August 3, 2007

Veteran minister says controls tightened on both sides of the border.

LOS ANGELES – Douglas Shin is a Korean-American pastor living in Los Angeles who has built “underground railroads” for North Korean refugees since 2000 as leader of the “Exodus 21” movement. Compass Direct News caught up with him by e-mail in Seoul, South Korea, where he discussed the communist country – run by reclusive dictator Kim Jong Il, whom North Koreans are taught to worship – that tops most religious persecution lists. The dictator is said to be the author of various atrocities, and under his regime refugees hunted down in China are often sent back to unspeakably harsh conditions in North Korean detention camps.

What is the best strategy for pressuring China to stop repatriating North Korean refugees?

Boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

What makes North Korea any worse a violator of religious rights, in comparison with, say, a country like Saudi Arabia?

The Saudis can come and go out of the country as they please, but North Koreans are all in captivity – a prisoner of Kim Jong Il. For that matter, the whole country is a gigantic gulag.

What are the most important items for prayer for North Korea?

The early demise of Kim Jong Il, whose health is obviously failing rapidly nowadays, and smooth transition of power to a less horrible tyrant or tyrants after that.

The Chinese government recently said there are about 50,000-70,000 North Koreans in China. Is it true that about 70 percent of them have accepted Christ?

70 percent is a fair estimate, but the number of refugees may be bigger.

It is said that about half of the North Korean refugees who have reached South Korea between 2000 and 2005 were Christians, but only 30 percent of them have maintained their Christian faith. Why?

It is true. It’s basically the pervasive fault of the Korean church, which emphasizes outwardness. They don’t give true choice to people before they come to the Lord, but almost force them to do so, dangling some carrot before the eyes of these poor refugees. It’s almost like, ‘Accept the Christ, or risk not being helped (or being helped last instead of first).’ That’s worse than being ‘saved’ by a Buddhist who says nothing before throwing the rope to the drowning man. We need to learn to be more still before the Lord and let Him do the work.

In general, how do South Koreans view U.S. policy toward North Korea?

The public generally has no particular view toward the U.S. policy for North Korea, because they don’t care enough. Those in the minority who do care are evenly split between pro-U.S. and anti-U.S./pro-Kim Jong Il in almost every way.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken Korean aid workers hostage and killed two of them – how could South Korean media and others blame the victims for wanting to do good?

The reasons are two-fold: Korean Christians, while numbering less than 3 percent of the population early in their history during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), were the spiritual – as well as physical – leaders of Korean society. With the outward growth since 1970s concurrently with the economic growth of the country, our faith has become very corrupt, emulating the secular sector, not vice versa. We have shown many bad examples to the people, so they’ve come to hate us now.

These Sammul Church folks are the cream of the crop of Korean believers, and Koreans have very little for which to blame them — except for that picture they took at the Seoul airport [in front of a sign warning of the dangers of traveling to Afghanistan], and the tourist bus they chartered in Kabul — yet, they are vulnerable to the avalanche of criticism from the Netizens and the media because of the general social ethos here that is willing to shoot down any Christian at any time for anything whatsoever.

Also, the North Korean spy apparatus has infiltrated South Korean liberals and made them their tools for the propaganda war during critical times like this. I think the Internet agitators have as their ultimate goal a demonization of the Afghan/Iraqi wars and the withdrawal of Korean troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Then those who have been crying out for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Korea – a long-time priority on Kim Jong Il’s wish list from the days of his father [former dictator Kim Il Sung] – will gain a lot of wind under their wings. And these Internet agitators are very powerful opinion leaders in Korea now.

What word do you have on the case of Son Jung Nam, awaiting execution for preaching Christ in North Korea?

His younger brother, Son Jung Hun, said in Seoul before he left for Washington, D.C. – and just now, too, by phone – that the last time he heard from North Korea was last spring, and that there’s a strict blockade on any information leading to his brother’s whereabouts now. But Pyongyang is aware of the CNN coverage and the U.S. Congressmen’s letter to Kim Jong Il, etcetera, so I think he has not been and will not be executed.

I think Son Jung Nam is the Private Ryan of our day within Christendom. In 1998, he left North Korea for China and, in 1999, began studying with a South Korean pastor for about a year. He was ordained in China by the pastor who equipped him. After dedication, he carried Bibles and the gospel across the river into North Korea several times.