North Korean Christians lose access to the Gospel while radio programs cut

First on Fox: A decision to reduce tensions between the South and North Korea threatens rather than improving, life for the 400,000 estimated Christians who live in the North. Politics has been criticized as “a catastrophic strategic error”.

The new president of South Korea, Lee Jae-Myung, ordered 80% of radio broadcasts in the South, was scratched in the North, to stop transmitting in May. The president also said that speakers that spread anti-Communist propaganda at the border between the two countries should be deleted.

Myung would have told his cabinet in Seoul: “I hope that such reciprocal measures will gradually lead to dialogue and communication” between the two Koreas, reported Korea on Tuesday, adding that the South Korean president wants South and North Korea “did not pass from a relationship that is harming that which is mutually beneficial”.

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A South Korean Christian radio station recorded the equipment to broadcast in 2021.

In a declaration reported by the News Korea.net website on August 5, the South Korea Ministry of Defense added that new measures were “practical measures to help facilitate intercreen tensions, in a range that does not affect the military preparation posture”.

But the closure of radio stations has a drastic effect on Christians in North Korea. Kim Jong-un’s regime judged that it is a crime to worship Christianity. Even being found with a Bible can lead to execution, normally with a bullet, sometimes after torture.

There is no general internet access for ordinary citizens. The only practical way for Christians to live the Gospel and Christian teaching or thoughts is to secretly listen to a radio. But now, the North of Stimson Center, a publication analyzing data on North Korea, indicates that emissions in the Southern Pays, including the emissions previously supported by the American agency for the world media, have been reduced by almost 80% since May, and they advise that the level could fall even further in the coming months.

Kim Jong One represented a horse at the top of Mont Paektu, a sacred site in North Korea. (Kcna)

It is also reported that it is more difficult to hear the Christian message now. Because there are fewer programs that enter the north, the authorities would be greater to block them electronically.

A spokesperson for the American State Department expressed his concern, saying to Fox News Digital, “under the direction of President Trump and Secretary Rubio, the office of the Department of State for International Religious Freedom is actively examining new ways of bringing freedom of religion into the world, including in North Korea, and for the ability of people in North Korea to read the Christian community.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of these programs for Christians in North Korea, Timothy Cho, who defected the country at the age of 17, told Fox News Digital in London. Cho sits on the secretariat of the Multipartite Parliamentary Group of the British government on North Korea, affirming: “We share the Gospel with our brothers and sisters on the ground in North Korea. This meaning that we cannot compare with a quantity of values, because it is hope. It is hope, and it is the light and it is the message on which they can count during the darkest time inside North Korea.” “”

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President Trump must meet the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit next month. (Reuters)

In North Korea, Cho said that the Kim Manager family dynasty is described collectively as gods, not only the so-called “supreme leaders”, but the supreme beings. He explained that this is why Christianity is so feared by the government. He added that “the most dangerous threat to North Korean authority is the claim that there is a real God who was not linked to the Kim dynasty”.

“Underground Christianity offers a space for the free exchange of ideas. Christianity is a decisive characteristic of the DNA of the Korean people,” Fox News Digital Greg Scarlatiou, president and chief executive officer of the Washington Committee for Human Rights in North Korea told Fox News. “Kim’s family regime does not want any of this, having tried so much to erase the true identity of the Korean people.”

“The closure of radio stations that radiated information in North Korea is a catastrophic strategic error. The real change cannot come from the Kim family. It can only come from the inhabitants of North Korea, in particular Christians. And the only thing that the outside world can do to help is empowerment by information.”

North Korea is again at the top of the global surveillance list of open doors for the persecution of Christians this year. Open Doors is a global organization that supports and speaks for Christians persecuted for their faith. The report noted: “Police and intelligence agents are looking for houses without warning. If they find Christian materials, it is considered a crime against the nation, and the whole family can be banished, imprisoned or executed. Those who use a smartphone or unregistered radio to access the unprecedented media are punished.”

The report continued: “Christians only dare to listen to the radio programs at night, hidden under covers. Each act of worship, even if it is conducted by oneself, is perceived as an” act of extreme disloyalty “.” Citizens are trained to point out anyone could be an enemy of the regime, including family members.

The Flag of North Korea flies over its embassy in Beijing. (Peter Parks / AFP via Getty Images)

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“The national media have disseminated anti-Christian content, where Christians are described as evil betrayals of the nation, and missionary activities are called terrorism acts,” noted the report on open doors.

Thursday, Kim Yo-Jong, the sister of the North Korean leader and deputy director of the Department of Advertising and Information of the Purchase Party in Pyongyang, clearly indicated that North Korea would not decrease controls. She published a statement, monitored by a source in Seoul, saying that “we are not careful to know if South Korea dismantles the speakers or stops emissions. We have no intention of improving relations with the loyalty American.”