North Korea

Background Information

Korea was separated into North and South after World War II. Communist North Korea invaded the South, who got support from the United States. The war dragged on until 1953.

    North Korea is still one of the most repressive regimes in the world - and its border with South Korea is impenetrable. Access to the country and movement within it is severely restricted to a small number of chaperoned visits. Christian literature and Bibles in Korean are confiscated.

    All religions are harshly repressed - thousands of Christians have been put in labour camps where many have died or been executed. The church has gone underground with house churches often consisting of just one family. The church is small with only 400 000 Christians in a population of 25 million.

    Persecution index is 16th in the world.

 Answers to Prayer

~    Thank God that despite the odds, in one of the harshest places in the world, there are Christian surviving.

~    Thank God for the safety of those who escape to china and the Chinese Christians who risk everything to help them.

~    According to the numbers on the right, annual growth of Christianity is 11.3% per year.  Praise God for this and the people who risk their lives to take his Word to the North Koreans.

Challenges for Prayer

~    The leader of North Korea has deified his deceased father Kim Il Sung. Pray that the Holy Spirit might convict him and his cadre to cease their idolatry and worship the true God.

~    The Church in North Korea was the birthplace of Korean revival – Pyongyang was known as the "Jerusalem of the East". But most Christians fled to the south during the Korean War or were martyred, and churches were bulldozed. Pray for physical and spiritual safety for North Korean believers, that they hang on to their Saviour in what is possibly the most difficult country to be a Christian.

~    The majority have never heard the name of Jesus. Pray that the God-shaped hole may be filled within the long-suffering Korean people.

~     As many as 3 million died of starvation from 1994-2000, yet the government stockpiles rations for the military and refuses assistance on any but the strictest of terms. ray for aid to reach the needy population, and for wisdom on the part of foreign governments and NGOs in handling this tragic and delicate situation.

~    Present means of witness are limited:
        a) Radio. Many South Korean Christian broadcasts as well as those of             TWR-Guam and FEBC-South Korea (19 programmes) reach far into             North Korea, but most radios are pre-tuned to government stations,             and few can hear these gospel broadcasts.
        b) Korean Christians from China and elsewhere who are able to visit                 and gain opportunities to witness. Korea is open to Chinese                             businessmen, and their easy access to the country could be strategic             for the gospel.
        c) South Korean Christians who have prayed and prepared for years                 for the time when the land opens for the gospel. Pray that this may                 soon happen.
        d) A group of foreign NGOs has received permission to establish an                 independent church in an area where they run agricultural training                 programmes.

~    Over 100,000 North Koreans have fled to China in the last three years. Pray that the Lord might protect both the sheltering hosts and the escapees from harm, and use them to reap a great harvest among these disillusioned and desperate people.

Further Information

~    All this information was borrowed from 24-7 Prayer

~    For a more detailed look at South Korea check out Operation World

| 04.14.2008 | Operation World | 24-7 Prayer |