What does the Trump / Kim Summit mean for North Korea’s Christians?
Firstly, we thank God the summit has happened. It has advanced peace and lessened the prospect of war. Naturally, the mainstream media are asking who ‘won’ or who ‘gained the most from it’?
Explaining ‘the handshake’
The BBC ‘explains the handshake’ and the body language here, if you are interested!
It appears the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, to give North Korea its preferred name, will cease all nuclear tests. Meanwhile, the United States will stop what President Trump conceded are ‘provocative’ military exercises in South Korea. Neither of those undertakings appeared in the agreed communique, which is here.
That saw the DPRK committed to ‘work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’. But of course Kim Jung-Un does not want to end up like Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. So the undertaking does not amount to much. But asking who won and who lost is typical MSM playground talk. A more mature look is probably this one at RT.
Prov 22:10 Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
Peace and prosperity
Firstly, we need to thank God the two men met at all. In addition, after last week’s G7 debacle, we thank God they agreed a statement. When President Trump met the G7 leaders last week, they could not agree a form of words. That was at least partly because the President wants Russia readmitted to a new G8, says the Guardian. This time, there is a stated intention of the US and the DPRK ‘to establish new US-DPRK relations’. These were: ‘in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.’
In addition, ‘the United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula’.
As we keep saying, peace and prosperity are good things. God’s heart is for people to live in peace.
Eccl 2:24 There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
But make no mistake, there are those who will dislike such words. They will be working to undermine the declaration. As Iran is telling the North Koreans, you can never be sure which Donald Trump is going to show up. Above all, the US is constantly trying to defend and enhance its economic interests worldwide. That’s not a reprehensible thing. All countries do it. We just need to be aware it happens and pray the more for peace.
Kim-Moon summit paved the way
Much prayer has gone into this process already. The historic meeting in April between Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in paved the way for the Trump-Kim summit.
Christianheadlines says: ‘The meeting of the two leaders signalled a major change in North Korea’s relations with the rest of the world and sparked hope that conditions for North Korean citizens–and particularly Christians–can begin to improve.’
Following the meeting, Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in issued a joint statement: ‘There will be no mo
re war on the Korean peninsula, and a new age of peace has begun.’
Christians in South Korea, says the website, were fasting and praying for the Kim-Moon summit. ‘In Paju, a city just south of the North Korean border, pastors held an all-night vigil and South Korean Christian politicians also fasted and prayed.’
Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Worst place to be a Christian
Open Doors says North Korea is simply the worst place in the world to be a Christian. Their website carries three terrible stories which illustrate the plight of North Korea’s Christian under Kim Jong-Un.
Open Doors’ Robert Kenna says: ‘It’s hard to fathom that people are not free to attend and be part of a church, or even express their religious beliefs to their children, out of fear they will say something to the wrong person.’
Christianheadlines quotes Ryan Morgan, an analyst with International Christian Concern Asia: ‘The regime still has up to 70,000 Christians locked away in virtual concentration camps.’ Mr Morgan added that a Christian believer and three generations of his or her family can still go to prison for life just for owning a Bible. Open Doors suggests over 50,000 Christians are imprisoned. Either way, it is outrageous and counter-productive. The Lord wants his people to live in peace, free from persecution. He sets his heart against a nation which oppresses. And just imagine the benefit to North Korea of all that liberated prayer:
Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Prospects for North Korea’s Christians
So does all the diplomatic activity mean things are opening up for North Korea’s Christians? Is religious freedom high on the Trump agenda? Well, the three US nationals released by North Korea prior to the summit were all Christians. Professors Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song, and Kim Sang Duk are evangelical academics who were working at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, according to Christianity Today.
Meanwhile, Fox News reports on Christians praying for the Kim-Trump Summit on ‘the Korean peninsula and in Singapore, where the monumental summit is taking place.’
It went on to say: ‘On Sunday, several churches just miles away from the Trump-Kim meeting location on Santosa Island, prayed for the two world leaders before their one-on-one discussion in hopes of North Korean denuclearization and a possible peace treaty to end the Korean War.’
1Tim 2:2 (Pray) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
Pray for more than peace
Equally, Mission Network News headlines: ‘North Korean Christians pray for more than peace from summit’. It quotes Eric Foley of the Voice of the Martyrs Korea.
‘Foley says, “From a Christian perspective there are four words we should be praying we hear at the summit. The four words we have been hearing are words like, ‘It’s a new day’. But as Christians, we should be praying that the words we hear are, ‘We need to repent, or we need to change.’”
‘Foley continues, “Those kinds of phrases like, ‘We need security guarantees’, or ‘Please give us money’, or ‘Let’s end this war’, all of those sound promising. But what we know as Christians is that unless there is a fundamental heart change on the part of the leaders of North Korea than all of the promises we hear at the summit will amount to nothing.”’
Foley says prayer should not be conditioned by a step-by-step approach. The idea that economic incentives are followed by nuclear disarmament and then followed by religious freedom is not biblical, he says.
Instead, ‘What’s known in the Scriptures and what North Korean believers follow is that in order for there to be change between nations, the heart of the leader of the nation must be transformed. Pray that God would radically step into this unusual situation and change the heart of North Korean leaders. Pray that they would seek God and find Him and begin to follow Him alone as Lord.’
Dan 4:37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
Open Doors prayer points
Open Doors estimates there are 300,000 Christians in North Korea. Chairman Kim could remember that Christians were at the forefront in opposing the Japanese occupation of the peninsular from 1910 to 1945.
So Open Doors suggests these as prayer points:
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- President Trump and Kim Jong-un’s historic meeting on June 12 will be the first in a series of actions that sets Korea on a new course of religious freedom.
- Kim will be convinced to release the more than 50,000-plus Christians unjustly held in detention centers and prison camps throughout the country.
- Kim will allow for the creation of new churches where North Koreans can freely worship outside of the one “show church” that currently exists.
- Existing believers within North Korea would take courage to lead a new revival of the Christian faith in North Korea.
We shall go even further. We urge that ‘big prayer’ for Kim to be convicted of how much more authority he would have under Christ Jesus, repent and believe in the saving power of the King of kings.
And that, in a way, is what Premier Radio says Christians in North Korea are praying for. It’s not regime change they want, because someone else would take Kim’s place. It’s a change of heart in the regime. We could also pray that US negotiators will keep raising this point. It’s one we can pray our UK MP’s press HM Government to raise with both North Korea and the US. And with South Korea, for that matter.
1Tim 6:15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
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Here is an insight into how North Korean Christians pray for their leader…
Copy and paste in………
‘Don’t pray for Kim Jong-Un’s demise say Christians in North Korea.’
Also you might want to look at one of the video clips of the revival in Pyongyang in 1907.
May he come to the faith that his grandparents had!
We do pray for him in our persecuted church prayer meeting.
Thanks, Lynkalin. I’ve added that link to the article.
I don’t believe it is anything like as bad in that country as they make out. You can actually get a fair idea of what it is like by the videos North Koreans post on Youtube. I know some say they are organs of the state and just say what the state tell them to say, but that’s not right. Over there everyone loves their great leader. He protects them all from nasty warmongering Americans and supplies them with plenty. They do genuinely believe that, and you have to think really that it is their own culture and that is Korean, and very much unlike our own.
They do come across as happy as well. They seems far happier than what the people trudging along some crowded central London street would look like. Have you been on the tube, because you’ll know what I mean there! Koreans are also very intelligent and tend to be one of the most intelligent races in the world. Oxford University has many of them studying maths. Actually Oxford was saying they have a good relationship with Koreans, and feel they are onto a good thing with some partnership with one of their leading universities. It’s more grim up north, but I think it is important to take them as they are. All that is ever spoken about them involves nuclear programmes. Well they are real people and don’t actually look at all like they wish to be westernised. If the Americans actually acted in a friendly non-threatening manner for the next 30 year then I suppose they might pack it in. The thing is though that trust take a long time to build and is easily destroyed. We still look at the Germans as somewhat dubious.
I don’t think I would be happy living in North Korea.
no-one’s asking you to
I’m surprised that Mark of all people is missing the point here !
I am a person who likes to say what he thinks, regardless of whether it is in line with what other people are saying or not (for example, I have several friends who would like a republic, but I myself am very much in favour of a constitutional monarchy, and I will patiently explain its advantages). If I don’t agree with a prevailing (or minority) political or religious view, I will usually say so when it is being discussed.
If Christian Voice were accessible under the Freedom of Information Act, I would be interested in seeing figures for number of posts censored per person. I must rank high in the list.
The point is, Mark, as we all know, that North Korea does not accommodate people like me, at least not in accommodation where they have much hope of ever being happy. Stephen isn’t perfect, but he does much better than Kim.
Anyway, no-one was asking you to comment on this ! It’s not a very intellectual point you have made.
You wouldn’t and nor would I, because neither of us are Korean. Their race is so completely different to ours that what they like, we don’t, and vice versa. The Americans want to impose their culture on everyone, and it isn’t appreciated. Trump just needs to go over there and say to the chap, we’re laying off you. Do your own thing and if you want to do some trade with us then you are welcome to. You know trade is the best way to cement relations. Where you have trade you have mutual cooperation, and it’s a win-win situation.
Trump though must respect their culture. I would expect their TV to be banned as North Korean government takes loyalty to the government seriously. It’s a crime to disrespect the government, like say if you put up anti-government slogans you could get many years inside, but then to the Koreans that would be unthinkable, just as it is to stick a knife in someone’s back. It’s simply different values. We don’t feel repressed by knife laws and they love their state. The state doesn’t do anything nasty to its own people, but just those who are like agent provocateurs who want to destabilise the government. You can see the logic though. Everyone loves the government, hence anyone against the government is against everyone. It’s like being in a team. You don’t let your team down.
Well, the DPRK is highly antipathetic to its Christians and other religious minorities, to anyone in fact who does not support (what amounts to the state religion of) Juche. I suggest we pray for the US negotiators to keep pushing for freedom for Christians in particular. It will come, by God’s grace. Totally with you on trade. Trade brings ideas and challenges minds.
South Koreans are Korean, thoughj. Check if they made your computer and other equipment.
South Korea, like Japan, lives so much in the same world as the “west”, that this invalidates what Andrew says. What’s sauce for the south could be sauce for the north too. Most of them would welcome it (just as east Europeans welcomed joining the west). Was Halle ever so very different from Hannover at heart ?
I don’t think Trump respects culture at all anwhere. He just wants great deals.