Top image: representative only
Open Doors’ women’s groups help North Koreans see they have value and purpose through Jesus!
When Hyo-Ok* was 19, she escaped North Korea. Her parents, secret Christians, had spent years preparing her for that moment. They worked hard and appeared loyal to the regime, but behind closed doors, they whispered truths about the outside world. Her father warned her about the dangers of their government and secretly showed her South Korean dramas. Hyo-Ok didn’t believe in God, and her father’s words often scared her.
But she did dream of the freedom her father spoke about..
Eventually, Hyo-Ok’s parents found a broker who promised to take their daughter to South Korea. When she left, her mother held her tightly and said: “Remember, Hyo-Ok. Neither money nor power matters—only faith in God. If you’re ever in trouble, find a cross.” Hyo-Ok nodded but didn’t take the words seriously. She believed everything would go as planned.
It didn’t.
After crossing the border and hiking deep into the mountains, the broker loaded the her into a taxi. Hours later, the car stopped, and Hyo-Ok found herself at the door of a Chinese farmer.
The broker had sold her.
Hyo-Ok was forced to marry the farmer. His hands were rough from hard labor, and his family treated her with cruelty. “They mocked me for being North Korean,” Hyo-Ok said. She had no legal status, no freedom, and nowhere to turn. If she was caught by Chinese authorities, she’d be sent back to North Korea—and likely killed.
She worked in silence, survived in fear. Years passed. She gave birth to a daughter and felt the last bit of hope slip away. Escape seemed impossible.
One day her daughter got sick and Hyo-Ok needed to take her to a hospital. The hospital was far from where she lived. On the way back home, inside a bus, she looked outside and suddenly saw a sign written with the name of a church.
That name had an invisible but powerful attraction to her. Later, she made excuses to go downtown. She had memorized the name of the bus stop near the church and found the building with the cross.
“It’s not that I wanted to find Christ,” she says. “I just wanted to find a way to South Korea.” Eventually, Hyo-Ok heard the truth about Jesus and became a Christian.
After praying for a way to leave, she was able to find a more trustworthy broker and escape her situation. Hyo-Ok and her daughter are now safe in South Korea. Hyo-Ok lived to tell her story in freedom.
Unfortunately, it’s not a unique story.
Triple persecution
Thousands of North Korean women are trapped in often abusive marriages. They are oppressed because of their gender and nationality. Being from North Korea means they are officially illegal in China and can always be arrested and repatriated. Once back in North Korea, they are imprisoned and tortured.
Their punishment will be harsher if they have been married off to Chinese men. To protect the “pure Korean race,” the North Korean government forces pregnant women to have abortions.
It’s even worse if North Korean women are found to have encountered Christianity in China. If it’s discovered that a woman read the Bible, attended church or participated in worship meetings, they could be executed or placed in a political labor camp without possibility of release.
“It means that the North Korean women I work with are triply persecuted,” says Open Doors field worker Jin-Sun*. “Persecuted for being North Korean, for being a woman and for following Jesus.”
Jin-Sun and her team members visit North Korean women who live in areas close to the border—to provide them with financial support, pastoral care and Bible study. One of the most difficult things for their ministry is that it is often not possible to rescue the women from the
Chinese “families” the women have been sold into and bring the women to safety.
But Jin-Sun and her team have found another way to help the women they meet.
“If we can’t help them get out of their situation, what can we do to help them in their circumstances?” says Jin-Sun. “What they need the most is hope. Hope … gives strength, comfort and something to live for. Who wants to play a role in a story without hope?”
The Bible plays a crucial role in reaching the hearts of the women. “When we meet in secluded places, we worship the Lord, we share our struggles and our victories, we pray together, and we dive into God’s Word,” Jin-Sun explains.
Discovering hope
In the Bible, North Korean women find answers to questions they have carried all their lives: Why are they here? To serve the North Korean leaders, or the Creator of heaven and earth? Are they objects that can be used and abused, or are they valuable in the eyes of an almighty God?
“The North Korean women learn from people like Ruth, Esther and Lydia,” Jin-Sun says. “They learn what a good life is by studying the 10 Commandments. They discover the hope that only the cross can bring.” The result is often that it feels less like the women are reading the Bible and more like the Bible is reading them—and, through Jesus, changing their lives.
Seo-Yeon* is a member of one of Open Doors’ women’s groups. “I always feared believing in God [because of North Korea's education that Christianity is bad],” she says. “During the training by Jim-Sun, I rarely listened. I was only interested in financial support. But this changed when I visited a Chinese church service. In China, during Christmas, many Christians exchange apples (Chinese symbols of hope and peace). This simple gesture changed me … it really touched my heart. I want to follow and trust in God and Him alone.”
Another participant, Eun-ji*, admits that because the meetings are illegal, she is often afraid. “Even as someone who knows the Father and follows Him, sometimes my faith gets shaken when I am doing the training,” she says. “I want to believe and follow God and Him alone.
God is my help, my refuge, and the One who leads my life.”
The North Korean women who participate in Open Doors’ women’s groups lead hard lives. Yet, the Bible helps them become more like Jesus, although, of course, spiritual maturity is a gradual process.
“I hope to be a child of God who endures through hardships and lays aside greed,” says Iseul*, another North Korean woman who has participated in the groups. “I hope to live a life with true repentance from believing in salvation in faith. I often have a heart of hating others.
If I don’t like how someone is talking to me, I have negative feelings about them. I repent these things before God. From Matthew 5:21-22, I
realize hating someone is like committing a murder. I try to not spit out bad words, but to speak and live as a child of God.”
Your gifts and prayers make this ministry possible. Will you continue to support Ji-Sun and the North Korean women?
Prayer is especially vital. The women’s ministry in northeast China is dangerous. Recently, authorities exposed one network, and people disappeared. This has shaken up the other North Korean women in the area and shows that no one is safe.
“We need your prayers for our protection,” Ji-Sun says. “Pray also that our faith stays strong. Some ladies and their families are struggling with health issues. Pray for our well-being as well.”
Ji-Sun is grateful for the financial support and prayers that make her work possible. “Without our faithful donors, these women would not have found hope in the Book that reads them,” she says. “To all those who give, please realize that there are believing mothers and believing children, thanks to you.”
*Name changed to protect identity
