For most Christians around the world, Christmas is a time to gather and celebrate with friends and family. But for Christians in North Korea, the most dangerous country in the world for followers of Jesus, it is a time of great danger
The season of light and celebration, December is full of joyful traditions – a frosty trip to midnight mass on Christmas eve, a delicious roast dinner, a competitive round of Monopoly which risks disrupting family peace for another year. Yet, as we light the advent candles, God invites us to remember those celebrating the good news of Jesus’ birth in secrecy and hiding.
The nativity story and festive traditions are foreign to the people of North Korea. The communist regime considers Christmas to be a Western celebration – just as it considers Christianity a Western religion - and therefore prohibits any form of its observance. As we celebrate Christmas Eve on 24 December, North Korea celebrates a different birth, that of Kim Jong Suk, the grandmother of Kim Jong-Un. Christmas is effectively a non-event.
For those who are caught with a Bible, there is a high probability of death
In 2010, a group of South Korean Christians decorated a 60ft tower just two miles from the North Korean border, with beaming lights and a large cross (pictured, above). The decorations could be seen from various towns in North Korea, including the major city of Kaesong. A North Korean state-run website said the decorations could amount to a form of “psychological warfare” – an illustration of how the regime views any form of Christian influence as a direct threat to its authority.
Costly worship
North Korea is the most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian. Christians risk their lives gathering in small numbers to worship and pray. The courageous and costly worship of North Korean Christians is impossible for us to fully comprehend as we come to worship corporately each Sunday, surrounded by friends and family.
But there has not always been such strong opposition to Christianity in this part of the peninsula. In fact, before the partition of Korea, Pyongyang was known as the ‘Jerusalem of the East,’ particularly during the revival of the early 1900s, when an estimated three in ten people practised the faith. A century on, and the situation in North Korea is unrecognisable. The establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1948 brought a complete prohibition of freedom of religion or belief.
Today, those who are caught with a Bible, or any form of Christian literature, are forcibly disappeared and sent to labour camps as political prisoners, where physical torture and starvation are inevitable. The high probability of death – due to the harsh conditions or by execution - makes the smallest of celebrations extremely costly for North Koreans who dare to choose their faith over obedience to government restrictions.
Gathering in secret
Estimates indicate there are roughly 400,000 Christians in North Korea, out of a population of more than 26 million. Christians are often villainised as ‘spies’ or ‘enemies of the state,’ threatening the stability of the regime. Forms of anti-Christian propaganda begin in primary school, with stories that teach that Christian existence is particularly harmful to the nation’s prosperity.
But even in the face of such societal and authoritative opposition, Christians still choose to gather in secret, despite fears of neighbours informing the authorities if discovered. When possible, groups of around ten to 20 Christians may gather in remote locations. Some of those who have escaped the country have reported that there is a church with as many as 70 members in Pyongyang.
The courageous and costly worship of North Korean Christians is impossible for us to fully comprehend
Nevertheless, celebrating the Christmas story in North Korea can often be a lonely endeavour, a time marked by isolation and darkness, in which Christians are unable to share the joy of the good news and face the constant threat of undercover government spies infiltrating their gatherings.
As we celebrate the light of the world coming to earth among friends and family this Christmas, it is important for us to remember our brothers and sisters in Christ thousands of miles away. Let us pray for their protection and strengthening as they spend Christmas day celebrating in secret.
