Do not underestimate Kim Jong-un

Do not underestimate Kim Jong-Un

It’s not often get to hear directly from someone like John. Not many North Korean residents make it out of their home country. And talking to writers, or even leaders at a human rights organization, carries some risks.

If a North Korean national’s real name or photo was divulged, for instance, there could be dire consequences for their friends and family back home. Especially if a North Korean citizen hints that their friends or family members, like John, follow Jesus.

However, with proper, protective precautions in place, it’s as if John Choi has been waiting a lifetime to go public with what he’s seen. His answers spill into paragraphs.

Chief among John’s concerns? Kim Jong-un’s fierce commitment to stop his citizens from following Jesus. This is just one of the ways John notes the leader must not be underestimated.

“Christianity is regarded as a political crime and it is punished like one. There is a great risk to hold the Bible in North Korea. The children, young and old, would not imagine talking about the Bible.” Those who follow Jesus, if found out, are confined to labor camps, John says. “Their life in the prisons offers no freedom. They’re forced into 12 hour days of labor.”

Within the prison camps, the regime even goes as far as to separate families. “Husbands and wives are placed in separate labor shifts so when the husband finishes work, the wife must start her work. Married couples aren’t allowed to sleep together.” This, John says, is a type of micro-management designed to prevent Christians from reproducing more perceived traitors to the Kim dynasty.

There’s also evidence that Christian prisoners are badly mistreated.

“Many Christians do not survive. They are tortured and used to test biological and chemical weapons—a VX gas like the kind used to assassinate Kim Jong-un’s half-brother. Christian women who become pregnant are especially targeted for this type of torture. It’s because they possess or read the Bible that they perish in this severe way. And when they die, their bodies are being burned or buried without any record keeping or grave marking.”

Under Kim’s rule, John says, “Christians literally have to choose between life and death.”

A field representative. who oversees Open Doors’ partnerships with underground Christians in North Korea, confirms John’s observations.

Kim’s goal, ultimately, is ripped right from future history lessons on dictators. He is a fascist ruler who wants to control every facet of society, right down to each individual’s beliefs or ability to reproduce. The ruler’s actions, in fact, are guided by a scarily familiar notion: the idea that the Korean race must be kept pure.

In fact, Kim is so committed to keeping the race pure that women who become impregnated by Chinese men are routinely forced to have abortions, our field representative discloses. And the children of these unions, if they survive the delivery, are put to death.

Beyond faith elements, Kim dynasty’s reach of course dominates the political scene as well. And despite unflattering headlines about Kim Jong-un in U.S. newspapers, it’s clear John doesn’t think these articles scratch the surface of the North Korean dictator’s hunger for power.

Kim’s pursuit of nuclear weapons? It’s all power play, John insists. “When Kim Jong-un announced the success of their nuclear power efforts in the North Korean State media last year, it was to demonstrate his power and achievement to his citizens.”

This is why, John predicts, North Korea’s ruler may not be willing to concede any power even if a powerful world leader is sitting on the other side of the negotiating table. After all, even after the meeting between U.S. and North Korean leaders was made public, John has learned the propaganda being piped into his homeland has not changed. “North Korean newspapers—which are run by the state—continue to emphasize the importance of nuclear power. They suggest it as the only way to defend our nation. On the 10th of March, the North Korean newspaper devoted its cover to underlining how, without nuclear power, Iraq had become colonized by Western invasion.”

Instead, John says, Kim Jong-un makes no secret that he is studying the systems of other Communist dictator-led economies. He believes Kim Jong-un could be heading toward more of a stance like Vietnam, a country that manages to keep their own way of life while also maintaining a less volatile relationship with the U.S.

John, though, is not as concerned about President Trump’s planned meeting with Kim Jong-un as some are. He sees little harm in the President listening and testing the waters with the North Korean leader. And perhaps it’s John’s faith, which grew in a climate of hardship, that lets him cling to hope that something good might somehow come from it.

He hopes that maybe the seeds of democracy will be planted.

“The North Korean people are not ready to receive democracy,” John explains. “First, they must learn to practice cultural and economic openness. I want to encourage Kim to open the door and take on the economic reform process first. This is the beginning step to becoming a democratic society.”

As for President Trump, John hopes he will force discussion about human rights issues. “I want Trump to address the 250,000 prisoners in North Korean prison camps. And the hunger citizens face.” When asked if President Trump could take even a small step to ease the hardship of those being persecuted for their faith, though, John doesn’t see much possibility.

“Kim Jong-un wants North Korea to become like a Vietnamese or Chinese style of Communist dictator-led society. These countries still prohibit the freedom to practice religion.” Allowing mass printing of the Bible into the country, he says, would no doubt pose a threat to Kim’s desired future. “If you allow the Bible to come and let North Korean citizens’ practice this religion, people will find out the truth. This regime is built upon false teaching and false history that asks citizens to revere a man like a god. All these false beliefs that built the society of North Korea could be overturned through the Bible and practice of this religion. People will stop paying tribute to the over 40,000 statues of Kim Jong-un and his ancestors. If this truth is revealed, the root of trust in the Kim’s family will be shaken and there will be no place for Kim Jong-un.”

“No,” John concludes, “There is no small step to religious freedom under the Kim family…unless the regime falls.”