Typhoons damaged crops in July and September, causing food prices to rise again after the first lockdown was lifted (AttilaJandi/Shutterstock)
How has COVID-19 affected North Korea?
- The coronavirus has spread rapidly in North Korea. Initially, it came across the border with officials, traders and foreign visitors from China. As a result, the North Korean government closed the borders. Pyongyang, the major cities in the border region and local marketplaces in the area were also shut down. In each city and district, special quarantine areas were set up to isolate those suspected of being infected. Hundreds of thousands of people have reportedly been interned in these areas. In July, parts of the lockdown were lifted again, but there are still restrictions on movement and trade activities.
How has COVID-19 affected the underground church in North Korea?
- Due to the lockdown in North Korea, the underground church has been forced to suspend its concrete activities. Church leaders in each region have been trying hard to encourage and care for the believers, but have been prevented from traveling and visiting them. When some of the restrictions were lifted in mid-July, they were able to resume some activities and we hope that the situation will allow them to continue into November and December.
Which provinces and cities are hardest hit?
- The border regions near Russia and China are the hardest hit. There was also a large outbreak in Pyongyang because many workers had to return home from their jobs abroad. There are many officials and workers living in the capital who normally work abroad. The entire area - including the city's markets - was shut down. At first, all the government could do was quarantine people and keep the city closed. Later, the country received outside help to fight the pandemic more actively.
How have underground churches dealt with the great need for help both among Christians and in society at large?
- Members of the congregations have been collecting and distributing emergency aid so that the poorest in the congregation could survive. They used the emergency rations of goods and medicines that had already been delivered before the virus outbreak.
The ordinary North Korean is very poor. The price of groceries has exploded to almost quadruple.
The ordinary North Korean is very poor. The price of groceries has exploded to almost quadruple. Even though the markets are open, there are few and expensive goods available. For the inhabitants of North Korea, it is very difficult to survive.
What does it mean for underground Christians in North Korea that Christians in Denmark pray for them and support them with medicine and food?
- It is an expression of God's incredible grace and love that twice this year we have been able to distribute emergency aid to North Korean Christians who are in such a dire situation. The North Korean Christians express deep gratitude to their supporters in Denmark. Your support and prayers encourage and strengthen the underground churches and Christians in North Korea, he concludes.
Thank you to everyone who stands with the persecuted Christians in North Korea.
Support North Korea: Medicine and food for Christians and others in need
Fact: In North Korea, it is a crime to be a Christian
- Kim Jong-un's grandfather, Kim Il-Sung, founded the Juche ideology, which is a combination of communism and cult worship of the Kim family. North Koreans are forced to follow the ideology.
- If discovered, Christians are sent to prison camps where they are typically subjected to seven or eight cruel methods of torture, including whipping. In the labor camps, there is evidence that some Christians are faced with the choice to renounce the Christian faith or die.
- Not only are individuals sent to labor camps, but entire families are punished for three generations back and forth.
- Christians who have served their sentences are relocated to poor areas, including the northern part of the country.
- Yet there are an estimated 400,000 secret Christians in the country - descendants of the 1907 Pyongyang revival and new Christians who have come to faith in Jesus while traveling in China.
