THE KUKMIN DAILY

At an interview with Kukmin Daily on June 1, Missionary Kenneth Bae (48, photo) said, “Underground churches do exist in North Korea…While I was being detained in the North, this was confirmed to me by a high official, who said, ‘They (underground churches) are a headache. The State Security Department is madly searching for them.”

Bae’s book “Not Forgotten” (Duranno Publishing) was recently published, and this interview followed a book talk with reporters at Onnuri Community Church in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

Missionary Bae was imprisoned for two years from November 2012 at a labor correctional facility and hospital. During this period he had opportunities to converse with some 30 employees about their families and daily lives, and to introduce the Christian faith to them.

Bae said, “While talking with them, I became aware of how isolated North Korean residents are from the rest of the world. When I told them the secretary general of the United Nations is South Korean Ban Ki-moon, they didn’t believe me.”

Bae shared episodes from his imprisonment. “Once I was questioned, ‘Who is behind this Mr. Ju?’ They had read the heading of my prayer letters, “Greetings in the name of the Lord.” (Lord in Korean is “Junim,” which can also be read as the polite form of “Mr/Ms. Ju.”) “Later I became close to an employee, and he told me he envied me because God provides for me, while his leader insists on self-support and self-salvation.”

Bae maintained that North Korea’s government and its people should be considered separately, and that conversation and exchanges between South and North, along with humanitarian support for marginalized groups in North Korea, should continue.

He said, “If Christians, too, turn North Korean residents away and join in isolating them because the North Korean government is unacceptable, how can North Koreans meet God? More communication and exchanges are urgently needed for real change. Just an honest word can move their hearts.”

Naming them one by one, Bae requested continuing awareness and prayers for three persons still detained in the North, including two missionaries of South Korean nationality and Korean Canadian Rev. Im Hyeon-soo.

He said, “I heard that Rev. Im has visited the hospital while in the labor camp. Our continuing attention and love will safeguard him and in the end help him come back… When our love is lasting and visible, I believe it will give North Korea the opportunity to change. If I sum up my 735-day period of detainment in one word, it is ‘hope.’ Please hold on to hope together.”

Reporter Sangmok Shin (smshin@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok


Original article in Korean:
케네스 배 “북한 고위관리가 지하교회 존재 직접 확인”

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Forthcoming Korean Version of Memoir by Kenneth Bae on His Detention in North Korea
“Pray for Rev. Lim so that he acts as a light in the land of darkness”