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“I had a very difficult time. I put every effort to get a warm bowl of rice. It was miserable and harsh.” Seojun told us in his trembling voice.
Seojun*, now a pastor in South Korea, was a refugee from North Korea. He became emotional as he recalled the hardship during North Korea\'s \""Great Famine\"" in the 1990s. He had to look for food in the countryside, dug into soil with his hands searching for anything edible but often in vain, and also, how he risked imprisonment by crossing the border to bring food back. These difficult and dangerous trips had since left traumatic scars on him.
A \'more difficult Arduous March\'
Recently, the United Nations published a report indicating about 40% of North Korea\'s population (25.8 million) are starving. Alarmingly, they could now be facing the same situations that Seojun went through.
The current famine was caused mainly by the complete shut-down of its borders in fighting against coronavirus that ironically they have been denying of any cases. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has urged the party officials to wage another more difficult \'Arduous March\' (a name referred to the Great Famine in the 1990s in which 2-3 million people died) in order to relieve the North Koreans from the worst-ever economic situation.
That means, more than an estimated 400,000 underground Christians in North Korea are starving.
A month\'s wages for 35 ounces of corn
Open Doors sources report that today, market prices are unstable and are often skyrocketing. Even with the markets being allowed open, most people don\'t have the money to buy anything. In fact, many citizens have already died of malnutrition and starvation.
The UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights, Tomás Ojea Quintana, noted recently that “deaths by starvation have been reported, as has an increase in the number of children and elderly people who have resorted to begging as families are unable to support them.” The country\'s economic lifeline has come to a standstill, causing shrunken market activities as well as reduced income of many families that relied on small-scale market activities.
An Open Doors spokesperson said, \""People depend on the food they found in the woods and the mountains. Many goods are smuggled in country end up in the black market.
\""Now both the official economy and the shadow economy are in deep troubles, putting the lives of millions of children and adult at risk. Food prices have risen four times\""
The price of corn, a staple food for most rural North Koreans, has fluctuated so much that at times, 35 ounces of corn may cost more than a month\'s wages.
Coronavirus-created vulnerabilities
In more than a year since the pandemic, the North Korean government has still not confirmed an outbreak. They continued to insist there has not been a single confirmed case. The locals have called coronavirus the \""ghost disease\"". It\'s an invisible killer.
\""People can be sick without knowing it and they die suddenly and quickly. Some even just fall dead on the ground. There are no vaccines, no medicines and no tests.\"" said Brother Simon*, Open Doors\' coordinator for ministry among North Koreans .
Besides, North Korean prisoners, including 50,000 to 75,000 Christians imprisoned due to their faith, are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 as their family\'s visits together with decent food and medicine are all denied.
More devastatingly, there were two severe storms last summer resulting in major flooding and damaged crops. While the UN reported that on May 18, 2020, North Korea had a shortage of 860,000 tons of grains, the damage caused by the storms has aggravated the food crisis to a more worrying situation.
\'God hasn\'t forgotten us\'
\""We always say that prayer is just as important as giving,\"" says the Open Doors spokesperson who is closely involved with the Open Doors North Korea team. \""I remember a secret believer wrote, \'Thanks to your help, I know that God hasn\'t forgotten us.\' This is how God reminded me that we don\'t bring bags with rice. We bring hope.\""
Seojun escaped from North Korea and receiving food and shelter in an Open Doors house meant to him both physically and spiritually.
\""I could not understand why the safe house would provide what I needed without any compensation,\"" he says. \""The only motivation was God\'s love. I came to realize that. That is why the safe house ministry is so important. People come to fill their needs, and the place that fills those needs is the safe house. And through those needs, people come to seek God and truly experience [His] love. That is why this ministry is necessary.\""
*Name changed for security reasons and photos used for representation only
Pray with us for North Korea
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