How A North Korean Press Conference With Kim Jong Uk May Have Been The Largest Public Moment Of Evangelism In North Korean History

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Pastor Foley

SUSA-KoreanA student at one of our discipleship training bases for North Koreans shared with us that in March, the North Korean government broadcast a one-hour news conference about South Korean Missionary Kim Jong Uk, the missionary who is now detained in North Korea after entering the country illegally for evangelistic purposes.

Here’s what our student recollected about the press conference:

The news conference was repeatedly broadcast for three days, so it was seen by many people in NK (since there is only one television channel). In the broadcast, Missionary Kim was introduced as a South Korean spy who taught the Word of God to Korean Chinese people in Northeast China. Along with Missionary Kim, the press conference featured one NK woman (shown with her face blocked) who purportedly lured Missionary Kim inside North Korea.

The North Korean woman had been in Missionary Kim’s discipleship program and had allegedly gone back and forth between North Korea and China gathering information and taking pictures for Missionary Kim. The North Korean woman told Missionary Kim that if he had money, he could build churches in North Korea. The woman said her brother was a high level government official, so through his help they could pass the guard posts all the way to Pyongyang within a day. However, as soon as they arrived at [name of city withheld], Missionary Kim was caught by the police.

In the news conference, Missionary Kim admitted he had come to North Korean to build churches and to remove all of the statues in the country. Including the North Korean woman in the press conference, he revealed the names of 33 other North Korean women trained by him in China. So all women trainees were sent to the labor camp. The North Korean woman said she deceived Missionary Kim by not telling the truth and that actually she wanted to start a restaurant in North Korea with money from Missionary Kim.

Missionary Kim indicated that he had requested the news conference. He said that he wanted to show his family members and his organization that he is alive. He appeared to believe that the news conference would be broadcast all over the world; however, to this day it has not been broadcast anywhere except North Korea. Even there, our student said that the news conference did not make much of a stir: North Korean people were not interested in this news. He said that North Korean people are so busy making ends meet that they cannot concern themselves with others’ situations.

And yet…

Our student said that the new conference marked the first time inside North Korea that he had ever heard about God. Publicly broadcast. For three days. On government television. To everyone in North Korea.

15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. (Philippians 1:15-18, NIV)

Posted in Making Disciples, North Korea, Proclaiming The Gospel, Ransoming the Captive, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Video – The Gospel Includes The Forgiveness Of Sins, But It Is So Much More

Posted on July 5, 2014 by tdillmuth

Pastor Tim Dillmuth points out that the forgiveness of sins is a very important part of the gospel, but that there is so much more!  When Jesus talked about the gospel, he specifically talked about the “gospel of the kingdom of God (Matthew 4:23).”  The Kingdom of God is a “wide and deep” topic which includes forgiveness, but also includes things like joy, love, peace, the new covenant, the Holy Spirit and the wicked destroyed . . . and this is only scratching the surface.

For other Seoul USA podcasts and videos the Seoul USA web-site.

Posted in Proclaiming The Gospel, Uncategorized, Videos, Works of Mercy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Nations, Councils, Commissions and Declarations Didn’t Write The Book On Human Rights. God Did.

Posted on July 2, 2014 by tdillmuth

SUSA-KoreanOne of the highlights of my week is the hour I spend with North Korean defectors in Underground University. I teach about the theology of persecution from a brilliant book called In The Shadow of the Cross by Glenn Penner. One of the foundational elements to our study on persecution is a framework of human rights.

I was a little surprised to learn about this framework because I had always been taught that “human rights” was an American thing. In other words, the US basically wrote the book on human rights and God was certainly an inspiration, but America was the author and chief proponent of them. I was never explicitly taught this, but anytime freedom or human rights were mentioned (school, home or church) it was always within the context of patriotism.

But long before the United States was birthed, the Bible showed us a clear picture of basic human rights through the character of the creator God.

Penner says,

But God’s revelation is first and foremost a revelation of Himself. The basis of all biblical commands is the character of God, whose character we are to reflect as image-bearers (Genesis 1:26-27). God expects us to act toward others as He acts toward us (11-12).

Although my view of human rights as a child was clearly wrong, North Korea takes this same idea to a much more sinister level. Robert Collins referred to the Korean Workers’ Party’s official newspaper which said,

All nations on earth have different traditions and national characters, as well as different cultures and histories of social development. Therefore, human rights standards and their guarantees will have to vary depending on the concrete realities of each nation (89).

This is one of the many reasons why when the world cries out against the human rights abuses in North Korea, North Korea can effectively shrug its shoulders and say, “Human Rights are given and protected by each individual country. We provide our citizens with plenty of human rights.” For the record, North Korea does claim to provide rights to its citizens. In Article 8 of its 2009 constitution, it says,

The state shall safeguard the interests of, and respect and protect the human rights of the working people, including workers, farmers, soldiers, and working intellectuals, who have been freed from exploitation and oppression and have become the masters of state and society (as quoted by Robert Collins, 89).

For North Koreans, human rights are defined as it relates to the building up and support of the North Korean regime. If you have good songbun and are faithful to the government, you will be given rights as deemed appropriate by the Kim family.

The world gets upset, and rightly so, at the obvious human rights abuses in North Korea. They form commissions, inquiries and task forces, but for Christians these efforts should always ring incomplete. They certainly have their place, but only the Word of God has the power to prove that human rights come from God himself! That’s why the United States, the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Human Rights Council don’t get the North Korean government too worried.

These are important voices to be sure, but only the powerful voice of God’s word has the ability to change the human heart and to inform us that our rights come from the character of God.

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