He is not far from any one of us
“God is dead, and we killed him,” said Nietzche. The Kim dynasty would undoubtedly endorse this statement, with a small modification. They would prefer to say, “God is dead, and we replaced him.”
North Koreans grow up in schools where they are taught that Kim Il-sung had super powers, that he could walk on water, that his son Kim Jong-il was born under a double rainbow, that the supreme leaders don’t use the toilet, and that the leaders are mind-readers. They are forced to bow down to statues of the leaders, and any act of disrespect, such as placing a picture of one of the Kims upside down, can get them thrown into a gulag. Essentially, these are some of the main tenets of Juche, the North Korean political/religious philosophy.
For this reason, religion is severely repressed in North Korea. North Korean citizens are required to swear allegiance to the regime and the regime alone — anyone who believes in a higher power is a threat to the absolute sovereignty of the Kim dynasty. Korean Shamanism and Buddhism are the most acceptable religions as they are seen to be part of Korean culture — although religious practice is certainly not easy for people of these faiths, it is better than being Christian. For the last 16 years, North Korea has been listed by Open Doors as the most hostile country in the world for Christians, despite the fact that there are an estimated 300,000–500,000 Christians in North Korea today. One of the reasons that Christianity is the most hated religion is its relation to the United States, which is North Korea’s sworn enemy. Christians must worship in secret or risk being sent to a prison, a labour camp, or even facing execution.
In a country where atheism is effectively mandated by the state, you wouldn’t expect people to even consider the existence of God. In fact, according to the perspective of many atheists and agnostics, religion is a construct that was invented and perpetuated through society, and God is just a comforting fairytale similar to Santa — something we all eventually grow out of.
However, in the case of North Korea, evidence seems to point towards the opposite.
Take the story of Kim Pil-ju, for example. He had just escaped from North Korea for the second time and was caught almost instantly by a Chinese informant who had seen him crossing the border. He begged the Chinese officials to allow him to return voluntarily so that his sentence could be less severe. The Chinese dropped him off near the border and watched him walk towards his demise, while the North Korean guards watched from the other side of the river — they couldn’t take hold of him yet because he was still on Chinese land. There was no escape. Pil-ju explains, “As I was walking, I just prayed to God, ‘Please save me.’ There was nowhere to hide. But by some miracle, I came across a hole that was left by an uprooted tree during a flood. So I jumped into it. It was so deep that the snow came up to my chest. I just stayed there and kept praying.”
Eventually, Pil-ju heard the Chinese officials driving away. He was then able to run back to China and from there, he made his way to South Korea.
Pil-ju had never seen a church. He had never read a Bible, and in all likelihood he had never seen or heard someone praying. Yet in his darkest, most desperate moment, his primal reaction was to call out to God to save him. I think that really shows the stark contrast between the tyranny of the atheist communist state in comparison to the quiet presence of God within the human heart. Of course the state is threatened by God — dictators fear and despise any power that is greater than themselves. However, they cannot ban God, no matter how much they desire to do so. They can destroy churches and burn Bibles, but people don’t need to enter a building or read a book in order to know God. Romans 1:20 says, “ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
The North Korean regime can torture and kill the body, but they can never kill the soul. They can brainwash children from the moment of birth, but they cannot silence the voice of God which calls out to us from deep inside. “He has also set eternity in the human heart,” says Ecclesiastes 3:11. Even after generations of persecution, hundreds of thousands of believers remain secretly steadfast, and even those who have never heard about God continue to seek him.
“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:26–27).
