In the West, we take our religious freedom for granted, attending Sunday worship poses
not the slightest threat, indeed few even bother to question us about our beliefs or convictions.
Imagine what it must be like then to live in a country where the word for God has been
banned and to utter the merest whisper of his name means being sent to a prison camp from
which you will never emerge alive or dead. There is such a place, it's called North Korea.
In demonstrating national pride, North Korea has no equals. This meticulous
choreography of the country's 50th anniversary celebrations underlines months of preparation,
massive outpouring of devotion in the world's only communist dynasty.
All eyes are focused on this man, the country's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il,
who succeeded his father Kim Il-sung. Nearly a decade after his death,
he is still ruling from the grave, revered as the head of state and eternal president.
Father and son are eulogized in banners and songs,
the subject of worship and veneration unique to political leaders in the world today.
Sadly,
belying the splendor of occasions like this, the North Koreans live in an impoverished country,
isolated from the rest of the world, where brainwashing, brutal repression,
the horrific persecution of Christians and a fanatical military are part and parcel of
everyday life. Uttering the merest criticism of the regime can lead to imprisonment, torture,
even death. Much of the West knows Kim simply as the odd-looking dictator in the Mao suit,
who seems determined once again to turn North Korea into a nuclear power, and has found his
country figuring prominently in American President George Bush's axis of evil.
Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, North and South have glared at each other
across the most dangerous and fortified border in the world. In the North, Kim Il-sung developed
the idea of Juche, an ideology of self-reliance with a highly regimented North Korean society
that worshipped him as a deified leader. When he died suddenly in July 1994, aged 82,
the world got a glimpse of the god-like status he had achieved.
Though life had become increasingly worse under his self-serving stewardship,
North Koreans had known nothing else. The effects of their dictator's doctrines
had controlled their lives. In the hysteria, many thought everything was lost.
To ensure the leader's doctrines are followed with unswerving
obedience, religious freedom is harshly repressed in North Korea. Even the hillsides proclaim
the great leader's name. Many Christians have been sent to camps where they will
never be allowed out alive or dead. With surveillance and informing so widespread
in this idolatrous society, even the smallest gathering of believers is fraught with danger.
Consequences for those who are caught are almost beyond human comprehension.
These satellite images taken from miles in the sky are the only pictures that exist
of North Korea's prison camps. Thousands of Christians and opponents of the regime have
been sent here, subjected to the worst forms of mental and physical torture devised by man.
Christians are worked to death in the most dangerous areas of the camps,
including the iron foundries. Christians were made to work almost naked
at the foundry site. Black rubber aprons just covered the front of their bodies.
Molten iron frequently splashed on their naked skin, burning them.
Their hair and teeth were missing. They looked like skeletons.
At the time, I noticed there was something so strange about these Christians.
I couldn't understand why they did not renounce their God. The God shouted at them
and verbally abused them in such a horrible way. They told the Christians
that they could be released if they denied God. Some Christians were dragged out and laid face
down and then trampled down by the gods. All of them died with their bones broken.
When the Christians were dying under the God's boots, they simply shouted out loudly,
Lord, Lord, in great pain. I had never before seen human bodies become
black and blue in front of my eyes. I asked myself, who is this God that they believe in,
even at the cost of their lives?
Paradise on Earth, a view of North Korea that the Communist dictatorship would have the outside
world believe. Hell on Earth, others would call it, with famine, food and economic disaster,
claiming well over a million lives in the last decade and leaving 85% of the country's children
malnourished. It has all driven starving people to take desperate measures, measures that in some
cases have cost them their own lives. A friend of mine was charged with stealing about 20 kilograms
of corn from a collective farm. She wanted to feed her hungry children. She was given a 15-year
sentence for criticizing party politics because she had said during the trial,
of course stealing is wrong, but I wouldn't have done it if the food rations were really
maintained. How disgusting this state is. This is what she looked like after six years of her
prison sentence. Four years later, she died. Since 1995, the World Food Program has attempted to
distribute £350 million worth of aid, but there are grave concerns that much of it has been
diverted away from the most needy to the vast ranks of the military. Chronic underinvestment
and constant power cups have seen even the capital Pyongyang plunged into darkness night after night,
apart from the regime's showpiece monuments. Hospitals are woefully short of even basic
medicines and equipment. Operations are often carried out without anaesthetic. Norbert Volletsen
is a German emergency doctor with a unique insight into the appalling conditions. And this is the
tragedy of the children in the countryside. They are starving and they are dying and they are not
only looking like children in German concentration camps, but they are also behaving like those
children. There's no more emotional reaction. They are not laughing. They are not crying anymore.
They are not happy when there's any gift or food or milk or cookies or whatever. This child, for
example, died one day later when I found this child. And most often they were in such a desperate
situation that I actually can't do anymore. And those children are dying because they are starve
to death. A bridge too far for countless thousands desperate to flee the hunger and terror of North
Korea. Some, though, do make it across the mountains and forwarding the Tumen River into China.
Every escape bid is fraught with danger. If caught, Christians can face execution or a lingering
death in a barbaric prison camp. By midwinter, the alpine temperatures can plummet to minus 40 degrees.
Hunger, the treacherous mountain terrain and the bitter cold claim many lives. The refugees
consider China a country of comparative freedom and prosperity, where they may have their first
opportunity to hear the gospel. The best option for fleeing North Koreans to avoid falling victim
to human predators is to find shelter, such as that provided by Christians. That's why
mistresses like Chunky Won help refugees to plan their escape to South Korea, often involving
treacherous routes strewn with danger. Chinese authorities have put a price on the heads,
not just of the refugees, but on all those who help them. Chunky Won himself has spent time in prison.
This group face a journey of over a thousand miles from Manchuria to Mongolia.
Time for prayer as one of the group heads into the station.
A desperate attempt to slip through unnoticed at the dead of night.
I'm nervous, but I'm trusting God. So close to freedom, yet one unfortunate encounter would
mean a rest and return to North Korea to face likely execution. These refugees reached the
South Korean embassy and finally made it to freedom, now able to follow their faith without fear of
persecution. Others are not so fortunate. The Russians sent this group back to face an unthinkable
fate. Others have been caught at embassy gates, dragged from safety. In days, they'll be back at
the mercy of the world's most ruthless dictator. Kim Jong-il managed to be an upgraded version of
Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic and all the other dictators on earth together because he
learned out of history. He learned that when he secures his state, when there's no information
coming in, but also no information about his misery going out, about the tragedy of the Christian.
