Where does our information come from?/the reality of the camps

Since North Korea is very secretive, information is hard to come by. Most of the information about North Korea that the outside world has is from a few brave people that have escaped. The best chance these people have is to defect to South Korea, where they have rights. Unfortunately, it seems to be easier to get into China, where they have no rights. One of three things can happen for the people that get to China: they could be lucky enough to find help, they could be unfortunate enough to find someone who says they will help, but then sell them into human trafficking(actually common), or they could get caught by the authorities and sent back, a fateworse then death. There's no telling what the North Korean regime will do if they get a person back, I can imagine that they don't take kindly to anyone they perceive to be a 'traitor'.

So, can we actually believe the information about the prison camps? As nightmarish as it seems, yes, the camps have been confirmed. Not only have satellites been able to get pictures of them, the defectors that have successfully escaped North Korea attest to this fact. One such defector actually escaped from Camp 22, where he had spent his life since birth. As a young boy, he had seen his mother and brother publicly executed for discussing escape. It wasn't until he met a new prisoner (I think he was near 20 years old at the time) who told him stories of grilled meat that he finally decided to attempt escape. He and the new friend planned their escape. They chanced the electrified fence around the camp. The friend did not make it. Since then, the now free man has told the world his story and has become a human rights activist. 

This man has given us so much insight about how these camps are run. The guards are actually taught to see the prisoners as Tail-less animals. A lot of the prisoners are not there for anything they themselves have done, as it is a custom to purge 3 generations of the family of anyone convicted of treason. For instance, if your grandfather questioned the regime, he, your parents, and you would be taken. Pray for them!

Pray for this man, he has seen a lot. Pray for the people in the camps. Pray that God would open their eyes to His love for them. Pray that they would know that He has not left them. Pray that He would soften the hearts of the guards and the authorities.

The mysterious Pyongyang/DPRK:The Land of Whispers

This post is a response to watching DPRK: The Land of Whispers (North Korea Travel Documentary) (2013), produced and directed by Chrystian Cohen.

First off, Pyongyang is a very strange place. From what I have read, it does not accurately represent the rest of the country. The North Korean regime is all about propaganda and appearance. In another documentary (I do not remember which one it was), I pretty much gathered that since Pyongyang is all you can see from the DMZ separating North and South Korea, it was erected to look appealing to the South and tempt them to join the North once again. A very small percentage of North Korean citizens live in Pyongyang, ant of those that do, a lot of them are government workers or people who are huge supporters of the North Korean ideology. In essence, the people who live in the relative luxury of Pyongyang are the elect.
The regime has made huge efforts to make Pyongyang look like a normal metropolis. After all, it is where most of our footage comes from. It has skyscrapers, hotels, all the amenities of a busy city, but in actuality, most of it is deserted. It appears the children are mostly taught performance in school. The filter of this video included footage of a performance they were shown at one of the schools. He commented that these 5 and 6 year olds were better than most adults. He was right, they were very precise, which leads me to believe that they emphasize performance of the arts. He also included footage of a probably record setting performance acne they went to-over 100,000 people took part in it, a celebration of the anniversary of the great leader developing some ideology.

So, the documentary was filmed by Amanda who was able to travel to North Korea. Something new I learned is that 1000-2000 foreigners are allowed to visit a year. There is apparently a company that you apply with and they will organize a trip for you. Some of the stipulations are that you have to go with a group and you have to be lead by guides on a very set itinerary. The visitors see only what the government allows them to see, of course. They are basically in the care of minders who lead them from one sense of normalcy to another. There are a lot of rules they have to follow.
This group started out in Pyongyang in a 50 floor hotel with a revolving restaurant on top, empty except for their party. It had a casino, a pool, a karaoke room, and multiple restaurants, all deserted. This seems to be standard when entertaining foreigners. The entire city is pretty much a facade to make NK seem normal to outsiders, after all.
There are mythical, romantic stories about where The great leader was born, the group was taken to the place where he was rumored to have been born. He was actually born in Russia, but the citizens of North Korea appear to have been told a different story. The sites they were shown throughout the trip were mostly monuments to Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. Statues, places they had visited, a poem one of them had written, a document signed by one. Other than visiting sights, watching performance s, staying at creepy deserted hotels and drinking, the only thing they could do was watch TV, a constant stream of propaganda perpetuated by the government.
The filter kept trying to speak with the guides, but they wouldn't really talk to him. After a while, one guy was willing to answer questions. He had agreed to give an interview when he was suddenly pulled away and sent to a different assignment. It is unknown whether this was a coincidence or not. Another one of the guides told the filter that it was very dangerous for him to be allowing the camera to document the trip.

It was actually one of the more upbeat documentaries I have seen on North Korea. The citizen (whether genuine, heavily brainwashed, or faking for the foreigners), seemed happy. The filmer made a point to speak of the attributes of the North Koreans, despite the strange circumstances.

Do they even know God?

I'm not sure they even know that there is a God.

In the first documentary that I saw on North Korea, an optometrist had gone into the country, promising to preform cataract surgeries on 1,000 government chosen citizens. One of the most disturbing scenes was at the end, filming what happened after the surgeries. When the patients once blinded by cataracts had received their sight again, they walked up to a picture of Kim Jong Il, the great leader, ant thanked him for giving them back their sight. He is their god. They are completely brainwashed to believe this. Even if there are a few who still know God, how do they reconcile this with their surroundings? My fear it that, even if they know God, they think He has forgotten them. They are not forgotten. Please pray that they will know this.

Why?

A few years ago, I signed up to receive prayer updates from a Christian organization. After a while, I stopped paying attention to most of them. When checking my email, I'd just skim the headlines and move on. Last summer though, I saw a headline saying that there were prison camps in North Korea. Prison camps don't happen anymore! They are just a terribly dark part of history. The email said an estimated 144,000 people were forced to live in these camps, most with no hope of getting out. Why weren't we doing anything about this? After researching, I saw that it was for a very complicated, horrible reason. We don't know what to do. North Korea is a loose cannon. The things they do are frightening. They are brainwashed and utterly controlled. It is the darkest nation in the world, and it's a wonder that we even have the little information we do about it. All those poor people, without hope or God in the world. Not just the 144,000 in the prison camps, but ALL of the North Korean citizens. They need to know that they are loved. Please pray for them. Please pray that God would give them the opportunity to learn of His great love.

Purpose statement

This past summer, God opened my eyes to the reality of North Korea and the sufferings of it's people. Since then, I have researched and watched documentaries on NK, wanting to help somehow. I've wanted to post my findings on a blog for a while, but had been afraid to. Now, it seems that things ate coming to a head. It seems NK is itching for a war and other countries are preparing themselves to fight. I want to remind people that no matter what terrible things the leaders of North Korea do, there are millions of innocent people trapped there. They may not know what their government is doing. Even if they do, they do not know it is wrong. All they know if that they are forced to live in extremely harsh conditions and they have been taught that is the fault of the U.S.. Not to demeanthe intellect  of North Koreans, but they are compatible to children, brainwashed by mentally abusive parents that they are not worth anything and that everyone else would hurt them. This way, they accept their terrible living conditions because they think they are being saved from some greater evil. This blog is to expose the atrocities happening in North Korea, as well as to remind people that they need our help. They are not all bad. I wish to also incite many to pray for the people of North Korea. Prayer is incomprehensible powerful. God can do such amazing things, even turn a nation like North Korea into a nation of Pauls.