North Korean Chuseok Feast, Without the Feast

A Korean Chuseok table

As the Korean Peninsula celebrates the Chuseok thanksgiving festival on September 10 this year, major food shortages sweep across the famine-stricken nation with a 700 percent rise in food prices, according to UN officials. This is leaving North Korean families unable to perform customary duties by bringing food to gravesites to thank their ancestors for an “abundant harvest” for a third consecutive year. Among the two main imported food products, namely sugar and flour, their prices between 2017 and late June 2022 have risen 726.76 percent and 271.84 percent per kilogram, respectively. Faced with the significant price increase in raw materials, food vendors must raise their prices or shrink their portions, but many fear that doing so would drive away customers and ultimately threaten their livelihoods.

HOW NORTH KOREANS CELEBRATE CHUSEOK

Unlike South Koreans who enjoy the holiday for at least three days, Chuseok is a one-day celebration in North Korea as socialist anniversaries like the birthday of its founding leader, Kim Il-sung, are deemed more important than traditional holidays. However, this does not mean that North Koreans lack sincerity in their preparation for Chuseok.

Traditionally, Chuseok food preparations are taken very seriously and would even begin a month in advance. North Koreans make songpyeon rice cakes two or three times bigger than South Korean ones and fill each half-moon shaped rice cake with boiled red beans or kidney beans, grinded walnuts or stir-fried vegetables. As the weather is colder in the North, a large amount of songpyeon is made during Chuseok, which can be stored and consumed for a long period of time. In addition to preparing their ancestors’ favorite dishes, North Koreans also cook Korean beef radish soup and grilled beef, though beef is extremely rare in the North and is often replaced with pork that they receive as rations from spring to fall which they preserve in salt.

THE NORTH KOREAN WAY TO BEG FOR FOOD

It has never been easy for North Koreans to acquire enough rice to make songpyeon even before the Covid-19 pandemic and recent economic downturns due to its low rice production. This year’s Chuseok is further met with “worse-than-expected food shortages” to the extent North Korea’s leadership ordered officials stationed abroad, including diplomats, trade delegates and smugglers of specialized items, to secure rice, corn, beans and other staple food supplies as much as possible. The authorities issued an explanation to the order: “Agricultural production took a hit following a ban on movement with the emergence of COVID-19 cases during the first half of the year, a time when the nation was supposed to fully mobilize labor into agricultural areas,” and added that the value of grain secured can be offset against their scheduled cash contributions to the Workers’ Party.

According to a source from DailyNK, the authorities called on overseas officials to secure food for the state. Additionally, a request for food by North Korean officials visiting the Indian Chamber of International Business to discuss humanitarian food aid was recently published on Yonhapnews, which DailyNK’s source warned that it could lead to punishments of the officials.

STEALING FOOD FROM ITS PEOPLE

Locally, “corn inspection squads” have reportedly been tasked to patrol areas near rural collective farms to catch “grain thieves” until the harvest season this month. However, sources from Radio Free Asia suggest that this is in fact just an excuse for the government to search and confiscate food from innocent citizens carrying grains. During a crackdown in North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, “Merchants who were targeted by the police lost whole corn sacks” and residents were reportedly enraged by the authorities for “punishing people who trade grain to make ends meet.”

North Korea is in dire need of aid and yet continues to play war games while forcing its people to suffer under their cruel and harsh control.

The Trouble with North Korea’s Young Generation

Unlike his parents, Switzerland-educated Kim Jong-un grew up with ample exposure to foreign cultures and according to his classmates, he had Michael Jordan posters tacked up in his room and enjoyed wearing his Nikes. Even after becoming North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim befriended U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman and commended the popular South Korean girl group, Red Velvet, for their K-pop performance in Pyongyang where he was “deeply moved.”

His personal enjoyment of international influences, however, did not sway his style of rule to open up to the possibility of social, economic or political reform. Rather, the young leader is fully aware of and fears how young North Koreans in their 20s and 30s (also known as the Jangmadang (market) generation), who account for about 14 percent of the 25 million population, do not think they owe anything to the regime as they grew up during the worst famine in the country’s history where upwards of several million citizens were estimated to have died of starvation. As Seo Jae-pyong, Director at the Association of the North Korean Defectors explained, “The older generation grew up on rations from the regime, but the younger generation grew up on rice purchased from the (Jangmadang) market. They think they didn’t get any benefit from the regime’s system. It is natural that there is a huge gap between them in terms of loyalty and ideology and thoughts about the country’s leader.”

WHY K-POP AND K-DRAMA MATTER IN NORTH KOREA

Following episodes of natural disasters, COVID-19 lockdowns and rising tensions from missile tests, which were met with extensive international sanctions, the country would appear more isolated than ever. However, ordinary North Korean citizens have continued to gain foreign exposure to freedom and money through music and dramas from its Southern neighbor and Asia’s fourth-largest economy. This has sparked new waves of worries amongst the top brass concerning a young generation who aspire to seek a new culture and potentially threaten the regime’s existence.

Kim Jong-un labeled K-pop and K-drama as “vicious cancer” that corrupts young North Koreans’ “attire, hairstyle, speeches and behaviors,” as they give the Jangmadang generation a glimpse of life in South Korea, which is in stark contrast to the socialist paradise they had been taught to believe they live in.

According to Thae Yong-ho, a North Korean diplomat to the United Kingdom before defecting to South Korea, some 70-80 percent of the Jangmadang generation are estimated to have watched South Korean movies or dramas. There is evidence to suggest that K-drama and K-pop played a significant role that motivated North Koreans to risk their lives to defect. “The younger generation came to recognize that North Korea is economically weak. They know about the people who fled to South Korea, and they know that those defectors are better off than they are,” said Kim Yong-hwa, head of the NK Refugees Human Rights Association of Korea.

THE YOUNG GENERATION CROSSED THE LINE

North Korea’s attitude toward foreign pop culture has relaxed and hardened over the years, closely tied to the level of political tension with the South. “The party is constantly changing rules about what’s acceptable when it comes to foreign content, and the people have to pay attention,” said Jean Lee, senior fellow at the Wilson Center and former Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Press. Furthermore, the state of North Korea’s economy dictates its restrictions, thus with the country’s increasingly dire straits, the regime is keen on adopting a more conservative approach to avoid any risk of destabilizing its socialist model. Upon passing a new law to prevent the spread of content not approved by government censors in December 2020, its leader suggested tougher controls on societal content and shortly afterwards, a propaganda website accused K-pop record labels as “slave-like exploitation.”

Acknowledging that the culture of young people is a critical problem that must be addressed without further delay as the fate of the party, revolution, country and its people are at stake, the regime emphasized on ideological education for children and a public reign of terror. Preventing ideological deviation includes displays of public punishment that include executing elites who fail to show enough loyalty or sending those who consume South Korean content to up to 15 years in labor camps. As part of the re-education package, young people and their families were reportedly exiled to “volunteer” in rural hard-to-survive agricultural villages to repay “the Workers’ Party’s love and benevolence with the sweat of loyalty when the nation is struggling.”

Meanwhile, and ironically, Hollywood-style videos of ballistic missile launches featuring Kim Jong-un were shown on state television, which were “produced in a more cheerful way on purpose to appeal to young people,” according to Hong Min, director of the North Korean Research Division of Korea Institute for National Unification.

The future of foreign media remains unclear in North Korea. While the regime expresses its disdain for foreign pop culture, it can do little to stop it. Jangmadangs came as a result of North Korea’s failure to provide for its people in the ‘90s. To stop the flow of media is to stop the Jangmadangs from operating all together and, if this occurs, the people may starve once again.

The Rejection of North Korean Defectors

Scene from Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix)

NOT-SO-DISCREET BIAS

In an episode of the trending Netflix K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo, a brilliant lawyer with autism, Woo Young-woo, defended a North Korean defector, Gye Hyang-sim. The case centers around a robbery that a North Korean defector allegedly committed. During the course of the episode, Woo finds that a doctor, who provides his expert medical opinion about the case, had an immense bias against the defector. Ultimately, his prior testimony given at the onset of the original trial was disqualified due to bias.

Though this story is based on fiction, there is data to back the premise of the episode. North Korean defectors face a myriad of hurdles when they arrive in South Korea. Not only do they carry a tremendous amount of trauma, they must figure out an unfamiliar system of laws, most of which are based on a democratic capitalism, a completely foreign concept to these people. To complicate matters even further, many North Korean refugees report feeling discriminated against, according to recent studies.

NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS NOT WELCOMED

In 2017, a poll revealed that about 50 percent of North Korean defectors living in South Korea felt discriminated against because of their background, with discrimination based on economic status (16 percent) as the leading cause, followed by level of education (14.4 percent) and region of origin (12.2 percent). Prejudice towards defectors is an “open secret” in South Korea, according to Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University and a director at Korea Risk Group. He went on to say, “defectors are seen as outsiders and suspicious figures … In general, people who come from less successful countries are seen differently. In this hierarchy, North Koreans are very close to the bottom because their country is seen as a collective loser.”

Further, a study by the Korea Institute for National Unification (“KINU”) found that many South Korean parents do not want their children to study in elementary schools with a high number of defector children. North Korean defectors, South Korean parents, unification workers, social workers and teachers were interviewed in this study. Kim Soo-kyung, a researcher at KINU explained that, “South Korean society is not yet prepared to accept defectors as the members of local communities.” Defectors are uniquely positioned between North and South Korean society and are sometimes referred to as “pillars of unification” for the key role they will potentially play in the future. However, Kim continued by saying the South Korean public “sees the defectors only as “pillars of unification,” or byproducts of inter-Korean relations.”

‘ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS’ FOR DEFECTOR CHILDREN STRUGGLE TO GET ACCEPTANCE

According to the Education Ministry in South Korea, around 10 percent or 230 North Korean students enrolled into nine alternative schools exclusively for North Korean defectors as of 2019. Yeomyung School, which has around 80 students and 13 faculty staff members, is the only alternative school in Seoul certified by the Education Ministry to award a high school diploma. Beyond regular classes that prepare students for college, the school has a curriculum that takes into account students’ backgrounds, including missing school years due to poverty or life in hiding as defectors, and offers special classes to help them transition into South Korean society.

However, Yeomyung School was met with a well-known concept among urban planners called NIMBYism, which stands for “Not In My Back Yard” and strong resistance from residents in Eunpyong-gu, a district in northern Seoul, when the school planned to move there. In particular, the residents claimed that the government-designated lot should be used for locals and not “outsiders” or North Korean refugees who are “unwanted” in their neighborhood. During Yeomyung’s two-and-a-half-year search for a new location, nearly 700 people signed a Presidential Blue House petition protesting the school’s potential move.

The high school dropout rate for children of defectors is nearly three times higher than that for the rest of the population, while 21.3 percent of defectors aged 10 to 18 spoke out about difficulties keeping up with school curriculum, according to a study by the Korean Educational Statistics Service.

While no society or culture is without its biases, it is a tragedy that a people who have lived through horrific circumstances are confronted with rejection in South Korea.

Elim House Mid-year Update

Korea Opened Up

As Korea began to loosen its quarantine restrictions for foreign travelers in May 2022, two of our US staff members were able to visit Elim House. The main objectives of that trip were to spend time with our Korea team, see Elim House and meet current residents and to continue building strategic relationships with South Korean churches and key organizations.

A month later in July, one staffer returned to Korea with his family for a longer stay to continue the work that started in May. He and his wife were able to take part in the first Elim House retreat and also had a chance to pilot a few new initiatives. Being able to have our US and Korea team physically in the same place was long overdue and we’re excited to share all the good that came of these recent trips. There are a few more visits planned for our US staff in the second half of the year to explore the new and different ways Crossing Borders might serve the North Korean refugee population in South Korea.

Very Few Defectors Entering South Korea

South Korea’s Ministry of Reunification routinely publishes the number of North Korean defectors entering South Korea each year. As you can see below, the total count of defectors had been as high as 2,914 (2009) and the percentage of women as high as 85% (2018). With the global pandemic shutting down both North Korean and Chinese borders, this number shrank down to just 63 total defectors who arrived in South Korea in 2021. Most sources involved with helping North Koreans with whom we spoke while in South Korea expect even fewer arrivals in 2022.

Not surprisingly, this slowdown has caused the work at the Ministry and at Hanawon to significantly drop off. Related or not, the volume of inquiries of women seeking shelter at Elim House or government-run shelters have also slowed down. Elim House residents have spanned from newer defectors to those who had lived in South Korea for close to a decade so this may be an unexpected coincidence or perhaps just the impact of all the people of Korea adjusting to life after COVID-19.

Time to retreat

A one-night retreat with past and current Elim House residents and our staff was something we’ve wanted to test in Korea, and with a larger team on the ground for the summer, we moved forward with this pilot retreat. Our time together kicked off with Sunday morning worship service at Elim House followed by a quick road trip to the west coast of Incheon where we spent the next day and a half by the water. Four North Korean women attended the retreat and we had an amazing time together digging for clams (more rocks than clams), exercising, playing games, eating and sharing our lives with one another. 

This time away was to be a time of rest and getting into each other’s lives and God allowed for exactly that. God was gracious in providing us with delicious food, hours of laughter, vulnerability and shoulders to cry on. While our time together went far too quickly, we had an opportunity to get a better glimpse into the depth of trauma these women had endured through North Korea and China and how much pain they still carry in their hearts. It broke our hearts to see it up close but also gave us a renewed sense of why God assigned us to do this work halfway around the globe. It reminded us of Psalm 38:18: 

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Bodily training has value

Charlene is the wife of one of our US staff and is also a seasoned fitness instructor. While on this trip to Korea, Charlene had prepared to teach private classes to groups of North Korean women and also at the retreat. It’s not that South Korea doesn’t have personal fitness instructors. Quite the opposite, actually: workouts like pilate and CrossFit have saturated Korean culture in recent years. While accessible to the masses, including North Korean refugees, we’ve learned that these are not venues where North Koreans (especially women in their 30s-50s) feel comfortable. Whether that is driven by differences in dialect or stature (North Korean women are noticeably shorter than their South Korean counterparts) or even just a self consciousness that persists in everyday life, most of the women who attended had never been to a fitness studio or workout class. 

Refugee women ranging in ages from 30’s to 70’s attended our two workout classes. They arrived early, worked really hard to learn moves they’d never seen, and most importantly, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and took plenty of opportunities to laugh at themselves and each other. Helping these women strengthen their bodies was of some value but it was evident that they gained so much more simply by being together in community.

Kelly

As she patiently waits to receive housing assistance while staying at Elim House, we’ve seen the transforming power of the gospel shape Kelly’s heart. Once a stranger to the bible and Jesus, her hunger for the word and desire to grow in her prayer life have both noticeably grown. She also recently inquired about being baptized and weighed the options of doing it with the pastor that currently leads the Elim House Sunday worship or waiting until she was settled in her new home and a local church. The Lord has really opened her eyes to see and ears to hear and we thank God for bringing salvation to Kelly’s life.

Kelly and our social workers regularly share time together in the word during morning devotionals. They applauded Kelly's determination to learn and pray diligently and it is their prayer that a day will come in the near future where Kelly’s conversations with her heavenly father feels as natural and normal as breathing.

Looking ahead

One of the core values of Crossing Borders is to provide a safe community to refugees.

“Crossing Borders offers North Korean refugees and their children opportunities to thrive by providing physical care, emotional healing and spiritual guidance in a safe community.”

These recent trips to Korea reinforced for us the importance of doing the work of restoring North Korean refugees in a safe community. It is in that place where we saw women allow themselves to be vulnerable and share, to laugh out loud and cry together. It is in that place where God can heal and allow them to experience his warm embrace.

Chuseok is Korea’s fall harvest holiday and when Elim House will host the next retreat with North Korean refugee women. As we prepare for this by sending one of our US staff, we also plan to continue testing new community building events by hosting classes that teach different life skills.

We’re thankful for a season of learning and adapting to ministry work in a place like South Korea. We’re thankful for a fruitful summer and excited to follow God’s leading this fall. We’re thankful for the faithful partners who make this work possible. Please pray for Crossing Borders and our teams in the US and Korea to “devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need,” (Titus 3:14).

Top NK Headlines - August 2022

Kim Jong Un in 2019. (www.kremlin.ru)

KIM JONG-UN WAS ‘SERIOUSLY ILL’ DURING THEIR COVID-19 PANDEMIC

• As North Korea declared a “shining victory” over Covid-19 and hailed the “miracle” of just 74 virus deaths, Kim Yo-jong announced that Kim Jong-un had in fact been “seriously ill.”

• The North blamed the outbreak on the South for flying Covid-contaminated leaflets across the border, which Kim Yo-jong described as a “crime against humanity,” citing “the danger of spreading an infectious disease through contacting contaminated objects.”

• According to the state news agency, she also said that amidst suffering from a “high fever”, their leader “could not lie down for a moment thinking about the people he had to take care of until the end in the face of the anti-epidemic war.”

• One source spoke of how the COVID-19 outbreak gave Kim Jong-Un a unique opportunity to “shift his public persona from that of a military leader into still more of a father figure to the nation.”

• International observers speculate that North Korea refers to “fever” rather than Covid-19 due to a lack of testing equipment.

Source: 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62501152
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3188582/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-was-seriously-ill-covid-19-surge-says
https://thediplomat.com/2022/08/kim-jong-uns-changing-public-persona/

Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. (www.kremlin.ru)

NORTH KOREA VOLUNTEERS 100,000 TROOPS TO RUSSIA

• According to Russian state media, “100,000 North Korean volunteers are prepared to come and take part in the conflict” to help Russia win the war against Ukraine.

• Russia’s military pundit, Ignor Korotchenko, said that his country would welcome the troops and commended the North’s counter-battery expertise.

• North Korea’s military is the world’s fourth largest, with nearly 1.3 million active personnel, according to the Council for Foreign Relations in New York.

• It is also reported that North Korea plans to assist Russia in rebuilding a post-war Ukraine by sending more than 1,000 workers to the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine if Russia wins the war.

• Meanwhile, Donetsk separatist leader, Denis Pushilin, sent a message to Kim Jong-un calling for an “equally beneficial bilateral cooperation agreeing with the interests” of their people during the August 15 anniversary of the Korean peninsula’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.

Source: 
https://nypost.com/2022/08/05/russian-state-tv-north-korea-offers-kremlin-100000-troops/ 
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-selected-workers-dispatched-eastern-ukraine/ 
https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-offering-russia-100k-troops-help-beat-ukraine-reports-2022-8 
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/17/donetsk-leader-ties-with-north-korea-ukraine-russia

The Demilitarized Zone in North Korea.

NORTH KOREA REJECTS SOUTH KOREA PRESIDENT’S OFFER OF AID

• Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, told South Korea’s president, Yoon, to “shut his mouth” as she rejected his offer of economic assistance, including food, energy and infrastructure help, in return for denuclearization.

• According to North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, she said the country does not intend to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

• She called Yoon “really simple and still childish” for suggesting such an “audacious” plan and added that “No one barters its destiny for corn cake,” as she dismissed the possibility of face-to-face talks with the South.

• As a close confidant of her brother and someone who oversees inter-Korean affairs, she questioned Yoon’s sincerity in calling for improvements between the two countries as South Korea continued to participate in joint military drills with the U.S. and failed to stop propaganda leaflets from flying across the heavily guarded border.

• North Korea launched two cruise missiles two days after Yoon’s offer, marking its first weapon test in more than two months.

Source: 
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkorea-leaders-sister-says-north-will-never-deal-with-skoreas-audacious-2022-08-18/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/19/north-korea-rejects-seouls-absurd-offer-of-economic-aid-for-denuclearisation
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/world/asia/north-korea-missile-launch.html

Nancy Pelosi in 2019. (Gage Skidmore)

NORTH KOREA SLAMS PELOSI’S VISIT TO THE KOREA BORDER AND TAIWAN

• North Korea denounced U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, as the “worst destroyer of international peace” over her visit to the Demilitarized Zone and Taiwan.

• An official at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry stated that, in addition to discussions with Seoul to call for “strong and extended deterrence against North Korea”, Pelosi “made her appearance even in the joint security area of Panmunjom, utterly betraying the vision of the hostile policy of the current U.S. administration towards the DPRK.”

• Pyongyang also lashed out at Pelosi over her visit to Taiwan, which drew threats and massive military drills from China, North Korea’s key ally and trade partner.

• While emphasizing Taiwan as “an inseparable part of China,” North Korea’s spokesperson added that Pyongyang “fully support(s) the Chinese government’s just stand to resolutely defend the sovereignty of the country and territorial integrity.”

Source: 
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/08/06/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/north-korea-nancy-pelosi/
https://thediplomat.com/2022/08/north-korea-denounces-pelosis-visit-to-taiwan/

North Korea Defeats COVID

North Korean officials wearing protective suits. (Rodong Sinmun-News)

North Korea recently declared victory over COVID-19. Kim Jong Un praised the country, calling their fight against the virus the “greatest miracle” in global health. The country reported 74 deaths from the virus and about 5 million infections, which, if true, would be the world’s lowest death rate from the pandemic. They did this without a vaccine and with a health system that most experts call dilapidated. This announcement has been met with skepticism for those in the North Korean aid community.

The Daily NK reported that as the country touted its miraculous victory over COVID-19, that the country has been clamping down internally on disease and population control measures.

“According to multiple sources in North Korea, North Korean authorities are limiting the issuance of documents needed for inter-regional travel, including travel certificates, business trip certificates, approval numbers and quarantine confirmations,” according to the August 4 report.

When North Korea first announced their outbreak in May, Crossing Borders sounded the alarm. We petitioned the church in the US and globally to pray for North Korea. We were concerned about what COVID-19 might do to the North Korean people who have been malnourished for decades. Studies have shown how malnutrition degrades a person’s immune system over time. 

A few members of our US staff were visiting Elim House in South Korea when news broke of  North Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak. They were able to talk to refugees and aid groups on the ground, all of whom supported our suspicions that North Korea was grossly underreporting their death toll. We spoke to refugees with contacts in North Korea who were telling them that the amount of suffering is akin to the famine of the 1990s.

Kim Jong Un himself used the word “miracle” in describing his country’s defeat of COVID-19 because that is indeed what it would take for the country to overcome the disease. It is within the realm of possibility that the lack of obesity and the level of control the government has, can yield a more positive result against the virus. But it is much more likely that North Korea is not telling the truth given their history of deception both internally to its citizens and to the world. 

Choi Jung-hun, a North Korean defector who served as a doctor before fleeing in 2011, was quoted in this CNN article as reflecting on the SARS outbreak of 2002-2004 that “North Korea had no ability to test for the disease, so officially it recorded zero infections. According to 38 North, likely due to inadequate testing supplies and/or capabilities, only a handful of COVID-19 cases have officially been confirmed, with the rest attributed to an unidentified “fever” since the onset of this year’s outbreak.

Exactly what is going on in the country remains a mystery. The sources we sighted on the ground also only give us a limited picture of what the pandemic is doing throughout the whole country. And if the North Korean government is trying to conceal the truth about COVID to the outside world, it certainly is attempting to do the same inside the country as well. This means that, as the country monitors its citizens, it will also monitor internal communications about the pandemic as well. Regular citizens will not be able to tell a friend in a neighboring city what is happening to them. It will take years, if not decades, for the world to get a picture of the damage wrought by the pandemic.

This is also what happened during the North Korean famine in the ‘90s. The world was clueless to the devastation unfolding in North Korea at the time. It was only as tens, if not hundreds of thousands of refugees walked across the border into China that the world was able to see the full extent of damage that occurred in those years. The testimony from refugees took decades to gather. And the picture that each life painted took time to eventually tell the full story of a famine that took upwards of 3.5 million North Korean lives.

North Korea’s Growing Homelessness and Prostitution as Living Conditions Worsen

North Korea’s economy has suffered one of its biggest contractions as it battled through an almost three-year COVID-19 lockdown, the second-worst drought in 40 years and continued international sanctions. As the hermit country’s most vulnerable people slip deeper into starvation, its government ordered periods of intense crackdowns on the rapidly growing number of homeless people along the China-North Korea border for threatening to hinder state emergency quarantine efforts and tarnishing the image of socialism. Meanwhile, more and more women were forced to enter into the sex trade as North Korea’s paralyzed economy left ordinary citizens with no other option for survival. 

ORDERS TO HIDE THE HOMELESS

North Korean authorities were alarmed by the reappearance of crowds of homeless people along the border and feared an upcoming wave of illegal border hoppers and defectors as more people approach the country’s “strict security zones” along the border, which warrants unauthorized trespassers to be shot at unconditionally as part of its COVID-19 preventative measures. 

Most importantly, its leadership was reportedly worried that photos showing homeless North Koreans could be taken from the Chinese side of the border, which a source told Daily NK that they “could be misused in the anti-Republic schemes of enemies, who run around trying to pull down our ideology and socialist system.” According to Daily NK, the Ministry of Social Security recently issued “Order 1541” to intensify crackdowns and take tougher control and management on the homeless. Provincial branches of the ministry were also called to “eradicate” the homeless who appear daily in markets, near train stations, at garbage dumps, along train tracks, in train tunnels and under bridges, and house them in temporary buildings or inns, while homeless adults would be allocated to take part in labor-intensive activities in labor brigades.

INTENSIFIED CRACKDOWNS ON STREET PROSTITUTION

Prostitution became widespread in North Korea since the late 1990s, a time when women were forced to find ways to survive after the government suddenly stopped distributing rations to its people. However, Article 249 of North Korea’s Criminal Code states that women who are caught engaging in prostitution can receive a punishment of up to one year of forced labor, and up to five years at a forced labor correctional facility in more serious cases.

In practice, prostitution is a crime that is even punishable by public execution, mostly by firing squad. For example, in July 2020, the state executed six people including four party officials for operating a prostitution ring that involved female college students and senior officials in Pyongyang. Following a crackdown in August 2020, more than 50 female students from two prominent Pyongyang performing art colleges, who were reportedly driven into prostitution by poverty brought on by the endless demands for school fees, were sent to a labor camp for three to six months for their alleged involvement in a prostitution network that catered to Pyongyang’s elites. The investigation also revealed that under government pressure to raise money, prestigious schools arbitrarily demanded money from students, and as a result, at least 200 school students “who have difficult family circumstances are thereby forced into prostitution.”

North Korean Authorities were ordered to search for suspected prostitutes in train stations

Due to the economic difficulties caused by COVID-19, there has been a rise in the number of North Korean women working as prostitutes. In March 2022, the authorities even arrested mothers of newborns who turned to prostitution in order to put food on the table. More recently, Kim Jong-un ordered the Social Security Department and Socialist Patriotic Youth League to carry out intensive crackdowns on street prostitution in major cities, including Chongjin and Hamhung. A source told Radio Free Asia that on July 30, 2022, district-level meetings were held to educate young people in an effort to deter them from selling their bodies for money, while a meeting in Chongjin’s Sunam district publicly criticized several young female prostitutes, whereby “each of the eight women on the stage revealing their names, ages, home addresses, and their jobs, and forcing them to criticize themselves.” It was reported that the authorities’ searches in train stations, parks and streets for suspected prostitutes have been met with success, with approximately 30 girls in their teens and 20s arrested on the first day of the crackdown as they begged men who were waiting for the train at Hamhung station at night to pay for their services for as little as 30,000 won (U.S. $4.30).

Running Away from China, aka “runxue”

It was reported in June 2022 that the continued lockdowns and quarantines imposed in Shanghai and other Chinese cities have pushed China’s middle-class to explore plans to move overseas as people grew more concerned about further restrictions that may be imposed to encroach on their basic freedoms and also lead to economic and social stagnation. Following Shanghai’s reopening on June 1, 2022, authorities imposed new city-wide lockdowns with over 1 million citizens confined at home or in quarantine facilities due to recent outbreaks of COVID-19. The endless cycle of easing and increasing restrictions has become emotionally and psychologically taxing on citizens. 

“They have neither freedom nor safety.”

According to Chen Daoyin, a political scientist and former associate professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, “The middle-class group expected a decent life… Before they exchanged freedom for security, but now they have neither freedom nor safety.” A writer in Shanghai told the CS Monitor that she had never lived abroad before but was planning to save up to leave, as she claimed that no one could protect themselves during the lockdown. “This thing is universal – your freedom of residence and freedom of travel will be restricted. You may get a knock on the door and be taken away in the middle of the night.”

Online discussions about “running away from China” or “runxue” (a newly created word for “run philosophy” to avoid censorship) have surged. “Emigration” was also searched more than 100 million times on a single day in May 2022 on WeChat, and interests in emigration or “run philosophy” could similarly be found in other social media platforms like Weibo and Zhihu.

#theLastGeneration

China’s youths, especially those who were educated abroad, fear that the zero-Covid-19 policy was no longer economically feasible, with recent figures showing China’s economy contracting, thus many have plans to return abroad. A video went viral and became an online meme showing police officers warning a young man’s family that they would be punished for three generations for refusing to go to a quarantine camp, in which the man replied, “this will be our last generation,” before it was censored by the authorities. Many young people in their 20s and 30s identified with the sentiment, with one Weibo user stating that, “Not bringing children to this country, to this land, will be the most charitable deed I could manage” under the hashtag #thelastgeneration before it was censored. 

According to the Economist, online search trends show that China’s young and educated elite are thinking about leaving the country. Spikes in the searches for “run” on Chinese social media platforms coincided with traumatic events in Shanghai, such as when an asthma patient was refused medical treatment and died, or when videos of infected children separated from their parents spread online.

Sharing Run Philosophy Resources on GitHub

Countless accounts offering detailed strategies and tips on how to emigrate from China can be found on GitHub, a rare foreign platform that is not censored in China.  For example, a post on runxue include details of:

• FAQs on a range of issues, e.g., visa / passport applications, immersion problems for new immigrants, psychological barriers, cultural differences, differences in political ideologies, language barriers, family settlement, transfer of assets, logistics, healthcare, etc.

• how to emigrate, e.g., apply for work or student visa, work for a foreign company and apply for internal transfer to an overseas position, etc.

• what is “run” and how “run” does not equate to betraying your country, etc.

• when is the best time to “run” at the different stages of your studies / career, etc.

• where to “run” to, with the top three countries being Canada, Japan and Singapore.

• why you should “run”

There are also a number of posts on how to “run” to specific countries. For example, one post gives detailed step-by-step advice on how to immigrate to Australia even if you do not have much money, and another post shares the user’s personal experience on immigrating to Canada.

Brokers / Traffickers

Our sources in China who have helped North Korean refugees previously escape out of China tell us that brokers have been busy servicing Chinese nationals who are willing to pay a steep premium in fees. While this may be impossible to validate, Chinese authorities imposing tighter controls to “strictly restrict non-essential exit activities of Chinese citizens” as part of its zero-Covid-19 policy, including suspending the issuance of passports to people with “non-urgent” reasons for leaving the country last year makes this news seem plausible.

 Experts state that “this may be the status in China for the next three-to-five, or five-to-10 years.” Thus, citizens are more likely to rely on traffickers or brokers to leave the country going forward.

Additionally, another source in Chongqing states that the demand for hiring brokers to arrange for sham marriages for the purpose of emigration is rising, especially among young working professionals, including doctors, who are able to pay large sums to process the necessary paperwork.

Top NK Headlines - July 2022

NORTH KOREAN FISHERMEN DEFECTORS WHO KILLED CREW MEMBERS CASE REOPENED 

• In November 2019, on a fishing boat full of North Korean men attempting to defect to the South, two fishermen were found guilty of killing 16 of their crew members.

• Seoul’s Unification Ministry released photos of two men in their 20s struggling while being forcibly moved by South Korean military men toward North Korean soldiers waiting on the other side of the demarcation line at the border village of Panmunjom in November 2019.

• According to police accounts, the men were blindfolded and bound with ropes.

• The former President Moon Jae-in’s administration described the fishermen as “heinous criminals” who did not “clearly express” a “sincere” desire to remain in South Korea, thus they did not receive the usual treatment of North Korean defectors, including being investigated and debriefed by intelligence officials during their stay.

• President Yoon Suk-yeol’s office reopened the case and called the repatriation decision “a crime against humanity that violated both international law and the constitution.”

• On the claims that the fishermen were repatriated for the crimes they committed, Jang Se-yul, the president of the National Association of North Korean Defectors, said in a forum that “North Korea is not a normal country. … I know people back home who stole and broke laws to survive and feed their family on their ways to eventual escape.”

• Meanwhile, Moon’s former situation room chief Yoon Kun-young accused Yoon’s administration of undermining the opposition party, “are you saying we should have let the grotesque murderers get away with their crime and protect them with our own people’s tax money?”

• It is suspected that the two fishermen were publicly executed in Pyongyang.

• The Unification Ministry told NK News that 23 defectors currently in South Korea are not under government protection due to their criminal records. According to the Act on the Protection and Settlement Support of North Korean Refugees, such protection extends to assistance with education, employment, housing and healthcare.

Source: 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/photos-north-korean-defectors-being-233822877.html
https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220715000606 
https://www.nknews.org/2022/07/south-korea-repatriated-nearly-200-north-koreans-but-only-expelled-two-seoul/ 

NORTH KOREA INCREASES SURVEILLANCE OF ITS PEOPLE VIA APPS

• North Korean authorities have long used the intranet network as a surveillance tool. All smartphone users have been required to install an application called “Red Flag” that keeps a log of visited web pages and take screenshots of their phones at random intervals.

• Recently, all smartphone users are mandated to install a new application, Kwangmyong, in order to get their quarterly communication license cards. This application allows the government to remotely track users’ locations and monitor their devices in real time.

• With Kwangmyong installed, the authorities are now able to track users’ offline activities, including cell phone activities, file sharing and viewing of illicit material via physical media like USB flash drives and SD cards.

• It is reported that citizens are unhappy about the invasion of privacy by the Ministry of State Security and other law enforcement agencies.

• A resident of Pukchang country, north of Pyongyang, told Radio Free Asia that “At the post office these days, residents are lining up to pay the fee to get their quarterly [license] card. … but some have refused to install the app and have been able to buy the quarterly card on the black market.”

Source: 
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/app-07082022150535.html 

Shinzo Abe (DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dominique A. Pineiro)

SHINZO ABE, JAPAN’S KEY ADVOCATE TO NORTH KOREA’S ABDUCTION CASE, SHOT DEAD

• Japan’s longest-serving former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after he was shot while giving a public speech in support of Liberal Democratic Party candidates in Nara city.

• Despite little progress being made towards resolving issues concerning North Korea’s abduction of Japanese citizens during his tenure as prime minister, Abe repeatedly called for the North to return the abductees home and “The Abe administration was successful in raising concerns and interests over the abduction issues domestically and internationally,” according to Sachio Nakato, a professor of International Politics at Ritsumeikan University.

• During the 2002 summit, North Korea admitted to abducting 13 Japanese nationals and have returned five in total. However, Abe’s government claimed that there are more Japanese abductees than those claimed by the North.

• Akin to Yoon’s administration, Abe leaned towards imposing sanctions against North Korea and did not agree with Moon’s policy towards reunification.

Source: 
https://www.nknews.org/2022/07/shinzo-abe-key-advocate-for-resolution-of-abduction-issue-dead-at-67/ 

A view of Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province, in 2011. (Jen Morgan, Flickr, Creative Commons)

NORTH KOREAN BROKER MYSTERIOUSLY DIES IN LABOR CAMP

• A source in North Hamgong Province told Daily NK that during a trip to visit his wife, an inmate serving her sentence at Hamhung Correctional Labor Camp in South Hamgyong Province for human trafficking, the authorities informed him that she had died without providing any information regarding her death, including when she died, the cause of death or what happened to the body.

• The woman in her 40s smuggled North Koreans to China from 2012 to September 2015. She was captured by the Ministry of State Security after one of the defectors was repatriated back to the North after being caught by Chinese security agents.

• Her husband was unable to see his wife for a year due to Covid-19 restrictions until this visit, where he brought some cornmeal mixed with sugar and innerwear for her, only to be scolded by camp officials for asking questions concerning his wife’s death, telling him he “should be grateful that they even told him she was dead.”

• The source also said that “Since COVID-19, even ordinary people have been having a hellish time trying to make ends meet, let alone people in prison for crimes. … Many prisoners surely must have died unnatural deaths, unable to eat or dress properly and under surveillance from guards. … they are simply dying.”

Source: 
https://www.dailynk.com/english/hamhung-labor-camp-inmate-dies-under-mysterious-circumstances/

North Korea Gets Creative with State Propaganda

Contrary to reports on the economic crisis and food shortages in North Korea, new content showing the joyful and stable lives of “ordinary citizens” in Pyongyang began to surface on social media. According to NK News, North Korean state media company, Sogwang Media Corporation, initiated a propaganda campaign which targets supporters abroad and aims to shape the perception of foreign viewers with claims of freedom and utopian social conditions.

Since 2018, there have been a number of English, Chinese and Russian-speaking vloggers who post content on social media networks through fake accounts to deliver heavily scripted state propaganda. YouTube Channel NEW DPRK which features blog-style videos has played a key role in helping North Korean propagandists reach over 1.9 million international viewers with nearly 23,000 subscribers as of June 2022. NEW DPRK’s Weibo page Time Traveller-2022 featuring a young Chinese-speaking North Korean woman, Yang Yixin, was also created after Yang served as a tour guide in Chinese Youtuber Lei’s Adventures Official Channel’s North Korea travel series, which has over 455,000 views as of June 2022. Meanwhile, the expanding propaganda operation created an account in February 2022 portraying a young Asian man under the name Eric Endosen on Twitter, and posted the same photos using other Sogwang-affiliated Twitter and Weibo accounts such as “@Parama_Coreafan” and “Take you to Koryo”.

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

North Korea’s new propaganda strategy departs from the over-exaggerated, solemn state propaganda often perceived by western media. The content now appeals to young online viewers through Twitter and YouTube channels like Sary Voline, which features 11-year-old vlogger, Song A, a Harry Potter fan who speaks fluent English with a posh British accent. Song A introduced North Korea to the audience in a tone that is difficult to associate with traditional state propaganda, “Pyongyang where I live, is a very beautiful and magnificent city. Have you ever been to Pyongyang? Well, I want to show you in person interesting and fun places in Pyongyang.” Friendly and approachable, Song A also added a personal touch to her videos by “promising” to take the audience on tour and pledging that “if you come here, you’ll be totally surprised because literally wherever you go there are amusement parks.”

In Song A’s second video which was uploaded almost two weeks after the lockdown in Pyongyang was lifted, she told the audience that “a week ago, I was starting to lie down sick temperature was 39 degrees. The next day it was even worse, my mom was down too.” Just as Song A expressed her worry that medicine was running out, military doctors visited her home while she added that friends, neighbors and local shop staff brought her “giant red juicy strawberries,” dumplings and vegetables, so “just like this, everything is under control as it used to be and everyone is just fine!”

TAIWANESE SUPPORTERS SEEK TO GIVE NORTH KOREA ‘A VOICE’

Although North Korea has a record of cross-posting and fooling foreign observers into believing their propaganda stories, genuine overseas supporters of North Korea have seemingly emerged like Taiwan-based groups “DPRK Business-Culture News” and “gotodprk.” In an interview with the founder of DPRK Business-Culture News, Hong Hao, he told Crossing Campus that he believes different cultures should be given their own voice, and through sharing his travel experiences in North Korea (which he asked to be referred to as the DPRK), he hopes to explore this “mysterious country” together with the people of Taiwan. In particular, Hong noted that most of the information about North Korea comes from the “western media hegemony” which seeks to paint a negative image of North Korea. He gave an example of news about Kim Jong-un’s impending death in 2020 leading to a critical situation in the Korean peninsula, which was later proven to be malicious rumors.

From introducing public transport in Pyongyang and traditions in the North, to sharing local North Korean snacks and even hosting activities to “help celebrate Kim Il-sung's birthday,” Hong held three workshops at the end of 2021 alone which was a great success with venues packed with enthusiasts and North Korean souvenirs sold out “in a flash.” Before each talk, all participants were invited to stand and bow to a statue of Kim Il-sung with the national anthem playing in the background. It is interesting to note that most of the participants were in their 20s and 30s and were composed of couples, friends and families with children.

DID WE FORGET?

With borders closed since the beginning of the pandemic, the North Korean government has had complete control over information disseminated to the outside world, thereby blurring the line between news and state propaganda. As the new campaign delivers more relatable and modernized content with young girls vlogging about Covid-19 quarantine and posing for selfies at home and in cafes, it is easy to understand why people are beginning to forget that all content available on social media are government-controlled as the Kim regime prohibits anyone in North Korea, including diplomats and overseas citizens, from accessing the internet.

North Korean Leader Cries and Carries Mentor’s Coffin at State Funeral

Days after the North Korean leader punished officials for failing to contain Covid-19 and despite strict nationwide lockdown measures, Kim Jong-un was seen in tears at a state funeral for Marshal Hyon Chol-hae, a top North Korean official who served three generations of the Kim family, along with a large number of senior officials at the April 25 House of Culture, a theater located in Pyongyang on May 22, 2022. North Korean state media released images and video footage of Kim Jong-un without a face mask and carrying Hyon’s coffin with other regime officials, who were masked, before he threw earth into Hyon’s grave at the national cemetery.

WHO WAS HYON CHOL-HAE?

Hyon was born on August 13, 1934 in Yangil County, Jilin Province, China. As the son of a member of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army organized and led by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, Hyon attended the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, Kim Chaek University of Technology and Nicolae Bălcescu Military Academy in Romania. Hyon served in Kim Il-sung's personal security escort corps in the 1960s and was promoted to Major General and Deputy Director of Organizations in the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces (“MPAF”) General Political Bureau in 1968. After taking up the role as Director of the Korean People’s Army Rear Officers’ Training School in the 1970s, Hyon was promoted to Lieutenant General and Director of the MPAF General Logistics Bureau in 1986, where he served until his next promotion to General and Deputy Director of the MPAF in recognition of his contribution to the improvement of the country’s munitions and logistical support systems in 1995. In 2007, Hyon was appointed Director of the National Defense Commission of the DPRK Standing Bureau among other distinguished, high-level appointments. As a core member of Kim Jong-il's military management for 15 years, Hyon frequently appeared with the former North Korean leader, including a trip to China in May 2010. Under Kim Jong-un's administration, Hyon took the titles of Commander-in-Chief and Marshal of the Korean People’s Army in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

Chinese media also reported that, although Hyon Chol-hae’s nephew, Hyon Sung-il (former Third Secretary of the DPRK in Zambia), and his wife defected to South Korea in 1996, the late Marshal remained a trusted member of the party and was even praised as “a soldier loyal to President Kim Il Sung and a revolutionary comrade-in-arms loyal to Chairman Kim Jong Il and the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un” according to North Korean state media.

A MENTOR TO KIM JONG-UN

Hyon Chol-Hae

According to Yonhap, Hyon played a key role in training Kim Jong-un to become Kim Jong-il's successor before his father's death in 2011. Hyon was part of Kim Jong-il’s inner circle when he was mulling the “succession problem” and was later credited for “Devoting himself to his important duties in supreme leadership organs of the DPRK armed forces during the period of important historic turn in the succession to the revolutionary cause of Juche, he ensured that the monolithic command system of Kim Jong-un was established across the entire army.”

Hyon was almost a father figure to Kim Jong-un and their close relationship can be seen by the leader referring to Hyon as “uncle (a-ba-ee, 아바이)” and to himself as “Jong Unny (정은이),” a nickname used by Hyon in his childhood. Hyon and Kim Jong-un frequently exchanged letters and Hyon even had a direct phone line to the leader.  As a mentor who had backed Kim Jong-un as the “sole successor” to lead North Korea, the young dictator would seek Hyon for his advice on military affairs using high honorifics in their exchanges.

Kim Jong-un and Hyon were last seen together in public in July 2021, when his mentor attended an annual veterans conference in a wheelchair and the leader was seen leaning down and holding Hyon’s shoulders from behind.

DEATH AND LEGACY

Hyon was hospitalized “for a long time” and was “in pain” following treatments for his chronic heart disease and heart failure in 2017 and 2021 respectively. While Hyon was again hospitalized at Ponghwa Clinic in central Pyongyang this year, Kim Jong-un was known to have visited his bedside multiple times and was reportedly unable to leave his side. It is also reported that the leader had rushed back to the hospital when he received news of Hyon’s critical condition, which was filmed in a documentary titled “Closest to the Sun,” with the narrator quoting Kim Jong-un in an emotional voice, “Comrade Hyon Chol-hae, I’m here, open your eyes” and “What will I do if you go,” as Hyon was shown unconscious on a ventilator. On May 19, 2022, Hyon died of multiple organ failure with Kim Jong-un by his side.

Hyon loyally served late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and was a close confidant. He helped prepare Kim Jong-un to become the country’s next leader before his father died in 2011.

Introducing the Demystified Zone

My life changed in July of 2001. My best friend and founder of Crossing Borders Mike Kim returned from a short-term mission trip to China and opened my eyes to the plight of the North Korean refugee. I have been devouring the sad and peculiar news coming out of the Hermit Kingdom since that day and have not stopped.

With a background in journalism, I have shaped the public-facing communications of Crossing Borders from the very beginning. We have tried a little bit of everything over the past two decades. But in this quest to communicate the full story of the heartbreak and sadness that I felt as I dived deep into this work, I realized that we were missing an important aspect of North Korea.

Last year, I spoke to my good friend Sug Shin about Crossing Borders and our communications. I told him that while I am generally content with what we put out, I wished there was a lighter, more approachable way to communicate my stance as a Korean-American man whose heart breaks for the North Korean people but who also keeps current with the ridiculous news coming out of North Korea.

I don’t think I am alone in saying that I think it’s preposterous that North Korea once claimed that Kim Jong-Il shot 11 holes in one on his first round of golf or that no one in North Korea is legally allowed to have the same haircut as their dear leader, Kim Jong-Un. We as Crossing Borders staff have kept these absurdities to ourselves simply because we didn’t want to, by publicizing this content, detract from the sufferings of the North Korean people.

As I expressed this to Sug, he had a simple solution: put it in a podcast. Our team brainstormed, explored, researched and produced our new podcast which we call “The Demystified Zone” aka “The DMZ.” Through it, we will cover the light and the dark but from the perspective of two normal people, not analysts or academics.

For example, this year North Korea put out a Hollywood-style video, which depicts Kim Jong-un launching one of his latest ICBMs. He struts around in a leather jacket and designer sunglasses while commanding a military team. The edits are akin to a ‘90s action movie and replete with slow motion shots for dramatic effect. I cannot begin to express to you how absurd this seemingly high-cost production is while its own citizens suffer from persistent food shortages and lack of adequate health care. In an episode titled “Rocket Man”, we spent time expressing our exasperation at this and even had a few laughs at the expense of the Great Leader himself.

Come join us on this journey. I think you’ll like what you hear. 

#PrayforNK - July 10, 2022

On April 25, 2020, North Korea put on its grandest night-time military parade to commemorate the 90th anniversary of their army. Thousands gathered to cheer on marching soldiers and a display of massive missiles. An estimated 20,000 North Koreans worked together over the past few months in preparation of the parade.

Then on May 12, Kim Jong Un ordered a nationwide lockdown and declared a "maximum emergency." He appeared for the first time in public with a mask.

Crossing Borders team members Dan and Jacob arrived in South Korea to visit our Elim House team on May 13. By the time they started meeting with North Korean pastors and people closer to the situation, the count of COVID-19 cases in North Korea had surpassed 2 million. Lacking proper medical testing equipment, cases of “mass fevers” is how the North Korean government and press (Korean Central News Agency) tabulated their counts. Most speculated that the military parade was a super-spreader event and responsible for the spike in COVID-19 “fever” cases. Experts also generally agreed that North Korea making this news public meant their situation was far more grievous and potentially much further along than they communicated.

At the time of this writing, North Korea has:

• Reported over 4.6 million cases of COVID-19 “fever”

• Reported just 72 deaths

• Rejected multiple offers for vaccines from the UN, China, South Korea, etc.

• Encountered another epidemic of an unspecified intestinal disease, which might be typhoid of cholera

• Declared a drought as they head into their peak rice planting season

• Fired eight short-range missiles just in the month of June

It truly does seem stranger than fiction. A North Korean pastor that came to visit Elim House said the situation was truly dire, that many feared for the worst and pointed to the famine of the 90s as an example. Dan and Jacob asked several contacts if there was anything they could do to help while in South Korea for the week. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t a direct way to send help and most of their contacts simply said “please pray.”

#PrayforNK

For the week starting July 10, 2022, Crossing Borders will be partnering with churches in multiple countries to seek God’s mercy for North Korea. The four areas we will focus on during this week of prayer are:

1. HELP - move North Korea to receive outside help

2. PRAY - unite the South Korean church to pray together

3. TRUST - faith to trust in God’s goodness through North Korea’s COVID outbreak

4. SEND - God to create opportunities and to send his workers to North Korea

HELP

The suffering in North Korea is senseless and cruel when there are multiple countries willing and waiting to help. We pray that God would move North Korea and Kim Jong-un to receive medicine and food aid.

PRAY

The topic of North Korea is a hot button issue in South Korea. While the South Korean church generally has a heart to help North Korea, this issue has become sensitive and often divisive in the South Korean church. We pray for God to unite the church to have one heart towards North Korea in prayer.

TRUST

Many of our contacts seemed to feel helpless in being relegated to watching from the sidelines while North Korea reported increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases. Our team felt the same way while being in close proximity to North Korea during their visit and yet being helpless to do anything. We pray for more faith to trust in God’s goodness and sovereignty, even in a time such as this.

SEND

North Korea’s borders are on strict lockdown and China has grown increasingly hostile to foreign missionaries in the past few years. It seems virtually impossible to send a team to either country. We pray that God would create opportunities for outsiders to be sent in, namely believers who carry the message of the gospel.

Prayer Campaign Details

1. The #prayforNK campaign will officially start on July 10, 2022 and end on July 17, 2022 with a short video message from Dan Chung on each Sunday.

2. If your church would like to join the prayer campaign, simply email us before June 30, 2022 at hello@crossingbordersnk.org with your church name, main contact name, email, address and phone.

3. Tell us how many participants your church estimates joining the prayer campaign and we will mail out bookmarks with prayer topics and hand made crosses for your church.

Thank you for praying with us. God have mercy on North Korea.

North Koreans Crushed in Spirit Amid Hunger, Drought and COVID

North Korea has been battling through an out of control COVID-19 outbreak, and in light of its already dire food crisis, a nationwide lockdown has severely hampered the isolated country’s ongoing “all-out fight” anti-drought efforts and desperation to mobilize “all capacities and means” to grow food for the nation. Recently, state media has even reported on the North’s efforts by soldiers, workers and youths to save every “single grain of rice” and ensure no crops are damaged.

‘THE SECOND-WORST DROUGHT’

In a country with a reclusive economy dependent on human labor in agriculture, protracted droughts threaten to hurt North Korea’s tense food situation. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, only 13.3mm (0.52 in) of precipitation fell nationwide in South Korea between December 2021 and February 2022, which marks the lowest figure since the expansion of its observation network in 1973. Similarly, North Korean state media warned workers in the agricultural, forest and urban management sectors about a drought that would last from April to May, and described the “current spring drought” is “the second-worst drought” in 40 years.

Given North Korea lacks proper irrigation facilities and local farmers are left with no choice but to wait for the rain, much of the wheat and barley planted last year died despite extended efforts to double the cultivation of the two crops instead of corn, or even staple food like rice, under Kim Jong-un’s leadership. In particular, the North Korean leader ordered collective farms across the nation to sow wheat and barley on newly created plots, and most farmers suffered major losses as a result, as a source told Daily NK that the barley is only half as tall as it should be and scorched in places. The source added that farmers may have to abandon barley farming this year altogether if the drought continued.

Even though North Korean authorities did implement irrigation facilities in theory, they simply do not work and fields are not supplied with water. Peter Ward, an expert on the North Korean economy, even told NK News that crop failure is not caused by droughts, but rather a result of North Korea’s substandard water management and irrigation systems. Moreover, a source from North Pyongan’s Ryongchon county told Radio Free Asia that out of the six water pumps that used to supply water to every cooperative farm within the county, only three working pumps remain due to frequent power outages and motor failure. Meanwhile, coil wire and insulation materials that are essential for repairing broken pumps have not been provided by the government.

REPLACING BROKEN WATER PUMPS WITH OFFICE WORKERS

North Korea has a track record of requiring its people to share the burden of fulfilling the state’s grain production plan. For example, state media had in the past announced that all North Koreans must be willing to “pour the water of life into socialist farming cooperatives, even if it means they themselves become the water pump or the water bag.”

Last month, local governments reportedly forced all available workforces, including white-collar workers, to help water crops due to the lack of working water pumps. A source from South Pyongan province told Radio Free Asia that, instead of providing farmers with water pumps, the state recklessly mobilized large numbers of workers from various central organizations, such as the Ministry of Forestry, the Ministry of Commerce, the Maritime Administration Bureau and the Literature and Arts Publishing House to water crops, with some of them being forced to carry water on their backs, three days in a row.

State media also reported that “farmers were informed of reasonable watering methods according to soil humidity and light conditions in order to prevent crop damage” and that new farming methods were introduced to combat droughts, for example, through “scientific farming” and “meticulous farming strategies”, including maximizing the efficiency of rice planting machines and securing high-quality fertilizers. However, the efforts were met with little or no success due to the insufficient agricultural facilities and equipment, which in part is due to the suspension of trade with China since the beginning of the pandemic. In response, a source told Radio Free Asia that the authorities have been pursuing a plan to smuggle used equipment from China, which cost half the price of new pumps that cost between $800 and $1,000.

COVID DEEPENS FOOD CRISIS 

International organizations have warned that hundreds of thousands of North Korean children suffered from chronic malnutrition in 2021 and more than 40% of the population were undernourished even before the pandemic. In March 2022, the United Nations urged the North Korean government to reopen its borders for food imports as the deepening isolation may leave many facing starvation.

Although droughts, along with other major natural hazards such as floods, heatwaves, cold snaps and typhoons, are not new challenges and have long posed seasonal threats to the North, in light of the poor health infrastructure and lack of vaccines, warnings of prolonged droughts and food shortages, as well as a crippling economy due to the extended border closure, North Korea may see a ballooning of casualties unless it asks for help… and accepts it in a timely manner.

Top NK Headlines - June 2022

CHINA SUSPECTS COVID-19 WIND BLOWS IN FROM NORTH KOREA

• Authorities in Dandong, a Chinese city that shares a 1,300 km (808 miles) border with North Korea, indicated their suspicion that the wind blown into the city from North Korea has resulted in the spike in their daily Covid-19 cases.

• Dandong has been under lockdown since April 26, 2022 and residents were told to stay at home as the city sealed off 41 areas and set 22 places under anti-epidemic control earlier this month.

• Authorities also urged residents living by the Yalu River that runs between China and North Korea to close their windows on days with southerly winds, although there is no scientific evidence showing that the Covid-19 virus is able to survive airborne transmission over long distances in outdoor settings without repeated exposure.

• Images circulating on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, show purported air measurement instruments that have been set up by authorities along the Yalu River to detect Covid-19.

Source: 
Bloomberg 
NK News 
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202206/1267330.shtml 
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4776890689126884 
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4776920435132760 

CASH REWARDS FOR CHINESE WHISTLEBLOWERS TO REPORT ON CROSS-BORDER ACTIVITIES 

• Dandong announced a cash reward system to crack down on cross-border smuggling as Covid-19 “continues to spread and mutate”.

• The reward system runs from May 31, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

• In order to receive cash rewards, one shall report any the following activities to the police: (i) any sea, river or fishing-related illegal acts committed in Dandong; (ii) smuggling by sea in Dandong; (iii) illegal fishing in Dandong; or (iv) any act involving throwing, passing, giving, sending, purchasing or exchanging goods across the barriers at the borders, or picking up goods drifted across the boundary river.

• The notice encourages timely reporting by its citizens. In particular, only the first whistleblower would be rewarded if more than one person reports the same incident, unless additional clues are provided by the subsequent whistleblower.

Source: 
NK News
https://www.dandong.gov.cn/html/DDSZF/202206/0165400850696438.html 

NORTH KOREA ORDERED CITIZENS LIVING ABROAD TO PAY LOYALTY FUNDS TO FINANCE MISSILE TESTS 

• North Korea imposed “loyalty funds” on trade officials stationed in China. A source in the Chinese city of Dalian told Radio Free Asia that they were ordered to pay $3,000 by the end of July 2022 to offset part of the costs for the ballistic missile tests earlier this month.

• According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, eight missiles were fired from four locations into the sea east of the Korean peninsula.

• Loyalty funds are not new to China-based trade officials, as foreign cash has in the past been demanded from Kim Jong-un’s administration, especially during important events such as the military parade held in Pyongyang in April 2022.

• “We are well aware that tens of millions of dollars are spent to launch a single missile. But how many ballistic missiles have been launched this year? I can’t quite understand the behavior of the authorities, who waste foreign currency on missile launches and forcibly impose loyalty funds on us,” the source added, “This is the third time the authorities have imposed a loyalty fund on us this year. This first and second time, though, trade had been partially open, so we could at least pay half of the fund. … This time it is not easy because China is on complete lockdown due to the coronavirus.”

• Radio Free Asia sources estimated that the government would receive around $3 million from the loyalty funds imposed this time, which is an amount far less than the estimated cost of one missile test.

• It is also reported that two North Korean doctors dispatched to work in a hospital in Laos a few years ago were forced to contribute to the loyalty funds. Sources revealed that the North Korean ward is able to earn between $100 and $200 per day on average but is required to pay $3,000 per month to the Pyongyang government, with very little left for the two doctors. As a result, the doctors are “depressed and disappointed because they owe more in loyalty money than they earn.”

Source: 
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/funds-06062022191159.html
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/laos-06142022182130.html 

Choe Son Hui (right), North Korea’s first female foreign minister.

NORTH KOREA IS READY FOR ITS NEXT NUCLEAR TEST UNDER THE COUNTRY’S FIRST FEMALE FOREIGN MINISTER’S LEADERSHIP

• North Korea appointed its top nuclear negotiator, Choe Son Hui, the daughter of former North Korean Prime Minister, as the country’s first female foreign minister. Choe first appeared in the media in 1997 during four-party nuclear negotiations and later during six-party talks in the 2000s, throughout which she had published alternating statements on North Korean state media between threatening a “nuclear showdown” and offering dialogues with its neighbors.

• South Korean Foreign Minister, Park Jin, attended a summit in Washington on June 13, 2022 and stated his belief that North Korea has completed its final preparations to carry out the seventh nuclear test since 2006 and its first since September 2017.

• Park spoke at a press conference alongside U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, threatening the North with additional international sanctions as well as increased military pressure if Pyongyang goes ahead with the test, and warning that “North Korea should change its mind and make the right decision.”

• However, according to a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Doug Bandow, sanctions imposed on North Korea so far has not changed its policies and would be unlikely to have any greater impact going forward. 

Source: 
CNN 
VOA News 
Daily Mail

Thank You, Dear Leader!

Source: Reuters (North Koreans in Pyongyang mourn the death of Kim Jong-il in December 2011).

When Kim Jong-Il died in December 2011, North Korean citizens had two options. Attend mourning events for the deceased supreme leader or face a minimum of six months in a labor camp. Even then, simply attending one of these memorial events was apparently not enough as the Daily Mail reported that citizens that showed up but weren’t crying or sad enough were also sent to labor camps.

If we rewind back to my high school years when I was first learning about the situation in North Korea, I was strangely fascinated and disturbed at the information I was receiving about the isolated country. At that point in time, I had seen clips of Kim Il-sung’s funeral where everyone, including the reporter, was hysterically crying. This can’t be real I thought.

I found myself later scrolling online reading article after article that listed a range of things that only happen in North Korea. There were these accounts about how the North Korean people believed that Kim Jong-un and his father and grandfather were gods. I was in disbelief with the information I had received. Things can’t be that bad, I thought. They don’t actually believe that Kim Il-sung is an actual god, do they? There may be many weird things going on in that country but I thought this had to be an exaggeration. Fast forward a couple of years to the summer of 2019, I went out for tacos with friends and was introduced to a missionary that had gone to North Korea a few years ago as an “English Teacher.” The question at the top of my list for this missionary was if the people of North Korea actually believed that the Kim family members are gods. 

“Yes,” she replied.

With sheer skepticism, I asked if they could be faking it. 

“If they are faking it, they are doing a very good job at it. It looked very real to me.”

Upon further research, it turns out the reality of the situation is actually much worse. As I delved into the deep world of North Korea, I was horrified to find out that my friend was right.

In National Geographic’s documentary Inside North Korea, the cameras followed a team of ophthalmologists led by Dr. Sanduk Ruit from Nepal inside the Hermit Kingdom who were there to provide cataract eye surgery to 1,000 blind North Koreans. On this trip, National Geographic journalist Lisa Ling posing as a member of the medical team had an opportunity to visit a more privileged home. Six government officials were also there to watch every interaction between Lisa and this privileged North Korean family. The cameras captured the partially blind grandmother with her granddaughters, one on each side, as she held their hands and the three of them bowed to the portraits of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un.

Source: National Geographic (A grandmother and her granddaughters bowing down to the portraits of the leaders).

In the hospital, after the medical team finished performing all the surgeries, it was time for Dr. Sanduk Ruit to remove the patches from his patients. First in line to have their eye patches removed is a 23-year-old woman who had been blind for years. You would think that after all this, the young woman would show some gratitude for Dr. Ruit and his medical team but what actually happened next was quite disturbing. Moments after the young woman had the patches removed from her eyes, her father who came along with her, tells her she can see again thanks to the Great General. “We must bow to our Great General for this,” he says. Both the father and daughter approach the two large photos of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il as the daughter says, “I want to show my gratitude to our Great General,” she exclaimed as they bow in gratitude. “Thank you very, very much!” they exclaim as the crowd of North Koreans behind them give a round of applause. Then they start jumping and exclaiming, “We praise you!”

Source: National Geographic (Father and daughter bow down in gratitude to North Korean leaders after Dr. Ruit’s eye surgery).

I watched this part of the documentary in utter disbelief. Did North Koreans really believe this nonsense or were they putting on an act because the North Korean officers escorting the National Geographics team were present and watching? It was uncomfortable to watch.

You have to start them young

In North Korea, all preschool children are required to spend 30 minutes a day learning about the childhoods of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. This portion of their studies is known as the “Greatness Education” which has the purpose of brainwashing or creating loyalty to the regime at a young age. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the Daily NK reported in August 2020 that Kim Jong-un’s sister decided to update the “Greatness Education” and is pushing the lessons from 30 minutes to 90 minutes long.

On special days like Kim Jong-un’s birthday as well as on the birthdays of the two previous leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, North Korean children receive a 1 kg bag of sweets. Before children can reach into the bag and enjoy the sweets, they first have to approach the pictures of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il and show them gratitude. Families don’t need to look far as portraits of the two leaders are mandatory in every household and every public space. There is also a story that circulated in 2020 of a woman who was punished for saving her two sons from a burning house but not saving the portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il. This is the bizarre and sad reality that exists even today. Everything good in life is a gift from their “benevolent leaders,” to whom every citizen is expected to be eternally grateful. With this level of indoctrination, perhaps it’s not so hard to believe that their tears were real after all.

*This post was written by our social media coordinator Melissa Vasquez.

Top NK Headlines - May 2022

COVID-19 RAVAGES NORTH KOREA

• 2.8M have experienced “fever” and sickness and 479,400 people are in treatment. This represents 11 percent of the North Korean population who may have contracted COVID-19

• President Biden, during a visit with newly elected South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol shared in a joint appearance with president Yoon "We've offered vaccines, not only to North Korea but to China as well, and we're prepared to do that immediately… we've got no response." 

• State media has recommended remedies such as herbal tea, gargling salt-water and taking painkillers such as ibuprofen.

BBC.com
38North.org

EXHAUSTED PYONGYANG RESIDENTS FORCED TO ATTEND 17-HOUR “COVID-SUPERSPREADER" MILITARY PARADE

• North Korea hosted an extravagant military parade on April 25, 2022 where it gathered more than 20,000 soldiers to showcase its military equipment, including the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army.  

• Kim Jong-un praised students and young workers who participated in the parade for their “patriotism and high enthusiasm for the revolution and struggle.”  However, participants said the parade did little to improve morale and a resident of Chongjin told Radio Free Asia that “[residents] did not hide their disappointment, saying that no one believed the authorities’ propaganda.”

• A city official said that the event was only publicly announced just before it began, and “[from] the dawn on the 25th, about 100,000 Pyongyang citizens waited at Kim Il Sung Square for 17 hours to make the military parade possible...[they] were all totally exhausted.”

• Sources also revealed that since Pyongyang citizens have been trying to avoid parade duties, the government began to force them to practise watching or marching in parades two months in advance, “[now] the number of participants are assigned to each neighborhood watch unit and they are forcibly mobilized.”  Citizens complained that they were unable to do business during the two-month practice period and were not compensated for their loss.

• To ensure Kim Jong-un's security, authorities blocked all mobile communications in Pyongyang and even instructed participants to dress in black until just before the ceremony started in order to avoid being detected by satellites.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/parade-04292022195652.html 
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220502000125&np=1&mp=1 
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3177889/coronavirus-superspreader-military-parade-blamed-deadly-north 
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/covid-05132022203718.html 

HUNGRY NORTH KOREAN WORKERS IN CHINA WORK BEHIND CLOSED DOORS AMIDST LOCKDOWN

• A source told Daily NK that North Korean factory workers in the city of Dandong, China have remained in their dormitories under orders to keep working behind closed doors since their plants shut down following regional Covid-19 lockdowns.

• The source added that those managing the workers were supposed to bulk buy food through a Chinese shopping strategy called “group buying” but had failed to do so, which resulted in the challenges of acquiring food with the current implementation of bans on movement.

• Although the managers have now picked up on the “group buying” method, workers were not receiving sufficient food due to the soaring food prices in China. The cost of eggs, for instance, have more than tripled in price since the lockdown began and a head of cabbage which used to cost approx. $0.29 USD is now a shocking $7.37 USD.

• North Koreans workers struggled to send authorities a set quota of “loyalty funds” since the Chinese factories shut down, resulting in a cut in their monthly wages.

• Nonetheless, many workers who used to work 10 to 12 hours a day all month for less than RMB 500 (approx. $73.73 USD) said that they could now rest, despite being frustrated about the lack of support from the North Korean embassy in China.

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korean-workers-china-face-challenges-purchasing-enough-food-amid-lockdowns/ 

JUDGE FEARS NORTH KOREA COULD MURDER U.S. MARINE VET

• U.S. Magistrate Judge Jean Rosenbluth issued an unusual decision concerning her order for the extradition of Christopher Ahn, a former U.S. Marine veteran who took part in a raid on North Korea’s Madrid embassy in February 2019, to face trial in Spain.

• Ahn claimed in his case that he was part of an anti-North Korea group called “Free Joseon (Free Korea)” who had entered the embassy to help North Koreans who wanted to defect.

• According to court documents, the group left the building with computer drives, a cell phone, and other electronic information, which they later turned over to the FBI.

• Ahn returned to California after the incident and was arrested in April 2019.  Spain later sought his extradition on 6 criminal charges carrying a potential sentence of over 10 years in prison.

• Judge Rosenbluth wrote in her ruling that “[in] part because of his participation in the embassy incident, North Korea wants to kill Ahn...I must decide whether to certify his extradition to Spain, where North Korea can much more easily murder him. Although I conclude that the law requires me to certify, I do not think it’s the right result, and I hope that a higher court will either tell me I’m wrong or itself block the extradition.”

• During an interview with Fox News last year, Ahn expressed his disappointment that “[the] same Department of Justice that has told me that if I leave the country that I could be assassinated is the same Department of Justice that’s trying to extradite me.”

Source:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/judge-warns-north-korea-murder-us-marine-vet-spain-rcna28154 
https://nypost.com/2022/05/10/us-judge-forced-to-allow-extradition-of-ex-marine-christopher-ahn-to-spain-fears-hell-be-killed/ 
https://www.nknews.org/2022/05/us-judge-approves-extradition-of-american-who-raided-dprk-embassy-in-spain/ 

NORTH KOREA COMPLETES NUCLEAR TEST PREPARATIONS DESPITE COVID-19 OUTBREAK 

• South Korea’s spy agency revealed that there are signs North Korea could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile as part of its seventh nuclear test after completing its preparations amid Covid-19 outbreak.

• Kim Byung-kee of the Democratic Party told reporters that “[it] would not be abnormal for North Korea to launch a missile or conduct a nuclear test at one point, as signs [of such provocations] are detected and Pyongyang has almost completed its preparations.”

• The first deputy chief of South Korea’s presidential National Security Office, Kim Tae-hyo, also said that a nuclear launch appears to be “imminent.”

Source:
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220519006400320?section=nk/nk

The 2022 COVID-19 Crisis in Unvaccinated North Korea

North Korea is currently facing a major crisis that threatens the lives of potentially hundreds of thousands of its citizens due to the recent and rapid outbreak of COVID-19. 

North Korean refugees with contacts in both China and North Korea have shared with us that the situation in North Korea is far worse than Kim Jong-un lets on. Some estimate the death toll to be as high as 10 percent of the population once COVID-19 has ravaged the country. 

A refugee recently shared with us that the North Korean government can no longer lie to its people anymore because of text messaging between its citizens, which is why the regime has recently admitted publicly that the country is affected by the pandemic. He also said that North Korea tried to administer the vaccine over the past year but because the mRNA vaccines need to be refrigerated, vaccination efforts fell flat due to the lack of access to reliable electricity. 

Outside of the vaccine, basic medical supplies to treat symptoms of COVID-19 are not available. The country recently asked their ally China for help. North Korea stocked three of its cargo planes with basic medical supplies provided by their neighbor, a far cry from the aid, expertise and technology needed to stave off the disease. In the absence of COVID treatments, North Korea’s state run media have encouraged the use of painkillers and antibiotics, as well as unverified home remedies, such as gargling salt water, or drinking lonicera japonica tea or willow leaf tea.

When asked if this could mean trouble for the Kim regime in North Korea, refugees say that this can absolutely spell danger for the Kim family regime, which has ruled over the country for more than 70 years. North Korea has been relegated to blaming South Korean activists for dropping the virus into the country via propaganda balloons. 

LOCKING DOWN A STARVING NATION

North Korean state media, Rodong Sinmun, reported that Kim Jong-un told North Korean authorities to study and actively follow the “policies, successes, and experiences” of China. At the cost of significantly increasing the odds of mass starvation, their leader “called on all the cities and counties of the whole country to thoroughly lock down their areas and organize work and production after closing each working unit, production unit and living unit from each other so as to flawlessly and perfectly block the spread vacuum of the malicious virus.” 

In a country that is on the brink of famine, the threat of COVID-19 appears to be second to the pressing food crisis, as a ruling party member in North Hamgyong province commented that “[people] are going to factories and to their places of work as normal. The authorities don’t want work to be disrupted...People are worried about how to survive.”  The seriousness of the situation was reflected by their leader’s 2022 New Year remarks, which took many by surprise as he emphasized agricultural output, rather than the party’s favored nuclear weapons and missiles developments. Although starvation is no novelty to North Korea, the combination of food and healthcare insecurity matched with a deadly respiratory virus is a new and frightening challenge. Journalists in South Korea also reported signs of normal agricultural activity in farms to the south, suggesting there may be a rural-urban divide in how lockdowns are being implemented, especially during North Korea’s rice planting season, which runs from May through October.  

KIM JONG-UN'S RESPONSE

At a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, Kim Jong-un criticized the “immaturity in the state capacity for coping with the crisis” which increased the “complexity and hardship” in fighting the pandemic.  Following which, health officials have developed a COVID-19 treatment guide to prevent drug overdoses and medical mistreatments that resulted in many of the reported deaths, though it is unclear exactly what drugs are currently used to treat patients with COVID-19.  Kim Jong-un also ordered the distribution of medicine released from state reserves and mobilized his army of nearly 3,000 members of the Korean People’s Army’s medical units to transport medical supplies to pharmacies in Pyongyang.  Meanwhile, more than 1.4 million officials, teachers, and students in the public health sector were deployed to identify people with COVID-19 symptoms.

NORTH KOREA'S PANDEMIC RESPONSE THUS FAR

North Korea has fought the pandemic as a matter of “national survival” since COVID-19 emerged in China back in January 2020.  As one of the first countries to close borders due to COVID-19, Pyongyang set up an “emergency quarantine command” specifically to deal with the spread of the virus and pledged that it would not open its borders until a cure was found.  The COVID-19 measures taken extended beyond suspending trade with China, which plays a pivotal part in North Korea’s economy, to systematically rejecting humanitarian aid such as vaccines from foreign countries and even executing a citizen for bringing goods through customs in violation of Covid-related quarantine measures. The world's attention was once again drawn to the North’s strict restrictions when it announced that it would not participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to concerns over potential exposure to COVID-19, which led to the country’s suspension from participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. By April 2021, many foreign diplomats left the isolated country amidst severe food and drug shortages. Later that month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the country was facing its “worst-ever situation” comparable to the great famine in the 1990’s and called the party to wage another Arduous March to fight the economic hardship.  

Despite adopting harsh lockdown and enforcement measures, including the shoot-on-sight orders, North Korea’s self-proclaimed perfect zero-covid record was recently overrun by 1.5 million “fever” cases (a euphemism for suspected COVID-19, given the lack of testing capacity necessary to confirm diagnosis of COVID-19) that resulted in over 62 deaths to date. However, some observers noted that the number of reported cases lacks accuracy as authorities may deliberately underreport cases to disguise the seriousness of the crisis and ease the pressure on their leader.  Not a single North Korean citizen is known to have received COVID-19 vaccination. An outbreak of the omicron variant within its borders could unleash a humanitarian crisis, especially in the context of a dire economy following trade suspensions, natural disasters, unfavorable harvests and widespread starvation, a broken healthcare system, and years of international sanctions imposed in response to ballistic missile tests.

Understanding Saving Face

North Korean couples who cannot afford to provide a meal for their wedding guests will rent out food from local vendors, use them as a PHOTO OP and then return it afterwards.

When I heard North Koreans were renting food for the photo op, I was both equally shocked and confused. Faking it for photos is something I was used to seeing and have even come to expect in Western culture. With the rise of social media, it has become easier than ever for people to compare their lives with others and even stretch the truth about the life they live, often giving the illusion that they are doing much better than what they actually are.

Back in May 2017, I was browsing the Internet when I came across a trending topic that discussed the reality of people trying to portray a lifestyle they don’t have. The topic was trending as a result of rapper Bow Wow posting a picture of a private jet on his personal Instagram page with the caption, “Travel Day” implying that he was the one traveling on that private plane. Anyone who viewed that picture would have believed that he was doing very well for himself. However, things took a turn when a bystander who was also traveling to the same destination as Bow Wow, caught the rapper on his flight sitting in the economy section with him and was quick to call him out publicly. He snapped a picture of the rapper and posted it on his personal social media and the picture quickly began to circulate. It wasn’t long before the entire situation went viral and hundreds of people online started sharing humorous photos with the hashtag #bowwowchallenge as a reminder of how people are deceptive online, portraying a life they don’t have or trying to act like they are doing much better financially than what they actually are.

Internet access in North Korea remains extremely restricted. Other than the elite, most North Koreans don’t have internet access. Those that happen to live in one of few of the privileged cities which includes the capital Pyongyang, have access to the intranet, a small selection of government approved websites. The closest thing North Korea has to social media is an intranet “digital bulletin board” where those who have access to it can wish one another a happy birthday according to the Washington Post in their article, A rare glimpse of North Korea’s version of Facebook. No real social media means North Koreans can’t catch a glimpse of updates from friends or family. No social media also should mean less pressure to keep up with others, or does it?

Several Asian countries including China, Japan and the Koreas live in what is known as the “saving face” culture that provides a glimpse into reasons behind this strange yet common phenomena. In the article Saving Face or Losing Face in Korea by Margarita Kichukova, the author touches on the subject of “saving face” that is deeply rooted in Korean culture that originated from China. Kichukova states “It is unknown when exactly Korea accepted this particular cultural norm [of saving face] from China but it became part of the fundamental rules of behavior coined during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).”

Tom Doctoroff of J. Walter Thompson advertising discusses the importance of showing respect to people’s face in a New York Times article “Saving Face in China.” “Face — a cliché, but it’s so true — is the currency of advancement,” he said. “It’s like a social bank account. You spend it and you save it and you invest. And when you take away somebody’s face you take away someone’s fundamental sense of security.”

Here in America, the internet mocked Bow Wow for his deception but people quickly moved on to the next hashtag. On the contrary, being publicly ridiculed would be taken very disrespectfully and seriously in Asian countries like China or South Korea.

Experiencing it personally as a Mexican American woman

One Thanksgiving morning, I joined my Chinese friend and his family for brunch. When it was time to pay, I pulled out my wallet to pay for what I ordered and my friend placed his hand over my wallet shaking his head no in a very serious manner and told me his grandparents would take care of the bill. I am a Mexican American woman and have never encountered this in my own Mexican culture or generally in American culture. The same thing happened when I joined my Asian friend and his family on a trip to Las Vegas. His older relatives took care of the bill at every restaurant and my friend gave me a “don’t you even think about paying” look as I reached for my wallet. I actually felt bad for not paying as I don’t like owing people money but now as I read and understand this part of Asian culture, had I paid for my meal, it would have come across as disrespectful and among themselves, they would “lose face” by letting a guest contribute to the bill.

Saving Face when a country is falling apart

Saving face is deeply rooted in Asian culture for both those who live in Asian countries and even those who live in the U.S. Not being Asian, I have a hard time understanding how the pressure to “save face” exists in a country where people struggle to put food on the table. Last October, Kim Jong-un made headlines for telling his starving citizens to eat less until 2025. This came almost two years after all borders and trade halted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and echoed government mandates that led up to the famine of the 90s.

There may be some North Koreans who are able to rent food for photos to portray a life they cannot afford to live to “save face.” For most others, the need to survive trumps saving face. In January 2022, the Daily NK reported that famous North Korean actors and actresses were out in Pyongsong’s Okjon Market begging for food. In a society where saving face is the cultural norm, imagine how bad things must be for famous actors to swallow their pride and lose face by begging for food in public.

This pales in comparison to silly trends like the #bowwowchallenge. As I learn more about the North Korean people and their reality that is foreign to me in so many ways, I want to make it known to others. How amazing would it be for us to pray together for North Korea and make a different kind of hashtag trend. #prayfornorthkorea

This article was written by our Social Media Coordinator Melissa Vasquez.

Once Upon A Time, North Korea was the Christian Hub of the East - Part 2

Surrender in a village during The Korean War.

PYONGYANG SEMINARY BIRTHED CHURCH LEADERS

When the first seven graduates finished their studies at the Pyongyang Theological Seminary in 1907, the mission boards of the Southern Presbyterian Church (US), the Northern Presbyterian Church (US), the Canadian Presbyterian Church, and the Australian Presbyterian Church, agreed to establish the first presbytery in Korea. This is an important event which solidified Pyongyang’s importance in the history of Korean Christianity as until this time, most missionaries and leaders in Korea were overseen by the denominations and mission boards of the Western missionaries.  

Soon after, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea was established in 1912, where Horace Underwood and Kil Sun-ju were elected as its first moderator and vice-moderator, respectively, during a meeting at the seminary in Pyongyang. Other denominations were subsequently formed to build and support the growing church community in Korea.

WHY DID NORTH KOREAN CHURCHES DISAPPEAR?

The prevailing perspective that has long dominated the South Korean and western view of North Korea is that, since the division of the two the Koreas, North Korean Christianity practically vanished except for a very limited number of “underground” Christians, since most Christians, especially leaders, had to flee to the South for religious freedom following a series of persecutions by the regime.  

Shedding new light on the matter, Japanese historian, Sawa Masahiko, studied two of the multi-volume 1960s collections of Kim Il-sung’s addresses and writings and found that, unlike Marx and Lenin, Kim seldom attacked religion or Christianity per se, but rather focused his criticism on such political allegations that Christianity came to Korea as the forerunner of imperialism, and that some “bad” Christian leaders opposed the nationalist nation-building in North Korea and collaborated with the Americans during the Korean War. Sawa also questioned if the reason why there was no church in North Korea was because of North Korean communism as such, but rather with the nature of Korean Christianity itself, making it unable to exist in a socialist environment.

Alternatively, Korean scholar, Dae Young Ryu, proposed a new perspective to understand the history of North Korean Christianity as a history of North Korean Christians’ constructive efforts to survive, adjust, and change in the midst of a hostile environment. Ryu noted that, during the Japanese occupation, North Korean Christianity mainly became the religion of businessmen, professionals, and landlords. Even though a vast majority of the North Korean population was poor tenant farmers, few of them embraced Christianity. When the nationalist-socialist government came into power after the liberation, established Christians became antagonists of the nationalist-Marxist revolution and fled to the South, while lay people simply accepted socialism as a reality. Further, U.S. air raids that caused immense human suffering to North Koreans during the Korean War planted a burning hatred of Americans within the nation. Thus Christianity, which was seen as an American religion, became an object of contempt and ridicule. As a result, many North Korean Christians lost their faith as they rebuilt the war-stricken nation.