‘There used to be 3,000 churches in the North of Korea — more than in the South’, observes Operation Mobilisation’s Northeast Asia Regional Leader, Gim SuYong. ‘Many pastors in the North left and started some of the biggest churches in the South. In fact, my own fellowship started that way. But 70 years ago the country was divided into two: North Korea and South Korea.’
For the last seven years Gim SuYong has partnered with the church in leading a Bible study among North Korean defectors. Approximately 25,000 North Koreans now live in South Korea, he says, and every year 3,000 more come through China. For two years Gim SuYong was designated by the Korean Church Council as leading pastor of a Korean defector camp. He has met several thousand men and women who have chosen to escape the North.
One man died for all
‘The defectors I meet have left because they hate what their government is doing’, he states. ‘When I asked a 60-year-old woman what the big difference is between North and South, she said: “In North Korea everybody lives for one man. But through the South Korean church I now understand that one Man died for all!”’ ‘The government in North Korea is taking God’s glory for themselves’, continues Gim SuYong. ‘They have copied the church system of hymns and worship to their “god”, Kim Jong-un.
