North Korea

Emergency aid and development projects

North Korean grandmother flees with grandson to China

Both of Mi-jin's parents had died, and when her grandmother Teok-sun couldn't support the little girl, they fled to China.

By Samuel

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Image above: Kroasters in China risk imprisonment for help North Koreans On the run as Teok-sun and Mijin.

Mi-jin, 8, and Teok-sun, 67, are North Korean refugees who Danish European Mission donors have helped out of the world's most closed country to a safe country in Southeast Asia, which we cannot name here for security reasons.

Teok-sun says: "My adult daughter from North Korea divorced in 2012 and had to leave her daughter with me to take care of her as she was doing business with businessmen from China (which is illegal but often the only way to make money). During one of her regular trips to China, she was killed in a traffic accident in 2014. After this tragedy, I desperately searched for my daughter's ex-husband as my resources were scarce, but I couldn't find him. So I accepted that I had to take care of my little granddaughter alone.

Since my husband had died back in the 1990s, I was of course happy to have my little grandson with me, but I was living in poverty in North Korea. I was so poor that I could not pay for food and education for my grandson. Like so many before me in North Korea, I faced the prospect of being stranded in my house, with little Mi-jin, where we could only wait for starvation and death to catch up with us. So in desperation, I defected to China in December 2016 and risked my life to live in China. I simply had no other option to protect my granddaughter.

Like so many before me in North Korea, we faced the prospect of starvation and death catching up with us Teok-sun 

In China, we were looking for a house with a cross on the roof. We found one, and from there friendly Chinese Christians sent us to a South Korean mission house. The missionary was very fond of my grandson and took very good care of us. My granddaughter was reading school books he gave her. What a tragedy it was when the missionary was arrested by the Chinese police in early 2017! I pray with all my heart for his safety. Thank you so much for helping to save us from being forcibly repatriated to North Korea by the Chinese police!

The grandmother and little girl were rescued from Northeast China and helped to a safe country in Southeast Asia in July 2017. The support of Danish European Mission donors helped save Teok-sun and Mi-jin. You can give North Korean refugees, like Teok-sun and Mi-jin, renewed hope and a new start in life by supporting this work. Please also pray for them to come to faith in Jesus Christ. 

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