Top North Korean Headlines - April 2022

NORTH KOREAN WORKERS DISAPPEAR FROM SHANGHAI DORM

• North Korea has requested help from China to track down 20 North Korean women working for a clothing company in Shanghai and their manager who they suspect are now on the run as refugees.  

• Beijing is under two bilateral border and immigration pacts with Pyongyang to return North Koreans found to be illegally within Chinese territory.

• The group of textile workers were dispatched from North Korea to earn foreign currency in China for the government and were supposed to be in quarantine when they disappeared from their dormitory in mid-February.

• A source told Radio Free Asia that the company owner had immediately reported the disappearance to the North Korean consulate in Beijing, which had in turn sought assistance from the Chinese police to track the escapees and monitor railway stations heading towards the border. The source further commented that “[the] workers and the manager have not been found for a month since they went missing...[the] North Korean consulate is under a state of emergency to find if they have already escaped and are in Southeast Asia or already entered South Korea.”

• Another source from Dandong, a Chinese city bordering North Korea, said that Shanghai is so large with a population of around 26 million people that “it would be easy to hide there...[but] if they were to leave by train or bus, they would need to show ID to buy a ticket. It therefore seems this is a planned escape led by a guide, since the manager and the workers have not been caught.”

• According to the U.S. State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, there are an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 North Koreans working in China. Meanwhile, escapes by North Koreans working in China are rare because Pyongyang only sends its most loyal citizens abroad, monitors them closely, and punishes their family members.

• Although United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019, China and Russia often bypass these sanctions by granting workers short-term student or visitor visas so they can legally work in other countries.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/china-03222022201416.html
https://www.visiontimes.com/2022/03/23/north-korean-women-rented-to-china-for-work-disappear-from-shanghai-dorm-presumed-defected-report.html

NORTH KOREAN LEADER’S SISTER WARNS OF NUCLEAR RETALIATION

• In response to South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook’s remarks on the South’s ability to strike the North’s missile launch points, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, issued two statements in state media calling Suh “a scum-like guy” and claiming that “[in] case South Korea opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty.”

• Kim Yo-jong also dismissed Suh’s assertions in relation to the South’s militia abilities, which North Korean analyst, Cheong Seong-chang, noted was an attempt to “enhance the internal unity within the North” amidst uncertainty and concerns about relations with the new South Korean cabinet.

• Kim Yo-jong further added that North Korea did not want a war and would only respond using nuclear weapons if attacked. 

• According to Sydney Seiler, national intelligence officer for North Korea at the National Intelligence Council, North Korea uses US-South Korea joint military drills as a pretext for its provocations and is employing a “short-term choreography” or propaganda which Pyongyang has historically utilized while seeking to convince others that the escalation of tension is simply a result of the US-South Korean alliance and not the desired outcome of its actions.

• Seiler also noted that North Korea has breached numerous denuclearisation agreements in the past, “each breakout that we have seen, agreed framework breakout, six-party talks, breakout, leap day agreement, breakout, Singapore-Hanoi breakout, each time the [North Korean weapons] program advances a little more, making it harder to imagine denuclearisation as a viable topic for discussion.”

Source:
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220408000121
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60992313

NORTH KOREA DEMOLISHES SOUTH KOREAN-OWNED $75 MILLION GOLF RESORT

• In 2019, Kim Jong-un called the dozens of South Korean-built facilities at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort “shabby” and lacked “national character”, and ordered the removal of “all the unpleasant-looking facilities of the south [Korean] side” after Seoul refused to defy US-led sanctions that kept tourism from resuming.

• South Korea’s Unification Ministry and other parties requested to negotiate with the North following Kim’s announcement, but their requests were denied.

• The North postponed the demolition work in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic until days before the South Korean presidential election in March 2022. South Korea’s Unification Ministry called for North Korea to stop the “unilateral” destruction of the Haegumgang Hotel, which serves as one of the last symbols of inter-Korean engagement.

• Weeks later, it was reported that North Korea began to demolish a $75 million South Korean-owned golf resort near Mount Kumgang without permission from the company Anati that built the facility. The Ananti Golf and Spa Resort was open to South Korean tourists in 2008 for one year, before Seoul suspended all tourism to North Korea after a DPRK soldier shot and killed a South Korean national.

• Anati’s chairman expressed hopes that his resort could still host the 2025 World Amateur Golf Championship, but this does not seem likely to happen as according to Planet Labs satellite imagery, 10 large lodging buildings have already been partially demolished.

Source:
https://apnews.com/article/business-travel-seoul-south-korea-north-korea-bb623f840c86a80a08cd214cad1233b5
https://www.nknews.org/2022/04/north-korea-begins-demolishing-75-million-south-korean-golf-resort-imagery/ 

NORTH KOREANS IN RUSSIA: NO WAY HOME

• North Korean soldiers dispatched to Russia to earn foreign currency are unable to return home after their three-year services due to Pyongyang’s prolonged border closure as part of their Covid-19 prevention measures.

• According to a North Korean soldier in his 20s, Choi, along with four other soldiers who were sent to Russia in 2018, although they were eligible for discharges from the military in 2021, they were not allowed to return home and are still engaging in foreign currency earning activities in Russia.

• Choi told Daily NK that two soldiers in similar positions have tried to escape by leaving their base in Moscow without permission in mid-March, but were subsequently apprehended by the Ministry of State Security and imprisoned on charges of attempting to defect.

• Choi also noted that the “first thing North Korean authorities consider when choosing soldiers to send abroad is whether or not an individual will run away while in a foreign country...[since] soldiers are thoroughly armed politically and ideologically speaking, and because they have families back home [who are used as hostages], [the authorities] prefer them over regular workers.”

• Despite the heavy emphasis on selecting soldiers who are loyal to the ruling Workers’ Party and Kim Jong-un, Choi explained that “there are many soldiers who are considering escaping due to the long working hours that stretch into the night and poor pay, which is not even enough to buy cigarettes.”

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korean-soldiers-russia-earning-foreign-currency-still-unable-return-home/

Rest for Your Souls

Praying for Nancy at Elim House.

Nancy was referred to Elim House by a local Hana Center as she needed to remove herself from a toxic situation with a former boyfriend. He was convinced that she was cheating on him and to prove him wrong, she attempted to end her life by swallowing an excessive amount of sleeping pills in front of him. According to Nancy, he had also tracked her whereabouts by installing a secret app on her phone.

A pastor from her church told us that before Nancy met this man, she was active in the church and did not show signs of exhaustion. She came to us completely drained of energy and spirit. Upon arrival, Kelly and Michelle, the other two residents currently at Elim House, welcomed Nancy in and prepared dinner for her with dumplings, potatoes and vegetables.

Within a week of her stay, Nancy sought out a psych evaluation at the hospital and asked to be admitted if possible due to potential mental issues. Our social workers grew increasingly aware that Nancy’s mental issues seemed to be more severe than they initially thought as she settled in at Elim House. The doctor who evaluated Nancy gave her the option to be admitted and also prescribed her medication. Nancy chose to start taking her medication and to return to Elim House. For her own safety and the safety of others at Elim House, our team kept close watch over her.

Last Sunday, Nancy voluntarily asked to be discharged from Elim House as she plans to be admitted to the hospital in about a month. Her stay was just a few short weeks but she had developed a good relationship with other residents and staff in that time. Nancy’s time with us came to a close at our weekly Sunday worship as the other residents and our team lovingly covered her in prayer and blessings. While we desire to have gone deeper with Nancy, given the mental issues she struggled with, we know she needs to be under the care of trained professionals who can properly treat her.

Many residents, like Nancy, only stay for a few weeks. We don’t know if they’ll come back or if our paths will ever cross again. But we hope the time that they spend at Elim House leaves an indelible impression of God’s sabbath, his holy rest. Our prayer is for Nancy to receive the ongoing treatment she needs to get better physically, emotionally and spiritually.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. - Psalm 46:1

Faith in a Fiery Furnace

My classmates and I waited in a packed auditorium at my Christian university as we were told that the original speaker wasn't able to make it and they had to find a last minute replacement. This substitute speaker was a North Korean defector named Charles and he shared his story of escaping North Korea twice and how he came to know Jesus. I was intrigued. The first time around, he escaped to China to find his father who had escaped years earlier. After some searching, he found his father. During his time in China, a pastor came to his house and handed him a Bible and prayed over the young man who had never heard of Jesus before. 

He expressed his mixed feelings as he reflected on his difficult journey to freedom. He is so grateful that he made it out while many others are still trapped.

~

This past Palm Sunday, my pastor gave a message on having faith during difficult times. As a part of his message, he showed the congregation a short clip of three different people that had endured a difficult time in their lives. The first woman on the screen had a miscarriage; second was a man who lost his granddaughter; last was a woman who had been sexually abused for years by her own father. All three were still deeply affected and in pain by these events and questioned “God? Why? Why God have you forsaken me?”

It is easier to have faith in the Lord when things are comfortable. But what happens in the face of tragedy? 

God doesn’t promise us good times, he promises us to be with us all the time, in the good and the bad. In the third chapter of Daniel, we see the story of three men of God, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were in a sticky situation. Rather than bowing down to a gold statue made by King Nebuchadnezzar, they chose to be faithful to God. King Nebuchadnezzar warned the three men that the consequences of not worshiping  the golden statue would result in being thrown into a fiery furnace. Their response was, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it.” They said that even if God didn’t deliver them from the furnace, they would still not bow. Imagine that. To be grounded in your faith in God like that to stand firm knowing that God is always with you. A furious King Nebuchadnezzar had the furnace heated up seven hotter than usual and had his soldiers throw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in. The furnace was so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers that threw these three men of God in the fire. 

The fire didn’t burn Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Likewise, Charles, in the midst of all his pain, struggles and tribulations was able to continue and make it out alive. One of the things he said was that he knew that God was always there with him and had a purpose for his life.

This is a good reminder for me this Easter. God has a plan and that may include times of hardship. But that suffering will come to an end. His love for us, on the other hand, is everlasting and unchanging. You may pass through the fire but you will not burn. You may pass through rivers of difficulty but you will not drown. Do not fear because Jesus will be with you.

*This post was written by our social media coordinator Melissa Vasquez.

A Living Hell for Female North Korean Soldiers: Sexual Abuse and Abortions Without Anesthesia

To this day, North Korean women are subject to disadvantages in education and employment opportunities, with little protection against sexual assault and violence at work and home respectively, along with concerns of rape and mistreatment in detention. According to a report published by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 2017, North Korea is far from providing adequate victim protection and support measures in this regard. For example, the 2012 revision of the Criminal Code lowered the penalties for some forms of rape, including rape of children, rape by a work supervisor and repeated rape. Since the penalty for rape is incommensurate with the crime per se, perpetrators are often left unpunished.

Unlike South Korea, which only requires male citizens between the age of 18 and 28 to perform compulsory military service, North Korea requires all North Korean women to serve a total of seven years in the military from the time they graduate school until the age of 23. Interestingly, it has been reported that thousands of young women were motivated to join the military by the thought of having a guaranteed meal each day, particularly following the famine in the 1990s.  

As a traditionally male-dominated society, female soldiers in North Korea are subjected to repeated abuse, induced malnutrition, cruel punishment, sexual harassment and sexual assault.  A former soldier, Jennifer Kim, estimated that 70 percent of female North Korean soldiers had been victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment in an interview conducted by The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. As a victim herself, Kim testified that female soldiers had to endure "unspeakable” torture and collective punishments in the army. She described several occasions where women were forced to dip their hands in freezing water before being hung from an iron bar which froze on to their palms, causing the flesh to tear off when released. Kim also noted that women in the army had to reuse soggy footwraps and gauze used for dressing wounds as sanitry pads and recalled that during her four years of military service, she had only ever used four sanitary pads.  

When Kim was 23 years old, a senior advisor called her to his office and she immediately knew what was going to happen – she was sexually assaulted that very day. Kim explained that she had no choice but to accept her fate. Had she refused his demands, she would not have been able to become a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea. “If I return to society without being able to join the party, I’m perceived as a problem child and I will be stigmatized for the rest of my life...[that] means you won’t be able to get a good job and it will be a problem when you try to marry. What could I have chosen?” Despite surviving on meager rations of three to four spoonfuls of corn a day and being so malnourished that her period only came once every four to six months, Kim became pregnant with her abuser’s child. When she informed him of her early signs of pregnancy, he simply ordered her to visit the military medical office the same night, where a military surgeon performed an abortion on her without anesthesia. Kim struggled to describe the pain she had been through and stated that “[because] of that experience, not only do I struggle mentally, but I’m also not able to have children...[so] even now, it’s difficult for me to have a good marriage. The shame I felt back then still haunts me and will continue to do so”.

The term “Pleasure Squad” made global headlines and exposed that groups of young virgins are selected for the North Korean leader and other high-ranking officials’ sexual entertainment (called the Kippujo which is often translated as the “Pleasure Squad”). The executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Greg Scarlatoiu, stated it is unsurprising that “[the] abuse the nation’s daughters in uniform suffer at the hands of the regime’s henchmen” and that these deplorable acts “[reflect] the deeply-embedded and incurable pervertedness and corruption of the party and the entire top leadership, all the way up to the top of the chain of command.” Women in North Korea, including female soldiers, have little to no protection from this system.

Top North Korean Headlines - March 2022

DAUGHTER OF A HIGH-RANKING OFFICIAL EXECUTED FOR WATCHING SOUTH KOREAN COOKING SHOW

• North Korea has punished more than 10 military officials as the crackdown on illegal foreign media shifted to focus on high-ranking cadres and their families.

• A source told Radio Free Asia that “[an] official of a trading company directly under the Ministry of Defense was caught with three South Korean movies, 10 Japanese pornographic movies, and seven South Korean dramas, including ‘Crash Landing on You,’ and ‘Descendants of the Sun,’ and five American movies…he was punished after the inspection.” “Crash Landing on You” is about a South Korean woman who mistakenly crosses the border into North Korea and falls in love with a North Korean soldier, while the main protagonist of “Descendants of the Sun” is a South Korean Special Forces soldier.

• The daughter of the Head of a branch political department of the Ministry of State Security (“MSS”) and her boyfriend were publicly executed for watching and distributing South Korean films, soap operas, and entertainment programs in Pyongsong, including a cooking show “Baek Jong-won's Alley Restaurant,” among others. Though the lives of her father and other family members were spared, they were sent to a political prison camp.

• North Korean authorities judged that the couple was able to avoid registering their imported computer with the MSS and engage in illegal copying of videos because they were protected by the father’s position at the MSS.

• Approximately 300 people reportedly watched the execution, while about 20 people accused of taking part in distributing the videos and the MSS officials were given front row seats to the execution before being arrested for participating in or overlooking the illegal distribution of videos.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/media-impure-02212022082705.html 
https://www.dailynk.com/english/daughter-of-high-ranking-n-korean-cadre-executed-for-watching-and-distributing-s-korean-videos/

MARRIAGE BETWEEN “CRASH LANDING ON YOU” STARS BRINGS HOPE TO NORTH KOREANS

• The recent announcement that Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin, stars of the South Korean drama “Crash Landing on You,” are getting married has become a hot topic in North Korea. 

• One woman in her 30’s from North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK that “[these] characters shared a special love in the show, and people are saying they want to run up and congratulate them personally [about the marriage]...I hope to live in a world where everyone is comfortable with one another and young people from both Koreas can fall in love.”

• Another woman in her 20’s who lives in Pyongyang told Daily NK that “I think Jong Hyok and Se Ri’s love is memorable as it’s a love that transcends different systems, political views, and nations.” After news of the marriage broke, it became trendy for North Koreans to watch the drama “Crash Landing on You” again.

• A third woman in her 40’s told Daily NK that even officials charged with cracking down on foreign media content have watched the drama with their families, laughing and crying the whole time. 

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-koreans-express-excitement-about-marriage-between-crash-landing-on-you-stars-son-ye-jin-hyun-bin/

RURAL NORTH KOREA’S GREENHOUSE PROJECT GROWS VEGETABLES FOR ELITES IN PYONGYANG

• Two years ago, authorities responsible for a North Korean greenhouse project ordered residents from a rural farm village in Kyongsong county, North Hamgyong Province, to grow vegetables. In return, the authorities promised to provide the villagers with more vegetables than they could ever eat. However, the food was shipped to Pyongyang for the country’s elites, a source told Radio Free Asia.

• The farm sits on 490 acres of land and includes about 300 greenhouses, and “[last] week, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that the Jungphyong Vegetable Greenhouse Farm had produced about 10,000 tons of fresh produce, including cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and crown daisy [which is a popular leafy vegetable],” said the source. The newspaper report said that the vegetables were delivered to the people of the province last year, “[but] in actuality, ordinary residents of Kyongsong county have never been given a single vegetable grown from those greenhouses,” the source added, “[they] worked for over a year. Not many people complained because they had the hope that they would be able to eat their fill of vegetables in the very near future.”

• The Jungphyong Vegetable Greenhouse Farm was a pilot program and the government has plans to expand the program. For instance, according to a Kyongsong resident, another greenhouse farm is already under construction in nearby South Hamgyong Province’s Hamju county, “[the] residents of Hamju county have been mobilized for the construction work. Even when they complete their new greenhouse farm, they will never have a chance to eat any of the veggies...[when] they were building the greenhouse farm up here in Jungphyong, the local housewives supported the construction effort, even sending in homemade soil for use in the farms. Despite their personal sacrifices, the housewives never received any vegetables.”

• The second source also claimed that high-ranking officials who live nearby would drive by the farms and take the vegetables as they please.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/veggies-03022022182230.html 

NORTH KOREA’S MILITARY SPY SATELLITE LAUNCH AS KOREA ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT

• Three hours after Yoon Suk-yeol was elected President of South Korea, North Korea announced that it will soon launch a military spy satellite, a move that is speculated to circumvent the ban on long-range missile testing by the UN Security Council.

• “We are aware of the growing North Korean nuclear threat, and amid the tensions of the U.S.-China strategic competition, we are also faced with the task of strengthening our global diplomatic capabilities...to protect people’s safety, property, territory and sovereignty,” Yoon said in a speech on election day, adding that South Korea would also “build a strong national defense force.”

• According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong-un noted that the satellite will provide “real-time information” on the movements of “the aggression troops of the U.S. imperialism and its vassal forces” in the region. In response, the U.S. military announced that it is stepping up intelligence and surveillance efforts near North Korea, as well as increasing readiness of its ballistic missile defense forces.

• Yoon’s administration will likely align South Korea with the U.S., and allow President Biden’s administration to “articulate its North Korea policy more clearly without fearing friction with Seoul,” said Go Myong-hyon, a research fellow at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

Source:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-korea-election-president-yoon-suk-yeol-teach-rude-boy-kim-jong-manners/
https://www.voanews.com/a/north-korea-hints-at-bigger-provocations-as-south-korea-elects-new-president/6478234.html

No Coincidences - How Michelle Found Us Twice

Michelle in South Korea,

The work of Crossing Borders often begs the question, “what are the odds?” What are the odds that we would have been able to do this work for close to two decades? What are the odds that our presence in China is still going strong, despite overwhelming constraints? What are the odds that we have been shielded from persecution as we do this highly risky and illegal work?

Last week we encountered another situation that begged this same question when we welcomed our newest Elim House resident “Michelle.”

Michelle grew up in North Korea, a daughter of a single father. Her mother passed away when she was young. After finishing fifth grade, she went to work at the local coal mine. She said that she enjoyed this work very much and remembers it as the happiest time of her life. After she got married, she left her job as a coal miner but she said her marriage was miserable because her husband was “lazy and violent.”

After years of suffering with her husband, Michelle begged him for a divorce. He did not grant it to her so she left him and fled to a nearby town where she found a job. She met another man and moved in with him and lived happily for a year. She was “caught” by the authorities after a year. Her crime was that she was living with a man to whom she was not married. She was sent to a prison camp for one year.

She was released in 2003 and soon after escaped to China. She was sold immediately after she reached the Chinese border. She lived in China for 16 years and suffered greatly while living with this man who was an alcoholic. Though a missionary introduced her to the Lord during her stay there, she found it hard to practice her faith as she dealt with the stresses of an abusive husband and her status as an illegal economic migrant.

She decided to take another chance and escape China via the Underground Railroad in 2019. Little did she know that 2019 would be the last year the Underground Railroad would function. In 2020 the pandemic would shut it down. Michelle was among the last of the 34,000 refugees who resettled to South Korea.

In 2021 she found out that she had stomach cancer. She received treatment for her cancer and is currently recovering. She lived by herself. New to the country, she didn’t have a community. Adjusting to life in a new country with new freedoms is challenging in itself; to do so during a pandemic was extremely difficult. She said that she was extremely lonely. She found out about Elim House through her local Hana Center, a place where refugees are connected to counseling and other resources to help them adjust to South Korea.

After our social workers in South Korea got Michelle’s information and story, they sent it to our missionaries along with a photograph. Our missionary Sunny saw the picture and couldn’t shake the feeling that she might have met Michelle somewhere. This nagging feeling kept Sunny up that night. The next morning Sunny scoured her photographs taken in South Korea but did not find a picture of Michelle. Then she went back in her archives to her time in China. Finally, she connected the dots. Michelle was actually under the care of Crossing Borders in China. Sunny found a picture of Michelle that was taken in 2017.

Michelle (3rd from right) in China with caretakers and other refugees.

Sunny remembers Michelle as a very energetic and happy person. They met in a rural town in China and shared times of great fellowship. They ate lots of Korean rice cake that another refugee had prepared for them. They worshiped together and played games. When they played games, Michelle couldn’t play because she was laughing so hard, Sunny said.

The lives of North Korean refugees in China are often transient. One day Michelle left without a word. We assumed she took the Underground Railroad. When refugees leave like this, it is hard to reconnect with them. We assumed we would never hear from Michelle again.

What are the odds that we would meet Michelle, one of the tens of thousands of North Korean refugees hiding in the most populous country in the world? What are the odds that she would safely leave China and then find us in the bustling urban sprawl of South Korea? We know that in life there are no real coincidences. Michelle was brought back to us for a reason. What that reason is has yet to be revealed to us or to Michelle.

All we know for sure is that God weaves his beautiful plan in our lives. We are excited to see what he has in store for Michelle.

North Korea Claims the U.S. is the Root Cause of Ukraine Invasion

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia and lobbied other countries for more. President Biden’s administration expanded his economic sanctions to target Russia’s two largest financial institutions, Sberbank and VTB Bank, to “drastically” affect “their fundamental ability to operate.”

The European Union also froze assets belonging to Putin and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, imposed sanctions against Russia’s finance, energy, technology and transportation industries, as well as placing a ban on Russian flights over its airspace. "With these additional sanctions, we are targeting all who are having a significant economic role in supporting Putin’s regime, and benefit financially from the system,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in a press release. “These sanctions will expose the wealth of Putin’s elite. Those who enable the invasion of Ukraine will pay a price for their action.”

NORTH KOREA BLAMES THE U.S. FOR RUSSIA’S INVASION

At an emergency U.N. session where dozens of diplomats condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea’s ambassador, Kim Song, blamed the U.S. and its allies for their “hegemonic policy” which threatens peace and security of other sovereign states. This statement echoes Russia and China’s official stance criticizing “the eastward expansion of NATO” and justifying Russia’s “legitimate security demands” respectively. The special session ultimately failed to adopt a resolution condemning Russia’s attack due to Moscow’s veto.

“We clearly remember how Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were violated by the U.S. and the West in the past under the pretext of international peace and security,” Kim said, following North Korea’s official statements blaming the U.S. as the “root cause” of the Ukrainian war. “It is absurd for the U.S. and the West, that have devastated Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, to mention the respects of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the situation of Ukraine,” as he concluded that there will never be peace “as long as there remains unilateral and double-dealing policy of the U.S.”

NORTH KOREA’S OLDEST ALLY

Following Japan’s defeat in World War II, the Soviet Union played a key role in the establishment of North Korea in 1948 after occupying the northern half of the Korean peninsula and helping Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong-un, become the first leader. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow revitalized its ties with Pyongyang under Vladimir Putin’s leadership in 2000. For the past twenty years, Russia has been lending diplomatic influence to the regime and politically aligning itself with North Korea.

It is interesting to note that Russia and China have previously lobbied to lift sanctions against Pyongyang at the U.N. Security Council, and perhaps to return the favor, North Korea was one of the only representing country to speak out and defend Russia’s invasion at the recent U.N. General Assembly in New York – a conspicuous display of Pyongyang’s abiding support for one of its oldest and only allies.

A SECRET BACK AT HOME

The North Korean central party leaders waited two days after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 before delivering the news to party members at their private weekly self-criticism meetings, which are reserved for the privileged or for exemplary soldiers who complete long mandatory stints in the armed forces. “Yesterday, each regional party committee in the province informed all the party members that our strong ally Russia was at war,” an official from the northwestern province of North Pyongan told Radio Free Asia on February 27, 2022. According to the source, the party members had already known about the war from their Chinese acquaintances, thus the news was no surprise to them. Instead, they were more curious as to why the authorities had kept the news of the invasion private and the reasons behind why Russia decided to invade Ukraine. “International relations are strained with Russia at war, so the regional party committee demanded that everyone be ready to be mobilized at all times,” the source said.

Another source told Radio Free Asia that after the news was broken to party members in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, it began spreading rapidly among the public, “[they] not only stated that Russia is at war, they also ordered us to be prepared to enter into war immediately under any circumstances…[in] response, some residents showed a radical reaction, saying they wish that war would break out and this disgusting system we are living under would come to an end.” This second source also revealed that some residents recognize the hypocrisy of Kim’s administration siding with Putin while Russia invades an independent country.

A Make-Or-Break Presidential Election for the Two Koreas

Tension is rising as North Korea launched its second missile test in a week, days before the South Korean presidential election on March 9, 2022. Lee Sung-yoon, a North Korea expert at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, commented that North Korea has often in the past attempted military provocations to influence elections in South Korea, including launching a rocket a week before the December 2012 presidential election, thus “[now], with all eyes on the Ukraine crisis, is an opportune time for North Korea to create more problems for the U.S. and meddle in South Korea’s election.”

CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE

While domestic and other economic issues dominate the campaign, North Korea’s ongoing missile activities and foreign policy matters are also expected to weigh on public sentiment. After a month of missile testing in January with 10 launches and despite a series of high profile engagements with South Korean President Moon and former U.S. President Trump respectively, Kim Jong-un’s regime is reported to own around 60 nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of destroying any U.S. city.

In preparation for South Korea’s administration change, Pyongyong’s aggressive foreign policy is speculated to serve as an assurance against any possible result in the election. In particular, an aggressive policy provides a strong guarantee for North Korea’s national security in the event the conservative candidate wins and potential engagement between the two Koreas becomes highly unlikely. With an objective to strengthen national security, North Korea’s military capabilities would prove its power to overcome political and economic sanctions imposed by the international community, as well as the pandemic and natural disasters within the nation. On the other hand, if the progressive candidate wins, North Korea’s aggressive foreign policy would place it at an advantageous position with bargaining power to push the newly elected president to reduce tensions arising from the escalating inter-Korean crisis by adopting diplomacy more similar to the current Moon administration.

President Moon Jae In at his inauguration. (Korea.net)

THE 2022 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

The front-runners for the 2022 election are Yoon Seok-youl of the Conservative People Power Party and Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party. Polls revealed that Yoon and Lee are running neck and neck, with Lee’s public approval rating at 38 percent and Yoon’s at 37 percent in a survey of 1,000 adults conducted on February 25, 2022, and a tie at 35 percent in another survey from early February 2022.

Yoon stands firm with his conservative predecessors in demanding North Korea’s denuclearisation as a prerequisite for peace talks and economic engagements between the Koreas. In late November 2021, Yoon stated that he would consider cancelling the symbolic inter-Korean 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement, a critical diplomatic legacy of President Moon, if North Korea does not change its attitude, as he would not seek a summit with Kim Jong-un “just for show.” In January 2022, Yoon alarmed many by advocating a pre-emptive military strike to stop North Korean hypersonic attacks. His emphasis on resuming joint military exercises with the U.S., which have been scaled down since 2018, is likely to anger Kim Jong-un. Khang X. Vu, East Asian politics specialist at Boston College, commented that Yoon’s position is “harsh enough to make North Korea abandon diplomacy altogether, as it was the case during the tenures of Lee and Park.”

In contrast, Lee supports Moon’s gentle approach in forming diplomatic relations and engaging in economic cooperation with the North as a means of initiating denuclearisation, promising to ease existing sanctions upon North Korea’s compliance. In view of Yoon’s stance on a pre-emptive strike, Lee opined that “[a] lot of wars broke out not because of national interest, but because of such heated, emotional exchanges…[it is] important that we should not have any kind of unnecessary stimulation…that could escalate military tension.” Although Lee adopts a similar stance in trying to end the long-lasting Korean war in order to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table, Jenny Town, senior fellow at Stimson Centre told CNBC that Yoon is unlikely to copy Moon’s policies, “[while] Moon was personally heavily invested in engineering an inter-Korean summit, and trying to build sustainable, cooperative relations with North Korea, Lee is more likely to uphold the principle of peaceful coexistence while being reluctant to expend too much political capital on trying to achieve it, especially if Pyongyang is uncooperative.”

LESSON FROM UKRAINE

It is interesting to note that Ukraine was the world’s third largest nuclear weapons state and its scientists actually helped Pyongyang develop its missiles during the fall of the Soviet Union. From North Korea’s perspective, Ukraine made a mistake of trading its opportunity to have a nuclear deterrent to ensure its national security against attacks from Russia and the West. Following the Ukrainian invasion, “[the] chance of North Korea believing in U.S.-offered security assurance in return for nuclear disarmament—lock, stock and barrel—is now close to zero,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at Sejong Institute think tank. Since the U.S. is siding with Ukraine and it is now extremely unlikely to seek Russia’s consent for new U.N. Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang, Cheong noted that Kim’s regime would use this time to further develop nuclear weapons.

As tensions across the demilitarised zone escalate, a conservative win for South Korea’s presidential election could potentially ignite new frictions between the two Koreas. In the meantime, North Korea, China, and the U.S. are closely watching as South Korea unfolds its geopolitical fate on March 9, 2022.

My Best Friend Anne Frank & North Korea

Source: Netflix (Anne Frank and Hannah Goslar in Amsterdam, 1942).

One of Netflix’s latest releases is a war era film My Best Friend Anne Frank, a story of friendship between famous Holocaust victim Anne Frank and her friend Hannah Goslar told through Goslar’s point of view. The film goes back and forth between Hannah’s and Anne's time growing up together in Amsterdam in 1942 and their time in Bergen-Belsen, a German concentration camp in 1945. As I watched the film, I couldn’t help but notice many similarities in the hardships the Jews faced then with the lives of North Koreans today.

Both governments are/were a totalitarian state

Adolf Hitler became the leader of the Nazi Party in 1921 and became chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. He rapidly transformed Germany into a dictatorship and almost all aspects of life were controlled by the government. Similarly in 2022, Kim Jong-un continues to follow in the footsteps of his dictatorial father and grandfather, tightly controlling almost every aspect of the lives of the North Korean people.

Source: Netflix (Hannah’s parents are afraid that they will be sent away to a concentration camp soon  and have no appetite at the dinner table).

When escaping is the only option

When Hilter became chancellor of Germany, Jews were stripped of most of their basic rights and were treated like second class citizens. Things progressively got worse for the Jews at that time as they were persecuted, their businesses were vandalized and they lived in constant fear of being sent away to a concentration camp. They were banned from saying “Heil Hilter” so they couldn’t even try to be loyal to the country as a way to improve their second class status. For most Jews, escaping the country was the only option.

If you read our article about North Korea’s caste system, also known as Songbun, the generational impact of North Koreans who showed loyalty to Kim Il-Sung’s regime is evident and shows up as being able to secure a higher status for subsequent generations.  Conversely, those who didn’t support the “Eternal President” were treated as lower class with little work opportunities and no hope of ever improving their lives. For many North Koreans, escaping is also the only option to ever improving their lives.

Following ridiculous laws

In My Best Friend Anne Frank, there is a scene where Otto Frank is troubled after finding out that Hannah and his daughter Anne went to the movie theater, which Jews were forbidden from doing. “Well, no one saw us there,” said Hannah hoping that would calm Otto and her father who were extremely upset by this. “Do you know how dangerous that is,” Otto asked her. “And that you could put us all in danger?” Jews were also not allowed to use a telephone, own a radio set, go to the library or leave the country.

Similarly, North Koreans are only allowed to watch the news, entertainment or other forms of media filtered through and provided by the regime. They have fix-tuned radios for North Korean approved stations as well as monitored cell phones to make calls in North Korea only. Leaving the country isn’t permitted for the majority.

Source: Netflix (Hannah, the day she is liberated from concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, 1945).

Witnessing death non-stop

There’s a scene in the movie when Hannah and her little sister Gabi go to medical to visit their dad who has become very sick and weak during their time in concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Sadly, his condition gets worse and they watch their dad’s breathing come to a complete stop. In another concentration camp scene, Hannah and Gabi walk past a dead woman which Gabi points to, curious as to why she is lying in the middle of the camp. Hannah lies to Gabi and tells her that the woman is sleeping and keeps on walking. Hannah also witnesses many Nazi officers violently beating Jews.

Many North Korean defectors talk about the horrors they have endured in modern-day concentration camps. Many also witnessed North Korean soldiers violently beating prisoners and the death of many, including members of their own family (in some cases because of hunger and in others, executed by North Korean soldiers).

As tragic as this film was, there was a line that stayed with me. As the situation in Amsterdam became more and more difficult, Anne and her family went into hiding, although Hannah believed Anne went to Switzerland without her. Feeling upset since they were not on good terms before she left, Hannah’s father tells her, “Have faith in God. Only He knows our destiny.”

There are obvious parallels between these two people groups who endured, or continue to endure, unfathomable hardships. In fact, among the group of Crossing Borders’ earliest donors was a Jewish family who noticed history repeating. We will do all we can to help North Koreans, but as Hannah’s father reminded his daughter, only God knows how this story ends.

One American Hacker Took Down North Korea’s Internet for Revenge

North Korean experts noted a series of countrywide internet shutdowns in January 2022, with speculations that some of the outages were linked to the North’s recent missile launches. During the outage, practically all of North Korea’s websites were intermittently inaccessible, ranging from Air Koryo Airline’s booking site to Naenara (the official portal for Kim Jong-un's government). Disruptions to the country’s servers also include at least one of the central routers that allow digital access to the country’s network from the outside world.

The internet outages appeared shortly following North Korea’s missile testing and the timing of these developments led some experts to believe that the culprit behind the cyberattacks was a state actor, such as the US. However, according to a report by Wired, an American hacker, identified by the handle “P4X” claimed sole responsibility for the attack. P4X said he was one of the victims of a North Korean government hacking scheme on western security researchers last year, where suspected North Korean hackers attempted to steal hacking tools and information on software vulnerabilities. His frustration from being a target and disappointment stemming from the US government’s lack of response triggered his plan for revenge. “[It] felt like the right thing to do here…I want them to understand that if you come at us, it means some of your infrastructure is going down for a while”. While P4X acknowledged that his attacks likely violated US computer fraud and hacking laws, he argued that it was not ethically wrong to send a message to the Kim regime which carried out “insane human rights abuses and complete control over their population”.

GOVERNMENT-TRAINED NORTH KOREAN HACKERS

Cyber warfare has been one of the key tactics, along with nuclear weapons and missiles, deployed by Kim Jong-un's administration to signify North Korea’s military capabilities. North Korea’s growing cyber capability emerged most prominently in 2013 and South Korea had suffered a series of cyberattacks that damaged its commercial, financial, and media networks as a result.  

It is known that North Korea has two cyber warfare branches, namely the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau under the military and the General Bureau of Reconnaissance. The former collects internal information to control North Korean citizens, while the latter is responsible for hacking and breaking into security systems to steal confidential information. South Korean National Intelligence Service and the Defense Security Command reported that “Unit 110,” the headquarters of North Korea’s hacking operations, had in the past intercepted confidential defense strategy plans, including documents detailing US-ROK responses to potential North Korean provocations, among many other cyberattacks. Former defectors and security experts also revealed the operations of an elite cyber warfare unit known as “Bureau 121”, which is speculated to have 6,000 hackers stationed in Belarus, India, Malaysia, Russia, and at Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, China. The group of North Korean hackers from Bureau 121 were allegedly responsible for the cyberattack against Sony in 2014, which had cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

The North Korean government has been extremely proactive in nurturing the next generation of hackers. Gifted children and science prodigies would be selected at the age of 15 or younger to receive intensive cyber security training at Kumsong Middle School No. 1 and No. 2, before entering into Kim Il-sung University or Kim Chaek University of Technology for further education. After graduation, these handpicked “cyber elites” would be assigned to work at Bureau 121. In addition to taking pride in defending their country, North Korean hackers enjoy various privileges only offered to the top 1 percent of society. For example, they can become party members, be given the chance to study or work abroad, or even receive 10 percent of the gains derived from successfully hacking a cryptocurrency exchange with a system they have developed.

THE HACKER’S MASTERPLAN TO ANNOY NORTH KOREA

P4X claimed that North Korea’s internet technology is outdated and the cyber infrastructure is small, “like the size of a small-to-medium [cybersecurity breaching test]…pretty interesting how easy it was to actually have some effect in there”. The hacker has also started to examine North Korea’s national operating system, Red Star OS, and planned to recruit hackers to join his project to “perform proportional attacks and information-gathering in order to keep North Korea from hacking the western world completely unchecked”.

Records from Pingdom, a popular uptime-measuring service, revealed that at several points during P4X’s hacking, almost every North Korean website was down, with the exception of those based outside the country, such as the news site Uriminzokkiri.com. Meanwhile, Junade Ali, a cybersecurity researcher who monitors the North Korean internet, said that there were instances where emails and other internet-based services were suspended, “[as] their routers fail, it would literally then be impossible for data to be routed into North Korea…effectively a total internet outage affecting the country”.

However, given only a small fraction of the entire North Korean population has access to the country’s strictly limited internet system, it is unclear as to whether P4X’s cyberattacks had any real effects on Kim Jong-un's administration. According to Martyn Williams, a researcher for the Stimson Center’s North Korea-focused 38 North Project, the sites taken down by P4X were largely used for propaganda and other functions aimed at the international audience, which would not affect the country’s disconnected intranet system accessible by the majority of North Koreans. Nonetheless, Williams commented that “[but] if [P4X] just wants to annoy North Korea, then he is probably being annoying”, which appears to align with P4X’s aim to “affect the people as little as possible and the government as much as possible” as he also acknowledged that his cyberattacks amount to no more than “tearing down government banners or defacing buildings”.

While fellow hackers who were also targeted by North Korea did not all agree with P4X’s way of addressing the issue, Dave Aitel, a former NSA hacker who was targeted in the same campaign, agreed that the government’s response had been lacking. Aitel explained that the U.S. “is good at protecting the government, OK at protecting corporations but does not protect individuals”.

Top North Korean Headlines - February 2022

NORTH KOREAN TEACHER AND STUDENTS ARRESTED FOR ‘CAPITALIST’ DANCE MOVES

• A female North Korean dance teacher in her 30’s was reportedly arrested along with her students for using a USB drive (likely smuggled from China) containing foreign songs and videos to teach ‘capitalist’ dance moves.

• The dance teacher majored in choreography at the Pyongsong University of Arts and taught at Okchon high school in Pyongsong.  Another source revealed that “it was difficult to live on just the monthly teacher’s salary of only 3,000 won [$0.60 USD], so she made her actual living by running a private dance academy out of her home”.  It was reported that middle and high school students attended her private lessons twice a week for one or two-hour sessions at about $10 per hour as “[they] preferred to learn to dance like they do in South Korea, China and America, rather than in the North Korean style.”

• The government passed the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act in late 2020, which criminalizes citizens for a range of capitalist-deemed activities, such as tinting car windows, using South Korean-style speech and slang, and watching, keeping, or distributing media from capitalist countries, particularly from South Korea and the U.S.  The law carries a maximum penalty of death for the most serious offenses.

• An Anti-Socialism Inspection Group was set up as a joint operation of the State Security Department and the police as part of North Korea’s crackdown measures on citizens watching South Korean movies and distributing foreign media. A source told Radio Free Asia that in the past, North Korean authorities tended to be more lenient in enforcing the rules around Lunar New Year but that has not been the case this year.

• According to a third source, “since the Central Committee has ordered that those who violate [the Act] be severely punished regardless of their rank or class, the foreign dance instructor and students caught this time will not be spared from hard labor. Their parents are also likely to be punished by being forced to leave the party.”

• Recent crackdowns on high-ranking cadres include a chief official from the Ministry of State Security in Pyongyang , who was sent to a political prison camp (Camp 25 in Chongjin, which is a place so notorious that being sent there is regarded as a death sentence) along with his entire family after his child was caught watching South Korean TV programmes and distributing illegal storage devices to his acquaintance. 

Source:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10482723/North-Korean-authorities-arrests-dance-tutor-students-taught-capitalist-dance-moves.html
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/dance-02042022182536.html
https://www.dailynk.com/english/family-high-ranking-north-korean-cadre-sent-prison-camp-violating-anti-reactionary-thought-law/

FAMOUS NORTH KOREAN ACTORS BEG FOR FOOD IN MARKETS

• Actors from the Korean Art Film Studio, the largest film studio in North Korea, were seen "[using] their fame to beg for food” at Pyongsong’s Okjon Market.

• North Korean film stars are ranked from levels one to six and assigned work based on their education and acting abilities. Unless they are crowned with distinguished titles of “Meritorious Actor / Actress” or “People’s Actor / Actress,” it is said to be difficult to survive on the standardized government rations alone.

• Normally, famous actors avoid doing business to “save face” but as the economy has worsened following the pandemic, some performers risk tarnishing their reputations by going out to beg.

• “I don’t know how I’m going to survive without any help from the government,” said an actor, “I can’t do business because I’m so famous...[we] have barely survived, and only because my wife and kids have been doing business.  Because of the coronavirus, business hasn’t been going well.  So, I had no choice but to come [to beg]”.

• On the contrary, a source told Daily NK that “[singers] are doing well these days because [Kim Jong-un]’s wife [Ri Sol-ju] is a vocalist.”  During the former Kim Jong-il administration, art films were popular for their use as instruments for political propaganda. However, interest in art films has diminished since Kim Jong-un took power (the last art film that was produced by North Korea was in 2016) and there has been an increased interest in performance arts.  Consequently, band performers have experienced a jump in pay and social stature.

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korean-film-stars-seen-begging-for-food-pyongsong-okjon-market/

NORTH KOREA STEALS MILLIONS FROM CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGES

• According to a recent UN report, North Korea “cyber-actors stole more than $50 million between 2020 and mid-2021 from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia, probably reflecting a shift to diversify its cybercrime operations” to fund its nuclear and missile programs.

• An unidentified cybersecurity firm further reported that in 2021 the North’s “cyber-actors stole a total of $400 million worth of cryptocurrency through seven intrusions into cryptocurrency exchanges and investment firms.”

• It was also reported that North Korea’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million”.

• Through a carefully implemented money laundering system, funds are taken out of victim organizations’ internet-connected ‘hot’ wallets into North Korea-controlled addresses in order to be cashed out.

• Experts monitoring the implementation of UN sanctions against North Korea commented that cyberattacks on cryptocurrency assets remain an important revenue source for Kim Jong-un's administration.

Source:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-07/north-korea-missiles-cyberattack-funding/100809480
https://www.live5news.com/2022/02/07/un-experts-north-korea-stealing-millions-cyber-attacks/

NORTH KOREA DEVELOPS AND FIRES INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS MANEUVERABLE MISSILES

• Just in January of 2022, North Korea has systematically conducted a variety of missile testing (including a ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. territory of Guam) in the following order:

  • January 5: missile fitted with aerodynamic glide vehicle which North Korea claimed to have traveled 435 miles

  • January 11: second missile fitted with aerodynamic glide vehicle which North Korea claimed to have traveled 621 miles (1,000km)

  • January 14: rail-mobile KN-23 SRBMs fired from a railway car with an estimated range of 429 miles (690km)

  • January17 : road-mobile KN-24 SRBMs fired from a road-mobile transport vehicle with an estimated range of 255 miles (410km)

  • January 25: long-range cruise missiles fired from a transporter erector launcher which North Korea claimed to have traveled 1,118 miles (1,800km)

  • January 27: road-mobile KN-23 SRBMs fired from a road-mobile transport vehicle with an estimated range of 429 miles (690km)

  • January 30: hwasong-12 IRBM fired with an estimated range of 2797 miles (4,5000km)

• Defense experts’ biggest concern is the North’s development of a new generation of maneuverable weapons designed to evade missile defense systems. Unlike a ballistic missile, which follows a predictable parabolic trajectory affected only by gravity and atmospheric drag, a maneuverable missile’s path can be changed mid-flight through the manipulation of fins or winglets and, in some cases, propulsion systems such as air-breathing engines.

• Experts commented that North Korea continues “to seek material, technology and knowhow for these programs overseas, including through cyber means and joint scientific research.” 

• As North Korea rapidly develops sophisticated nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including its capability to produce nuclear fissile materials in violation of UN security council resolutions, other weapons including a development of hypersonic missile and submarine-launched missile have also been recently tested.

North Korean Defector Indicted for Propaganda Balloons

Since the Korean War, North Korean defector groups have sent anti-North Korea leaflets, along with food, socks, medicine, $1 bills, mini radios, and USB drives containing South Korean news and drama, into North Korea attached to helium balloons across the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone (“DMZ”) or in bottles across border rivers. This movement is no secret to both North and South Korean governments and reports indicate that a number of North Korean defectors had in fact been inspired by messages dropped from the balloons to flee the regime.

SOUTH KOREA BANS ANTI-NORTH LEAFLETS

These balloon launches have been hotly debated for many years as to their effectiveness at the risk of escalating tensions between the South and the North. The official stance of both Korean governments has always been against the launch of propaganda balloons. It is also noteworthy that South Korea had in the past banned such activities during politically sensitive times.  

However, in 2020, the South Korean government officially passed a bill to criminalize the flying of propaganda balloons toward North Korea, despite criticisms by activists that the attempts of improving ties with the North with such a ban would suppress the freedom of expression for South Korean citizens. The 187 lawmakers who supported the bill pledged that the new legislation was passed to avoid unnecessarily provoking North Korea, to ensure the safety of people living near the border and secure stable relations with the North. Under the new law, anyone flying leaflets, auxiliary storage devices or money towards North Korea without government permission is punishable by up to three years in prison or 30 million won (approx. $27,730) in fines.

THE FOUNDING FATHER OF THE BALLOON PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN CHARGED UNDER SOUTH KOREAN LAW

Since the new law took effect in March 2021, Park Sang-hak, an outspoken North Korean defector-turned-activist became the first person to be indicted on charges of breaking the new anti-propaganda law. Park defected in 1999 and had since been highly vocal in his public campaign to support human rights in North Korea. For many years, Park and his organization, Fighters For Free North Korea, launched balloons into the North containing leaflets which urged North Koreans to challenge Kim Jong-un's administration. In April 2021, Park launched ten balloons carrying a half million leaflets, which later led to him to be charged under the new law for “attempting” to send the leaflets as investigators lacked evidence that the balloons had actually landed in North Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in's response to strictly enforce the law against Park shows South Korea’s unwavering stance against such alleged crimes. 

Park’s balloon launch in April also called for criticisms from the North, where Kim Jong-un's sister and spokeswoman, Kim Yo-jong, called Park “dirty human scum” and warned of “consequences.”  However, this left Park undeterred, stating that “[if] an evil law is a law, send me to prison!  Even if they send me to prison, my colleagues will continue to send leaflets.” Meanwhile, it was reported that Park’s lawyer would challenge the case at the Constitutional Court with an aim to overturn the new law.

BALLOON PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS OVER THE YEARS

Although there are no officially reported figures on the number of North Koreans who received and read the propaganda leaflets, analysts are of the view that radio broadcasts and USB drives that have been smuggled across the border are more effective means to communicate with people from the North. However, Park’s balloon campaign serves as the most visible tactic, where he had often in the past invited media to his balloon-launching ceremonies and created impactful images of long, cylindrical balloons flown across the DMZ. Once the balloons enter North Korean territory, built-in timers unfasten the vinyl bundles which cause items banned in the North, such as anti-Pyongyang leaflets, dollar bills, bibles, USB drives, etc. to drop from the sky.

However, the South Korean government warned activists that the balloons endanger people living on both sides of the border.  For instance, the North Korean military had accidentally hit South Korean villages while firing shells at balloons crossing the border in 2014, which prompted the South to return fire. Naturally, citizens living close to the border feared for their own safety hence they supported the passing of the new law by a majority of 57-60 percent. Cities and provinces near the border have also called for Park’s punishment, while many fellow North Korean human rights activities further condemned his actions.

For instance, North Korean defector Lee Min-bok said that Park has jeopardized the entire balloon campaign by provoking both governments, “[the] extremely provocative language in Park Sang-hak's leaflets has nothing to do with promoting North Korean human rights, but is tailored to please conservatives and provoke progressives in the South...[he] wants to become a hero by going to prison for fighting this law”.  In contrast with Park’s attention grabbing campaigns, Lee is a low-key activist who has been sending leaflets with news from outside North Korea, rather than criticizing the Kim regime, to the North since 2006.

Despite harsh criticisms concerning Park’s campaign and the series of upcoming trials preceding the recent indictment and for breaking a law on collecting donations, Park told the media that although “Kim Jong-un wants to kill me, and President Moon wants to send me to prison...they cannot stop us from telling facts and truth”.

North Koreans Buy Crystal Meth as Gifts for Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year festivities signify an important time of the year to spend quality time with family, indulge in delicious meals, and give out cash-filled red envelopes and gifts to loved ones.  In North Korea, where drug addiction is becoming increasingly prevalent in recent years, especially among North Korean youths, citizens have reportedly been exchanging crystal meth as presents to celebrate the holidays. It is known locally as “pingdu” which is the Korean version of the Chinese word for “ice drug” and is a popular gift for celebrating birthdays to graduations and special holidays like Lunar New Year. A source told Radio Free Asia that North Koreans use meth as a form of stress relief because “[they] want to forget their harsh reality and enjoy themselves”.  

Due to its accessibility and frequent use as an appetite suppressant, many North Koreans use crystal meth as casually as cigarettes. “A few factors could be driving such a trend.  First, crystal meth is produced inside North Korea, so stoppages of trade at the Chinese border due to sanctions have no effect on the availability of crystal meth within North Korea.  Meanwhile, imported food and consumer goods are often hard to come by due to sanctions enforcement, so it’s possible that more people are relying on domestically produced goods, including crystal meth, for gifts,” commented Justin Hastings, an associate professor from the University of Sydney.

INSIDE NORTH KOREA’S CRYSTAL METH TRADE

Historically, the production and use of meth were intended by the North Korean government to help improve its soldiers’ performance. This method was not unique to North Korea, as the Japanese had also utilized this method during WWII. Since the 1970s, many North Korean diplomats have been arrested abroad for drug smuggling. In the early 1990s, North Korea suffered from extensive farm crop failures, particularly in their harvest for poppies, which led to a collapse in profits from opium and heroin production. As a result, the government began producing and trafficking crystal meth for export using state-owned companies, diplomatic facilities and personnel, military vessels, and other state assets in exchange for foreign currency.  It is reported that the government had also formed connections with organized criminal networks outside of North Korea, including Chinese triads across the northern border of China and the Japanese yakuza, in order to facilitate distribution and pocket the proceeds from drug trafficking.  

Kim Kuk-song had worked for North Korea’s spy agencies for 30 years before he defected to South Korea in 2014. Kim told the BBC that he was ordered to set up a production line for crystal meth in order to raise funds for the regime during the famine from 1994 to 1998 under the former leader Kim Jong-il's regime. He described that “[at] that time, the Operational Department ran out of revolutionary funds for the Supreme Leader.  After being assigned to the task, I brought three foreigners from abroad into North Korea, built a production base in the training centre of the 715 liaison office of the Workers’ Party, and produced drugs” to fund the leader’s lavish lifestyle.

At a time when hundreds of thousands of people died from starvation during the famine in the 1990s, North Korean citizens had to resort to their own ways to survive without receiving any help from the government, namely to use meth they had produced to combat hunger. Consequently, domestically-produced crystal meth soon appeared across the country in non-government-regulated production centres, including factories and labs run by individuals. Today, meth acts as a widely practiced solution to tackle the chronic lack of healthcare in North Korea and is sold even in rural and remote areas as “people like [meth] better than opium because [meth] costs less and it is stronger,” said an anonymous source from South Hamgyong province.

CRYSTAL METH PLAYS AN ESSENTIAL ROLE IN NORTH KOREAN SOCIETY

Even though the government began clamping down on drug users (even going as far as interrogating elementary school students), to address the alarming spread of drug use in North Korea since the beginning of 2005, crystal meth trafficking to China has remained unaffected. It is no question that under the law, the production and trafficking of illicit drugs is illegal and drug dealers are occasionally punished, and executed in some cases, particularly during public crackdowns. However, the production of crystal meth remains an important source of income for the North Korean government and society as a whole. Hastings explained that “North Koreans throughout society have gone into business for themselves, through private enterprises, through officially sanctioned businesses – or, if they are state officials, by using their positions to license businesses and extract bribes, or to engage in side businesses of their own”. The government is thus able to indirectly profit from the drug trade using an off-the-books taxation system in order to benefit the elites and fund its nuclear program.

Crystal meth “has been largely seen inside North Korea as a kind of very powerful energy drug – similar to Red Bull, amplified,” commented Andrei Lankov, an expert of North Korea from Kookmin University.  Reports from 2016 also show that construction managers in Pyongyang had been supplying workers with meth in hopes of completing showcase projects faster.  In the social context, Lee Saera from Hoeryong even remarked how “[if] you go to somebody’s house it is a polite way to greet somebody by offering them a sniff.”  Since the pandemic, the number of drug traffickers have skyrocketed as “[residents] have always believed [meth] to be a cure-all drug...people are saying that it can prevent or even cure coronavirus,” a resident of North Hamgyong province told Radio Free Asia.  The source also said that “[people] believe it is true, because fevers, coughs and body aches will all temporarily disappear if a user inhales [meth]”.

While publicly denying the existence of any illegal drug activity within its border, according to Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Kim Jong-un and his regime may be enabling its people’s addiction. If meth works to “dull[s] the wills and minds of the North Korean people, the government tacitly allows it to go on,” says Greg.

Crossing Borders Turns 19

Mike Kim in a North Korean refugee’s home.

In the summer of 2001, my best friend, Mike Kim, took a two week trip to China that would permanently alter our lives. Mike came back and recounted horrific tales of North Koreans who  fled the famine in their country and were trapped with no help and no rights in China.

Mike quit his job, closed his affairs in America and on January 1, 2003, he was on a one-way flight to China, effectively starting Crossing Borders. This January we crossed the 19-year mark together and today, we see  20 quickly coming on the horizon. The journey has been exhilarating, heartbreaking, sanctifying and humbling. I hope these stories capture each of these complicated emotions.

Exhilarating

Few things feel better than helping someone in dire need. Over the years, Crossing Borders has helped thousands of North Korean refugees, their children and families in China and in South Korea. So many people in need of help were in pretty woeful situations.

 “Susanna” was blind from cataracts and her husband, who purchased her, would not pay for the procedure to allow her to see again. In a twisted way, her husband and his family liked that she could not see because she was less likely to flee. Through her friends in the Crossing Borders network, she received the help she needed to receive surgery. Her eyesight was restored and literally leapt for joy when she saw our missionaries again. You can read more about her story here.

Susanna (left) after her eye surgery.

Heartbreaking 

Despite the love we have poured on the refugees and orphans in our network, some have had difficulties accepting this love. Sometimes we have not shown the patience and compassion this task requires. Other times, we did not hold our staff to a high enough standard. This work is complicated and difficult.

One story comes to mind about an orphan who lived in one of our group homes. According to his caretakers, he was addicted to his phone and was getting into trouble in and out of school. The caretakers came down hard on this young man. He was about 15 years old at the time. Their acts of discipline drove him to run away.

I think about this child from time to time. I think about his future with no parents to care for him and now, no other support. I think about his influences. I think about his fate. I wish there was a better way that we could have engaged with him. I wish we could say that 100 percent of the people in our network went on to live stable, happy and Godly lives. But we live in a fallen world and we know this is not the case. Each heartbreaking situation causes us to evaluate our approach so we can learn and improve for the next encounter.

Sanctifying 

Because this work is so difficult, it has forced me to pray. I have to confess, it is difficult for me to pray on my own and I have lost this battle in my life more often than I’d like to admit. But this work has brought me to unabashedly cry out to the Lord for help. Whether it be about North Korean refugees in peril or from my personal brushes with the law in China, this work has become God’s grace to me. My faith has been stretched and grown through this work, and the work through faith. What an amazing journey! 

Dan Chung at the border of North Korea and China.

Humbling 

My professional background is in journalism. I do not have the training to run an organization, let alone a Christian nonprofit. I also did not go to seminary. Mike and I started this organization when we were 26 years old. No undergrad poetry class at the University of Illinois prepared me to start, support and run a US-based nonprofit organization that helps people on the other side of the world.

Despite all that was foreign to me and the factors that seemed like shortcomings, God has used them to keep my knees planted on the ground. As he has grown our organization in recent years, I always remember our humble beginnings and the simple focus we had, which continues to this day.

I have encountered hundreds of North Korean refugees and have shared countless hours together with them. One thing I can say across the board is that North Korea has taken something from them. We all have wounds from life but for North Koreans, their wounds are more acute and deeply scarring. The first story I heard about a refugee’s life sparked a fire in me and this passion has fueled the past 19 years of service.

I am humbled to be entrusted with this work to this day. It has been the privilege of my life to pursue this as my vocation. Thank you for your support and prayers. May the Lord continue to show his blessings to us in our 20th year!

Top North Korean Headlines - January 2022

DOUBLE DEFECTOR CROSSES THE DMZ BACK INTO NORTH KOREA

• South Korean authorities identified the defector who crossed the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone (“DMZ”) into North Korea on New Year’s Day as the same former North Korean gymnast who defected to South Korea by jumping over a 10-feet-high fence at the DMZ in November 2020.  It is reported that the defector was taken away by three North Korean soldiers upon entering North Korea.

• The defector was reportedly working under poor conditions as a janitor and was struggling to adapt to his new life in Seoul.  The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency further stated that the man had previously shown “longing for home” and “social maladjustment”, which alerted the local police station to raise the possibility of redefection twice in June 2021.  However, police authorities did not find sufficient evidence indicating the man’s intention to return to the North, thus had merely ordered the local station to gather more evidence and monitor him more closely.

• The Ministry of Unification revealed that 30 defectors crossed the DMZ into North Korea from 2012 to 2021, though more may have returned by other means.  South Korean lawmaker Ji Seong-ho who was once a defector from the North himself shared that the majority of defectors end up in the South’s lowest income brackets.  Ryu Hyun-woo, a former North Korean Deputy Ambassador to Kuwait who had defected to the South, also commented on struggling to secure a job with a degree from Kim Il Sung University and his in-depth knowledge of North Korea’s economy and society.

• Meanwhile, a defector told NK News that the New Year border crosser may have had “other personal issues” beyond just a longing for home that drove him to return to the North, and cited the case of Park Jong Suk, who had reportedly redefected for the safety of her son whom she left behind in North Korea.

Source:
https://www.nknews.org/2022/01/new-years-border-crosser-showed-signs-he-would-redefect-to-north-korea-police/ 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/4/defector-who-returned-to-n-korea-had-a-difficult-life-in-seoul 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-defector-crosses-dmz/

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/02/asia/north-korea-south-korea-border-crossing-intl/index.html

NORTH KOREA PLANS TO GRANT AMNESTY TO PROMOTE THEIR LEADER’S LOVE FOR THE PEOPLE

• According to a high-ranking source from Daily NK, North Korean authorities have ordered to issue special pardons to prisoners at the Ministry of Social Security’s political prisons and labour camps to commemorate the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's 80th birthday on 16 February.

• In the past, it was common practice for powerful classes to bribe cadres at the Ministry of Social Security to pardon family members and friends when the authorities announce their plan to issue special pardons.  However, the current head of the Ministry, Jan Jong-nam, had warned that corruption in the amnesty process would be sternly punished and the same has been conducted in secrecy since his appointment in July.

• It is reported that political prisons would transfer model prisoners to facilities with better conditions or release 15 family members per prison.  As for labour camps, sentences may be reduced between six months to six years.

• However, the amnesty does not apply to the following groups of prisoners: those sentenced to maximum sentences, those sentenced to six months of labour, those in detention awaiting a trial following their preliminary hearing, and those at political prisons run by the Ministry of State Security who never receive pardons or sentence reductions.

• Meanwhile, the Ministry of State Security plans to launch more crackdowns to make up for the loss in numbers, as political prisons and labour camps earn from putting inmates to work in farms and factories.

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-plans-hand-out-special-pardons-commemorate-deceased-leaders-birthdays/

FEMALE NORTH KOREAN SOLDIER TURNED SUICIDAL AFTER REPEATED SEXUAL ASSAULTS

• A female North Korean telephone operator at the headquarters of the Seventh Corp in South Hamgyong Province was in critical condition after she attempted to commit suicide following alleged sexual assaults by five of her superiors in five separate occasions, one of whom was reported to be a high-ranking cadre in the General Political Department.  The soldier (identified as “A”) suffered from severe blood loss and had lost consciousness in hospital due to donor blood shortage.

• She left a 12-page suicide note in the form of a “Petition Letter”, with a view to inform the authorities of everything she had experienced in army since she was enlisted at the age of 17.

• During her six years in the military, A stated that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a political officer in his early 40s (identified as “Kim”), who had told A that he would take care of her, but had cut contact completely upon entering a “political university” for military training.

• The second alleged assailant was the deputy head of the manpower department, whom A claimed to have raped her in his office and continued to sexually assault her afterwards.

• A applied to a political university, hoping to stop further sexual assaults suffered by fellow soldiers.  However, the head of the cadre department (identified as “Jo”) omitted her application and told her to join him at an office in a bunker if she wished to be accepted into university.  Sensing what might happen, A borrowed a mobile phone from a close friend in attempt to collect evidence of the assault.  Jo was reportedly dressed only in his underwear and demanded sex while offering A a stack of one hundred KPW 5,000 bills (approx. $555 USD) and promising her that he would pay for her university tuition.  When A refused, Jo tore her clothes off and found the mobile phone recording their conversation, so he beat her and threatened A’s friend to keep quiet.

• Not long after, a General Political Bureau cadre lured A to his room and allegedly attempted to rape her, during which she suffered injuries from resisting and she had later admitted herself into a military hospital.

• During her stay at the hospital, a major in charge of the internal medicine department allegedly raped her after giving her sleeping medication.  This was the last straw for A, which led to her attempted suicide.

• Military authorities conducted investigations in relation to her allegations, but the assailants have so far received no punishment other than temporary suspensions or transfers.

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/female-north-korean-soldier-attempts-end-life-five-separate-sexual-assaults/

HUNGRY FAMILY OF FORMER SOLDIER COLLAPSED IN UNHEATED HOME

• According to a source in North Hamgyong Province, the family of a former military officer, Chae, who had worked on the frontline for around 10 years had collapsed in their home due to starvation.

• After leaving the military in 2017, Chae returned to his hometown with his two children to sell alcohol, cooking oil and kkwabaegi (Korean-style twisted doughnuts).  However, the family’s business suffered when the North Korean authorities began to crackdown on street and alleyway businesses.  Most days, they were unable to earn any money at all while hiding from local police and inspection teams, thus leading them further into debt.

• When the inminban group leader found the family collapsed due to hunger in their unheated home, she called for every member of the organisation to donate whatever they could to the family, “even 100 grams of rice, corn, or anything else that can be eaten”.  It is reported that Chae and his family are now surviving on the 3.3 lbs (1.5kg) of rice, 4.4 lbs (2kg) of corn, and 2.2 lbs (1kg) of corn soup donated by their neighbours.

• The source added that “[the] family of a former soldier – someone who should receive protection from the government – almost died of starvation...it’s unclear how they’ll survive after [the donated food] has been eaten”.

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/family-former-soldier-found-collapsed-due-hunger-unheated-home/

China Joins the (We)Chat: Is it No Longer Safe to Communicate with North Korean Refugees in China?

THE BIG TECH CRACKDOWN

Since Xi Jinping assumed the role of President of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party has asserted itself even more in the everyday lives of Chinese citizens. This has become apparent in the way that the country monitors most, if not all, facets of technology and communications. The impact to the day-to-day operations of Crossing Borders cannot be overstated as all of our means of communicating with our staff in the country are monitored. 

Data is now considered a fundamental building block of the Chinese economy. The China Academy of Information and Communication Technology has estimated to account for 38.6 percent of China’s GDP in 2020 alone. As it grows its economic  importance, China is setting an early precedent to exercise state control over data activities in the private sector as a matter of national security.  

The Cyberspace Administration of China (or CAC) started out policing China’s internet for pornography and sensitive online content. The CAC has grown into a powerful gatekeeper in charge of China’s enormous censorship apparatus. From reviewing user data at small private tech companies to the Chinese ride-hailing giant, Didi, who recently announced their decision to delist from the NYSE following CAC’s cybersecurity review, no Chinese government agency has held such explicit gatekeeper powers in the past. Beyond public investigations and reviews of private user data, ongoing surveillance of personal data, including 150,000 pieces of “harmful” online content related to the support of celebrities on social media platforms were removed by the CAC, while more than 4,000 accounts related to fan clubs were punished earlier this year.

China’s Data Security Law, which took effect on September 1, 2021, claims that all data activities both within and outside China’s borders that are considered to be “relevant to China’s national security” will fall within China’s jurisdiction and its strict regulations. China plans to tightly regulate their data and tech industries for the foreseeable future and has made those intentions very clear to its citizens and the watching world. In order to enable law enforcement agencies to more closely monitor data and users, the use of a national electronic ID authentication system has been proposed.  Further research into China’s digital economy in areas such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing have also been included in the plan. 

In short, China is preparing the way to make monitoring and censorship even more accessible and powerful for its government.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND APPS FOR SURVEILLANCE 

Chinese social media platforms detect keywords and phrases and routinely censor content that are considered to be politically or culturally sensitive. Although it is not clear as to whether such decisions are directed by the government or are made internally, there is evidence that censorship decisions based on referenced keywords closely echo government policies. For example, to prevent social instability, all content related to Covid-19, a wide range of speech about the outbreak of Covid-19, including neutral information about the virus, were automatically taken down from WeChat and other online platforms.

WeChat is the most widely used, government-approved messaging app in China and government control through keyword-censorship is no secret to its 800 million users. It is reported that content triggering censors are continually updated as the category of sensitive material broadens. Citizen Lab, a research group from the University of Toronto, has experimented on WeChat’s response to messages related to China’s targeting of 709 human rights lawyers in China, including “detaining, questioning, and disappearing them” following the 709 Crackdown which started on July 9, 2015.  The group attempted to send a message containing keyword combinations related to politically sensitive topics, and these messages were simply not sent while users remained unaware of such automatic censorship.  

Citizen Lab found that “WeChat performs censorship on the server-side, which means that messages sent over the app pass through a remote server that contains rules for implementing censorship.”  They further identified the following keyword combinations, among others, that trigger censorship: 

• (Deutsche Welle + (Washington) Demands Beijing to (Curb) North Korea + China Is Discontent); 德国之声+要求北京对朝鲜+中国大为不满 

• (same as above, in Traditional Chinese characters); 德國之聲+要求北京對朝鮮+中國大爲不滿 

• (Low-grade Calculation + Indirectly Criticize China's Sanctions (against North Korea) + Korean Central News Agency); 低级的算法+暗批中国制裁+朝中社署名 

In addition to keywords in Simplified Chinese, which is the official language of the Chinese Communist Party, at least two other types of written characters, including Traditional Chinese and English, are also detectable and subject to censorship by WeChat.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS AND OUR OPERATIONS IN CHINA

Since China’s censors have begun tightening their grip on messaging platforms including WeChat, any operation related to the aiding and abetting of North Korean defectors in China which passes through WeChat can potentially be monitored and traced by the government. Helping North Korean defectors in China is still an illegal and punishable crime. 

A prime example of this is Chinese lawyer Chen Qiushi’s case, whose viral videos covering the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan had subsequently led to his WeChat account being taken down, his questioning by the police and subsequent arrest.  Another incident describes a Beijing-based user whose WeChat account was blocked before he was taken in for questioning for criticizing China’s foreign policy.  The user explained that police officers obtained and held printouts of his private WeChat chat logs during the two-hour interrogation. 

While tech companies have yet to announce how they plan to reform the handling and protection of users’ personal data, it is undisputed that China’s swiftly evolving state surveillance renders fewer and fewer private spaces for Crossing Borders to communicate with North Korean defectors in China and run our operations that are deemed illegal in China. In other words, authorities who once had to use informants to find out about our work and the identity of those under our care in China can now rely on a vast web of new technology.

North Korea’s Actual ‘War on Christmas’

Christmas has become a bonanza of commercialization in the west. In the blizzard of sleigh bells and elves on shelves, it’s easy to forget the true reason for the season. We get caught up in the presents and the Christmas parties and it seems like the baby in the manger, the angels and the shepherds get forgotten. 

Thankfully there are brief moments when Christmas carols like “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” hit the airwaves or we catch a glimpse of  a nativity scene in our neighbor’s yard that serve as good, albeit fleeting reminders. Even in a secularized country like the U.S., it’s hard to remember that Christmas is about God’s amazing and miraculous gift to us in Christ. Not so in North Korea where the holiday is almost completely eradicated.

For most North Koreans, Christmas is another winter day. Of course, there are celebrations in the state-controlled churches (which exist mainly for the benefit of sightseeing foreigners). Most North Koreans are completely unaware of the holiday. The North Korean government has a stranglehold on information and the regime is  particularly hostile to any form of religion.

For North Koreans, Kim Jong-un and his family function as gods. Other religious figures or beliefs are strictly forbidden, as they might interfere with the undying loyalty of citizens to the Kim family. In fact, in 2016, Kim Jong-un mandated that the nation celebrate his grandmother’s birthday on December 24, to further suppress any attempts of celebrating anything else. All citizens were required to pay tribute to the deceased royal grandmother while much of the world was celebrating Christmas Eve.

In the U.S. and other countries, the “war on Christmas” is a figurative controversy. In North Korea, it is literal. At one point, South Korea erected a sixty-foot-tall Christmas tree near the border with the north and lit it up at Christmas. Its purpose was to show solidarity with North Koreans who still wished to celebrate the holiday. The North Korean government threatened to shoot it down, claiming the Christmas tree constituted “psychological warfare.”

Since the threat of punitive action from the regime is ever present, Christians in North Korea who do seek to celebrate Christmas have to do so in secret. A family may meet for quiet prayer inside their house or on rare occasions it may be “possible for Christians to go unobtrusively into the mountains and to hold a 'service' at a secret location. Then there might be as many as 60 or 70 North Koreans gathered together.”  

For a part of the world once known as the “Jerusalem of the East”, this is a dark reality for the North Korea of today. In an interview with author and blogger Tim Challies, Joel Kim, President of Westminster Seminary California, shared that “Pyongyang was the site of a number of Christian schools, including the first Presbyterian seminary in Korea [in 1901].” This seminary would go on to become ground zero for much evangelical activity in Korea. It is shocking and disheartening to see how far North Korea has fallen in the span of a century.

Even where celebration of Christmas is possible, it will be subdued and secretive. There are no festivities—Christmas in North Korea will certainly not have eggnog, Santa Claus, carols or even presents. In 2017, Kim Jong-un actually prohibited “gatherings that involve alcohol and singing.”

Such festivity would imply that there is something other than the North Korean government and leaders that is worth celebrating. It would communicate that someone other than the Kim dynasty is able to give good things to its people. The Kim regime has worked hard to make citizens dependent on their government, to look to the Kim family alone for leadership and all good things. In countries around the world this December, Christians will celebrate God’s miraculous gift of salvation and hope to the world in the person of Jesus Christ. But for the North Korean government, this gift constitutes a threat to their supremacy and exclusive control over its people. For many North Koreans this year, it will be an act of courage to celebrate Christmas at all.

As we open our gifts and gather with our family and friends, let us remember the wonderful gift we have as we celebrate Christ in freedom this year. Let us also remember those who risk their lives to celebrate in secret.

Top North Korean Headlines - December 2021 (Christmas Edition)

THE GREAT CHRISTMAS BAKE OFF: NORTH KOREA DEMANDS PEOPLE PAY FOR CANDIES FOR KIM JONG-UN’S BIRTHDAY

• At a time when the country is struggling with one of the worst food crises in history, local governments in North Korea are forcing starving citizens to pay for raw confectionery ingredients after the central government ordered that each province must produce and supply confections as gifts for children from Kim Jong-un for his birthday on January 8th.

• The tradition of distributing candies to children on or around the North Korean leaders’ birthdays dates back to the era of the nation’s founder, Kim Il-sung.  In the past, candies were only supplied to expectant mothers and students in daycare and elementary schools, but the Kim Jong-un administration has expanded candy distribution to every North Korean child since 2019.

• An additional tax of 5,000 won is imposed on each household while each family is ordered to donate an egg as part of the nationwide baking project.  As a result, the already scarce supply of flour and sugar has doubled in price, for instance “the price of one kilogram of flour has jumped from 12,000 won ($2.40 USD) to 30,000 won ($6 USD). The price of sugar has also jumped from 13,000 won to 25,000 won”.

• Due to the lack of food imports following the suspension of trade with China at the beginning of the pandemic, Radio Free Asia reported that the nation is struggling to scrape together enough sugar and the market is running out of eggs altogether.

Source:
Radio Free Asia

NORTH KOREAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SELLING COPIES OF SQUID GAME TO STUDENTS

• A man who smuggled copies of the global TV hit “Squid Game” from China into North Korea was sentenced to death by firing squad after he sold a USB flash drive containing the series to a high school student.  The student who bought the drive received a life sentence and six other students caught watching the show were sentenced to five years of hard labor, while teachers and school administrators were fired and banished to work in remote mines as a result.  However, a source told Radio Free Asia that one of the students “with rich parents was able to avoid punishment because they bribed the authorities with $3,000 USD”.

•  A resident from a northern city of Pyongyang commented that “[Squid Game] is similar to the lives of Pyongyang officials who fight in the foreign currency market as if it is a fight for life and death... the show’s plot kind of parallels their own reality, where they know they could be executed at any time if the government decides to make an example out of them for making too much money, but they all continue to make as much money as possible”.  The source further said that “[Squid Game] not only resonates with the rich people, but also with Pyongyang’s youth, because they are drawn to the unusually violent scenes.  Also, one of the characters is a North Korean escapee and they can relate to her”.

• It is reported that the censors in 109 Sangmu, a government strike force specializing in catching illegal video watchers (officially known as the Surveillance Bureau Group 109), had received a tipoff in relation to the sharing of the drive among students.

• The arrest of the seven students sets precedent in North Korea by executing its newly passed law on the “Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture” in cases involving minors, which carries a maximum penalty of death for watching, keeping, or distributing media from capitalist countries, particularly from South Korea and the United States.

• As the authorities are keen to learn about how the smuggled drives reached the North despite border closures during the pandemic, “[residents] are engulfed by anxiety, as the seven will be mercilessly interrogated until the authorities [have an answer, meaning that] the bloody winds of investigation and punishment will soon blow”.

• Following this incident, the authorities began to scour markets for memory storage devices and video CDs containing foreign media, and “residents are all trembling in fear because they will be mercilessly punished for buying or selling memory storage devices, no matter how small”.

Source:
Smuggled Copies of Squid Game

Radio Free Asia - Student Sentenced to Death

THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS SKI TRIP: NORTH KOREAN SKI RESORTS OPEN AMIDST COVID LOCKDOWN

• North Korea’s two largest ski resorts, Yangdok and Masikryong resorts, have now been covered in artificial snow as they prepare for domestic visitors this winter, including wealthy individuals with internal travel permits, as well as organized groups from exemplary factories and schools as part of the reward structure deeply rooted in the nation’s socialist system.

• It is reported that both resorts use snow blowers made by Areco, a Swedish company, which have been imported in violation of international sanctions.

• The Masikryong resort opened in 2013 as one of the first major projects “for the people” under the Kim Jong-un administration, while the Yangdok resort was only opened to the public since January 2020.

• Although the North Korean Cabinet Premier, Kim Tok-hun, announced plans to build another ski resort at Mount Kumgang near its border with South Korea last December, satellite imagery shows no sign of any construction work yet.

• Meanwhile, North Korea’s military ski team has received an upgrade in ski facilities and lodgings at their slopes near Mount Paektu, where the unit has resumed its annual training in recent weeks.

Source:
NK News

A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK: FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW HANDED CHINA’S MOST WANTED TO THE AUTHORITIES

• North Korean defector, Zhu Xianjian, was caught by the Chinese authorities 41 days after his escape from prison.

• Zhu was discovered hiding in the basement of a building on Songhua Lake near Jilin City.  Prior to his arrest, local villagers reported that a few items were stolen from their homes.  One of the villagers who had her clothes, razors and other items stolen, had taken a cigarette bud left behind by the suspected thief to the police, which was later confirmed to belong to Zhu after conducting a DNA comparison examination.

•  The police discovered footprints in the snow near where Zhu was arrested and traces of human habitation inside a culvert, where they also found bedding, cutlery and cigarettes, among other things.  The authorities speculate that Zhu had been living inside the culvert, which was damp and cold, for four days.

• A video published by Chinese media outlets show Zhu being carried from a small boat while screaming in pain after being shot in the leg prior to his capture.

• It is noteworthy that the value of the reward for catching Zhu had increased three times from its initial offer of 150,000 RMB (approximately $23,000) to 700,000 RMB (approximately $110,000) in just one month.  This exceptionally handsome offer had attracted locals to actively participate in the search for Zhu, which even resulted in a Jilin resident who resembled Zhu to be arrested five times in three days.

Source:

Epoch Times

Yahoo News

NK News

Chinese-North Korean Defectors: Abandoned by Three Countries

WHO ARE ETHNIC CHINESE-NORTH KOREANS?

Since the major Chinese settlement on the Korean peninsula back in the early 19th century, an estimated 3,000-5,000 ethnic Chinese now live in North Korea. As the only foreigners with permanent residents’ rights among the 26 million North Koreans, ethnic Chinese-North Koreans maintain Chinese nationality and have the privilege to cross the border into China once or twice a year for business. Despite receiving special rights such as exemption from the 10-year mandatory military services for North Korean men, they are often subject to greater state surveillance which would prevent them from joining the ruling Workers’ Party and limit their political prospects.

STATELESS DEFECTORS ARE OUT OF LUCK

Although ethnic Chinese-North Koreans can legally enter into China, it would be difficult for them to settle down because many do not speak Chinese and have lost touch with their Chinese relatives. Further, it could take years to obtain a local residence card in China, which greatly hinders their ability to travel to and from China, as well as access to employment, education, property purchase, healthcare, etc.

As for settling in South Korea, while ethnically Korean defectors receive citizenship and are entitled by law to a resettlement package offered by the South Korean government, ethnically Chinese North Korean defectors are denied access to such benefits if they maintained Chinese nationality in North Korea. As a result, they are identified as “stateless” in South Korea, which makes it extremely difficult for them to find jobs or access basic rights and services. To date, there are approximately 30 stateless Chinese-North Korean defectors in South Korea. While the number is relatively small, this important human rights issue is falling through a loophole that is not currently being addressed by the South.

“They are probably the most pitiful overseas Chinese in the world, as they’ve been abandoned by North Korea, China and South Korea…[they] don’t get help from any country,” said Yi Junghee, a professor at the Academy of Chinese Studies at Incheon National University.

Cho Guk-geong during an interview in South Korea. (AP)

CHO GUK-GEONG'S STORY

Cho Guk-geong is a third-generation Chinese immigrant who has been living in South Korea as a “stateless person” for the past 15 years since he fled North Korea. Cho hired brokers to guide him to South Korea via Southeast Asian countries in the late 1990’s, a period when an estimated 34,000 North Koreans moved to South Korea to avoid economic hardship and political persecution. Upon arriving in South Korea in 2008, Cho went through the standardized screening process by intelligence officials, where he posed as one of his best North Korean friends who had died in a traffic accident because he had wanted to start afresh. He later confessed that he was not aware of the seriousness of his deceit, as he simply wished to hide his Chinese background which he believed to be a disadvantage in both North and South Korea.

Cho’s lie was discovered in 2012 and the authorities stripped him of his citizenship and other benefits before sentencing him to one year in prison for breaking immigration laws and other offenses. Similarly, another Chinese-North Korean refugee, Yoon, was held in a government facility for about 20 months for attempting to pose as a North Korean national and had only narrowly avoided conviction because his lying was soon detected before his release into society.

Knowing that South Korea’s acceptance rate for refugee status applications has been less than 2% in recent years thus their prospects for approval are slim, Cho and three other Chinese-North Korean defectors jointly applied for refugee status in South Korea in 2019. The immigration officials arranged for their first interviews in June 2021 and after five months of deliberation, rejected their refugee claims early this month in November 2021 by reason that all applicants are Chinese nationals who do not appear “to have experienced threats that amounted to persecution in China and North Korea”. Kim Yong-hwa, a North Korean defector-turned-activist who helped the four with their applications, stated that at least one ethnic Chinese was executed in North Korea after failing to resettle in South Korea and returning home.

STATELESS AND NOWHERE TO GO

Cho revealed in a statement that “I have no hopes at all now as my refugee application was turned down…I have nowhere to return. I want to live with a minimum level of human dignity”.

In general, Chinese-North Koreans consider themselves North Koreans. Cho, whose grandfather moved from China to North Korea's northeastern city of Chongjin in the 1920’s, said that “[my] ancestral roots have dried up, and, quite honestly, I feel like North Korea is my home”. Growing up in North Korea, he was taught to worship the Kim family with his friends at school. He later worked in a state-run factory and lived as a naturalized North Korean citizen for two years.  

A Seoul-based defector, Noh Hyun-jeong, who has Chinese-North Korean friends in South Korea commented that “[we] lived and suffered together in North Korea…so it doesn’t make sense to decide that they aren’t North Korean defectors.” However, Noh is an exception to the rest of the North Korean community, who would often fail to get along with stateless Chinese-North Koreans living in South Korea. “I don’t think we would become estranged, but I’m scared about people who aren’t close to me learning about my background and status. I just don’t know how they would react…I don’t need a state subsidy or other assistance. I just want South Korean citizenship so I can work diligently until I die,” said Cho, who has only recently began working as a temporary manual laborer, his first job in eight years. 

However, the decision to embrace Chinese-North Koreans remains a delicate subject for South Korea. According to Kim Yong-hwa, a move to encourage Chinese-North Koreans to defect would sabotage the South’s efforts to seek reconciliation with the North.

Restore More: Spiritually

In the beginning

Kelly at Elim House.

Kelly had never heard of Jesus prior to arriving at Elim House this fall. She is 58 years old and in all of her time in North Korea nor in China, where she lived for almost 20 years, she had never heard of Christianity. Upon arriving at Hanawon, South Korea’s reeducation facility for new refugees, North Korean defectors are required to include their religious beliefs in the documentation. Kelly has been a buddhist for a while but wasn’t sure what “religion” even meant as she filled out her forms.

Hanawon is a government organization and is not affiliated with any specific religion. Volunteers from various faiths are allowed to visit and hold services on weekends for North Korean refugees. Since becoming aware of this topic of religions, Kelly had been very curious about what all of the other options were aside from buddhism. No one had told her about Jesus or the gospel message even in the four years she has been a South Korean resident.

 About a month into her stay with us at Elim House, our missionaries brought a bible and hymn book to Kelly and led her in a time of worship. They read from Genesis 1:1 and talked about how God created the world. Never having been confronted with an alternative to the theory that man had evolved from  monkeys, Kelly was highly engaged as they read through the rest of the first chapter of Genesis.

Kelly’s Buddhist calendar.

Escaping North Korea

Kelly fled North Korea in 1998. Her family started feeling the impact of starvation in 1994 and within four years, it had become a widespread devastation. As all the members of her family foraged and scoured for food, Kelly had to walk over dead bodies on the road. The government was unable to clean up the dead bodies quickly because the famine caused so much death, she said. But starvation made the North Korean people numb to constant death. Kelly and her youngest sister eventually decided to cross the river into China to escape the famine.

Kelly was 36 years old and her sister was 24 when they entered China. It broke her heart to be sold and separated from her sister. Kelly’s face was covered in sadness when she told us that she was also raped by a broker several times.

“Like everyone else,” she said.

Suffering

During the time Kelly was married to a disabled Chinese man who bought her, she worked in the Harbin area where winter temperatures dropped to -25 F. She did hard manual labor cutting down and hauling big trees. She became pregnant but she didn’t want to have a child at that time because she had to focus all of her strength on work to support her family. She ended up having an abortion at a nearby rural hospital, which led to complications that required more surgeries. After some time, Kelly went to have her appendix removed at a bigger urban hospital and was told by the doctors that it was a miracle that she was still alive. The doctors at the rural hospital had caused a lot of damage to her internal organs.

As our missionaries spent more time and heard more of Kelly’s stories, they realized that not one part of her body is normal anymore due to the amount of suffering she endured.  When her daughter was in high school, she urged Kelly to leave China for South Korea so she could stop living a life filled with so much pain and agony. Her daughter had read online that her mom would be able to receive free medical care and surgeries if she made it to South Korea. Kelly’s daughter is the only reason why she was able to leave China and make it safely to South Korea.

Kelly sharing a meal with Elim House caretakers.

Good News

After their first session of worshipping together, our missionaries asked Kelly about her thoughts on the hymns they sang. While sheepishly sharing about being tone deaf, Kelly said she was glad she was able to follow along and expressed that the words were good for her heart. Kelly appeared very receptive when she had a chance to hear the gospel message from the missionaries and seemed to wonder why no one had ever told her this before.

John wrote in 1 John 1:15 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” It is fairly common to see a darkness in North Korean refugees. What a joy it is when we have the opportunity to proclaim the good news and see God’s light begin to penetrate the layers of darkness built up over years of hardship and suffering.

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. Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” He is the hope of restoration for all of the North Korean refugee women we encounter. Our goal is to raise $45,000 towards meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of more North Korean women and their children living in South Korea who may never otherwise hear the good news of Jesus and his call to put their hope in Him.