Living a Double Life in North Korea

29 Nov

Living a Double Life in North Korea

 


North Korean Border guards taking a break outside their guardhouse on the South Korean border. They are ordered to shoot any who attempt to escape their country.

Dear Friends,

Let me tell you about Mrs. Sun (not her real name), a North Korean woman who is not all that she seems to be.

To the North Korean government and many of her influential friends and family, she is a doctor and a loyal, upstanding citizen.

To hungry and impoverished North Korean Christians, she is a Good Samaritan who helps sustain them by smuggling food, medicine, and Bibles into North Korea from China.

Mrs. Sun’s official life began decades ago, during a time of relative prosperity in North Korea. As a college student, Mrs. Sun had the opportunity to pursue the career of her choice. Due to her strong desire to help others, she chose medicine. Years later, when Mrs. Sun was in her thirties, North Korea endured the worst famine the country had ever experienced. Once again she heeded the call to help those in need by offering food, which she obtained from neighboring China.

Twenty years later, her life as a “double agent” had become routine. By “day” she served her people as a medical professional (under the guise of a loyal national), and by “night” she served as one of our most effective underground food distributors and evangelists. Using her influential status to travel into China, she gathered food, medical supplies, and other aid to bring back to the hundreds of people in her home city.

Last month, however, the unthinkable happened. During her stay with some friends in China, she received an urgent message from a trusted friend. Government spies had discovered the true purpose of her frequent border crossings. The message warned that officials were waiting to arrest her as soon as she stepped foot on North Korean soil.

Mrs. Sun was devastated. She knew that she faced certain death if she tried to return home, but the thought of leaving her husband and pregnant daughter in North Korea was unbearable. Making the hardest decision of her life, Mrs. Sun entrusted herself to God and went into hiding with the help of her friends in China.

But Mrs. Sun could not stay in China—she was now a hunted woman, as China cooperates with North Korea in searching for and returning North Koreans who have escaped. Those who are caught in China and returned to North Korea are sent to concentration camps where they are not likely to survive their sentences.

Using gifts from the North Korean Christians Fund, Heaven’s Family funded Mrs. Sun’s safe passage to Thailand, where she is now living. She will be there for three months and then relocate to South Korea. Please pray this month for her to have a smooth transition to her new life in South Korea as well as for her family left behind in North Korea.

For our suffering family in North Korea,

Elisabeth Walter
Director, North Korean Christians Fund

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