continues to be used as farmers markets and black markets throughout North Korea.

Survivors of the North Korean famine may be able to help their fellow North Koreans endure another season of scarcity with past learnings. But with heightened government security brought on by COVID-19 resulting in even less access to the outside world, Kim Jong Un and his regime may also be opportunistically purging liberties that have seeped in since the last famine. Another famine could be an excuse for the government to further constrict North Korean people and inflict more suffering.

What’s Behind China’s Three-Child Policy

China is the world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion people. The country industrialized at a rapid pace with ambitions to be the world’s economic superpower. But their breakneck economic growth is showing signs of weakness. One of their most glaring weaknesses is their rapid population decline. In order for their economy to continue to grow, they must secure a base of workers.

This is why they have changed their One-Child Policy to the Three-Child Policy over the past five years. 

The following are some common questions people have about these policies:

1) Why does China enforce a policy on how many children families can have?

In the 1960s and 1970s global fears were fixated on an exploding population and the inability to produce enough food and resources to support this growing population. This was driven by one concept that was described in the wildly popular book “The Population Bomb,” by Paul Ehrlich. The book purported massive catastrophe because human population would outgrow the earth’s ability to support human life.

It was out of these fears that India, the world’s second most populous country, began its horrific mass-sterilization efforts where women were lined up to be sterilized by the country’s doctors, some against their will. This practice was reversed only in 2020. 

It was in this hysteria that China instituted The One-Child Policy law in 1979, with an intent to curb the growth of its population, which the government feared was getting too large for the government to feed and control.

2) What is China’s Three Child Policy?

In May 2021, China increased the legal number of children families were permitted to have from two to three. The change comes just five years after the Chinese government put a stop to its decades-long One-Child Policy. The Three-Child Policy is an attempt by the Chinese government to mitigate population decline. But data indicates that this policy alone is too little too late.

A 2017 study conducted by the All-China Women’s Federation reveals that 20.5 percent of Chinese couples with one child were willing to have another. And between 2016 and 2017 China’s birth rate fell by a staggering 630,000, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

For China’s economy to continue growing, they need to continue to make things. In order to make things, they need factories and companies. In order to have factories, they need people to work in them. Though China’s workforce is a deep resource, they will one day reach their limit and when they do, they fear their economy will cease to grow.

3) What are the consequences of the One Child Policy?

While implementing this policy, China caused a tremendous amount of real-world suffering, like forced abortions and bride trafficking, which we covered previously when China’s One Child Policy was relaxed to a Two Child Policy.

As we pointed out in 2015, this policy has created the conditions by which the trafficking of North Korean refugees has flourished in China. Since there is a preference for boys in Chinese families, the country has skewed to predominantly male. The country estimates that there are about 34 million more males than females in the country. And because of this, China needs to import women.

Human Rights Watch stated in 2019 that China “has a bride trafficking problem.” The lasting impact of China’s population controlling policies is why 80 percent of North Korean refugees in China have been trafficked and bought by Chinese men.

4) What impact can be expected with China’s Three Child Policy?

Similar to 2016’s policy change, this is a wake up call to not only China but to the world. We hope this raises much needed awareness to China’s human trafficking problem. China is deemed a “Tier 3” country in the US State Department’s 2020 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report, which, simply put, means the country does not make much effort to prevent or prosecute trafficking. The same report states candidly that “Many North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers living illegally in [China] are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Traffickers lure, drug, detain, or kidnap some North Korean women upon their arrival in [China] and compel them into commercial sex in brothels and bars, through internet sex sites, or in relation to forced marriage.”

“Many North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers living illegally in [China] are particularly vulnerable to trafficking.”

Children’s Day in North Korea

The contrast of life between North and South Korea could not be greater. Even childhood is a profoundly different experience in the two countries. South Korea recently celebrated Children’s Day on May 5 as a national holiday of no school, tasty treats and a showering of gifts. Today is North Korea’s Children’s day, a holiday in which childhood is celebrated in vastly different ways.

Songbun

A baby born in North Korea is given a social status at birth, which determines much of his or her future. Known as songbun, based on the status of his or her father, an infant is officially classified as  “special”, “nucleus”, “basic”, “complex” or “hostile”. Songbun translates to “ingredient” and dictates what area this family will be allowed to live, which university this child will be able to eventually enter, where she might work and whether she will have the privilege to join the Korean Workers party. According to Fyodor Tertitskiy of The Guardian, “becoming a party member is the only way to aspire to a high social position” in North Korea.

Education

Kindergarten begins at the age of five in North Korea. Secondary schooling, which is called “middle-high”, continues from the ages of ten to sixteen. Military service is required for both North Korean men and women at the age of seventeen where women serve until they turn twenty-three and men serve for ten years.

All children between the ages of seven and thirteen are required to join the Korean Children’s Union. It is one of the many unions North Koreans will join in their lifetime of indoctrination and forced loyalty to the Kim dynasty. Each child reads an oath of allegiance during an admission ceremony which reads something like this:

“I join the ranks of the Korean Children’s Union, founded by the Great Leader Generalissimo Kim Il-sung and shined upon by the Great Guide Commander Kim Jong-il, do hereby swear to always and everywhere think and act according to the teaching of the Generalissimo Kim Il-sung and Commander Kim Jong-il and to become a good reservist of the brilliant cause of constriction of Communism, which is carried along from generation to generation by the great revolutionary deed of Juche.”

Some find it disturbing to see the purity and joy of childhood so grossly corrupted in North Korean children.

North Korean Children’s Holidays

North Korea observes two official holidays in June for children: June 1 as Children’s Day and June 6 as Children's Union Day. Children’s Day in North Korea mostly targets preschoolers and is a day of festivities and games. A few days later, June 6 celebrates the establishment of the Young Pioneer Corps in 1946. On this day, newly initiated Union members are presented with a red necktie from their teachers before repeating the above oath of loyalty in front of portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

In 2012, on the 66th anniversary of Children’s Union Day, Kim Jong Un said before a gathering of 20,000 members of the Children’s Union that they were the future masters of "a most powerful country where every home will be full of laughter and everybody lives in harmony."

Children’s Day in South Korea

Children and families in South Korea celebrate Children’s Day (어린이날) on May 5, a national holiday that appreciates and celebrates children. It has been celebrated since 1923 and was officially designated as a public holiday in 1975. Children’s day is often spent doing fun activities as a family and also involves eating out and giving gifts to children and can feel like a second birthday celebration for kids.

Power to save

The sad reality of the stark difference experienced between children of North and South Koreans feels all the more tragic on a day like today. Though we may feel powerless even as we wish for change, we’re thankful for the opportunity to help North Korean refugees and their children in China and South Korea. They give me hope and serve as a reminder that God is always at work, even when the truth of their realities appear bleak.