Getting Deep Inside North Korea:

Around the world, everyone has been hit with the threat of the corona virus and fall-out from shut-downs. Suddenly the world changed.

This global challenge struck after our April newsletter was printed. We pulled the newsletter from the post office queue and added this urgent update on our swift responses to help oppressed Christians in several countries:

As governments worldwide issued lock-downs – Christian Freedom International went into emergency mode.

We are getting out emergency food and supplies along with the message of Christ’s salvation.

• Many blind and disabled believers in Bangladesh are street beggars. Missing even one day means they have nothing to eat. With government-ordered nationwide shut-downs, they cannot beg. We are sending emergency funds for food.

• Care packages with soap, antiseptics and medicines given to our sponsored children in dense Christian ghettos in Egypt.

• Just before Thailand’s state of emergency began, our co-workers hurriedly bought and delivered food, vitamins and masks for Pakistani Christian refugees. Our school continues with teachers keeping up children’s lessons even as they shelter in place.

• Burmese refugee students who could not make it home before the shut-down are sheltering at our thoroughly disinfected Victory Bible Academy.

• Rice and Bibles launched into North Korea after the communist country sealed its borders due to the virus. Radio broadcasts slip into North Korea with the message of eternal life.

“We are terrified. But you are remembering us. Thank you.” Christian refugee whose husband is in detention.

Thank you for helping during this crisis!

April 2020

“It is very dark in North Korea. The nation is like a big jail.”

The man who said this would know. He is from North Korea. He escaped – and now courageously helps people who are trapped in the “hermit kingdom”.

“People are disillusioned. They are willing to risk their lives to learn about the outside world,” he told me. “After they learn about Christ, they do not fear death anymore.”

Isolated from the world, North Koreans are indoctrinated to believe that the world envies their country, and Supreme Leader Kim is god. Guards shoot-to-kill anyone leaving the country without permission. Christian activities – like prayer and church – are harshly punished by beatings, torture, execution. Please pray for the faithful and determined Christians in North Korea.

The regime forbids spreading any information that exposes its lies.

So how can North Koreans hear the Truth and be set free? How can we encourage Christians and help disciple them?

Christian Freedom International is working with brave visionaries to get news and Bible teachings into North Korea. With your support, we are dispelling lies, spreading the Truth – and helping the underground church to be a light inside that dark nation.

But one of the most powerful ways to reach secret Christians inside North Korea needs our support.

Amazingly, God’s creation provides three ways for us to reach inside North Korea: Through land, sea and air. To be exact: airwaves.

Christian Freedom International is smuggling Bibles into North Korea across land borders and floating on rivers. But how can we reach people deep inside the country? How can they hear about the richness of life in Christ and endure persecution?

Several Christians who escaped North Korea tell us that they learned about the outside world through radio broadcasts. When one of them reached freedom, he started Free North Korea Radio, the only station run by and for North Koreans.

This unique radio station broadcasts news – and spreads the good news of Jesus Christ – into North Korea. Christians secretly pray and worship along with the broadcasts. Will you pray in solidarity with them – and that they be kept safe from harm?

This radio station is the only one run by North Korean escapees. They know how to reach – and open – the minds of people indoctrinated in the cruel ‘juche’ religion.

Juche is a national cult created to control North Koreans. It requires total obedience to Leader Kim Jong Un. It teaches that Kim is noble, powerful, filled with loving-kindness, a father figure – copying God’s characteristics that are described in the Bible.

The only way to fully break its chains is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that’s what the radio station broadcasts: Bible readings, teachings, interviews, and dramas in North Korea’s dialect. They even remix familiar sentimental songs praising Leader Kim and change the lyrics to worship  God.

Will you pray for North Koreans seeking to defect and for this radio station?

North Koreans also need to be freed from toxic lies in order to be open to the truth. One pernicious lie – a linchpin for amassing a nuclear weapons arsenal – is that Americans hate and want to destroy them.

So the radio station produces special programs to reveal that Americans are not their enemy!

Every day, the broadcasts begin by telling the audience that the radio programs only happen with the support of American Christians who are praying for them. We want them to be free to worship God and unshackled from the evil dictatorship.

Twice a year, U.S. congressmen and senators record messages for broadcast. North Koreans are stunned to hear America’s leaders talk directly to them with compassion.

Here are some listeners’ responses smuggled out:

• The congressmen’s messages “were more beautiful than any poetry,” and “please give my thanks to the U.S. Members of Congress for not forgetting North Koreans who are under the brutal oppression of Kim Jong-un by sending the messages every year.”

• “I’ve always been told ‘Americans are ba****ds’ but this is my first time encountering the love of Americans for North Koreans through the radio, which still made me a little bit confused. But I felt like I had to record the messages, so I did and listened to them over and over.”

• Two men hand-wove silk portraits of three congressmen, smuggled out with this note: “for the American politicians who delivered the [radio] messages. My brother and I spent three months making them late into the night. Please tell them that there are some people in a dark place who still have hope because of South Korea and the U.S.”

• An informant in North Korea asked for teachings on the radio on how to pray.

The broadcasts are wildly popular.

North Korea’s government owns and controls all radio and TV broadcasts. It jams foreign radio broadcasts. Internet and cell phone coverage is restricted.

Amazingly – people find ways to listen to Free North Korea Radio. According to surveys of escapees, it ranks as the most popular, trustworthy, relevant, and longest listening-time broadcast in North Korea.

Secret Christians gather around radios to quietly pray and worship along with the radio broadcasts.

Will you stand with Christians who are willing to risk prison camp and torture to hear the Truth?

Incredibly – listeners also tell others what they hear. Research shows a high-level of “secondary audience” – people who hear about the programs from the listeners.

How does the station evade North Korea’s endless jamming? A company that specializes in monitoring radio signals and anti-blocking tactics ensures the broadcasts get into the closed country. The programs can be heard throughout North Korea – and into neighboring areas of China and Russia where North Korean refugees escape.

Listeners inside North Korea take huge risks – and become informants. They sneak out documents, like orders from Kim Jong Un and guidebooks on teaching children to idolize Kim Jong Un.

A UN investigation of human rights abuses found the North Korean government considers Christianity a serious threat to its cult of personality.

That’s why the Kim regime – which kidnaps foreigners and assassinates rivals – has targeted the radio station’s leaders for assassination and death threats. But that’s not the leaders only problem.

There is another new challenge. The monthly costs for the radio programs and transmission is $66,005. This year, the station lost their largest donor.

With your support, Christian Freedom International is already getting radios into North Korea along with Bibles, rice and medicines.

When we learned that this radio station may be forced off the air for lack of funds, we stepped out in faith and committed to a portion of the station’s monthly budget.

You can see a list of the broadcasts – and pictures  – in the enclosed newsletter. Would you read and pass on our newsletter to other caring Christians who want to learn more about our persecuted brothers and sisters?

Will you help North Koreans – and other persecuted Christians in repressive countries – with practical aid and spiritual support to endure persecution and thrive?

Your support for persecuted Christians provides schools, food, medical aid, discipleship, shelters – and spiritual aid – most importantly, Bibles and teachings in different formats: audio, paper, and radio!

Thank you for praying, caring and giving,

Wendy Wright

President

P.S. Will you join with us to break the stranglehold of lies and get real news – God’s Good News – into North Korea and other countries that persecute Christians?

Your gifts to Christian Freedom International will help broadcast Bible radio programs by and for North Koreans—and also provide schools, shelters, food, aid and more for persecuted Christians in other dangerous countries.

“We would like to give Christian Freedom International special thanks for supporting Free North Korea Radio’s mission. Every day we pray to the LORD that His will be done through our lives.” Kim Seong-min, Free North Korea Radio’s founder.

Special Radio Programs for North Korea

‘The Birth of Jesus’: A drama about the birth of Jesus to help North Koreans understand the Gospel.

One Network Sermon: Morning sermons by missionaries and pastors for North Korea.

The Winning Church: Readings from “The Winning Church” book on the role of missionaries during the collapse of the Soviet Union. North Korean pastors say this book is the most suitable for North Koreans.

Real Talk Show: People Who Found Freedom: Interviews with North Korean defectors.

I Have Seen the Truth of History: North Koreans who fled and discover the true history of the world. North Koreans are brainwashed that America started the Korean War and currently “occupies” South Korea.

I am A Woman Also: Exposes the difficulties women face in North Korea who have the same value as a “fly”. Introduces the idea that all people have worth.

Hwang Jang Yop’s Lectures on Democracy: Lectures by North Korea’s highest-ranking defector on understanding democracy. Hwang created juche ideology, helped Kim Il Sung to establish North Korea, and mentored Kim Jong Il.

Letters From America: Messages from Americans sharing love for North Koreans.