Extreme Devotion: North Koreaናሙና

Target of Assassins 

While Pastor Han Chung-Ryeol knew his gospel work along the North Korean border was dangerous, he understood that those with whom he shared the gospel faced even greater risks. 

The North Korean government has executed at least four people led to Christ by Pastor Han. Others were arrested and never heard from again. Some still remain in North Korean prisons. 

When Chinese and South Korean intelligence officers warned Pastor Han that he had become a target of the North Korean government, he and his wife started to wonder if they should give up the work. 

“Always we had to … be careful,” Mrs. Han said. “We were thinking to leave there several times, but God stopped us.” 

As the couple decided to press on, they made plans to send their two children away to school and took additional precautions for their own safety. 

On April 30, 2016, Pastor Han received a phone call at about 1:30 p.m. Mrs. Han left without asking her husband who had called. Around dinnertime, she became concerned because her husband had not called home as he normally did. When she could not reach him by phone, she called the police. 

By 7 p.m. that evening, authorities found Pastor Han’s body in his car in a remote area near the North Korean border. He had been stabbed in the heart, and an artery in his neck had been slashed — a method commonly used by North Korean assassins. He also suffered seven deep wounds to his head, which showed the rage of his killers.

Nevertheless, the seeds that Pastor Han planted will continue to bear fruit. North Koreans who met him share God’s love with their friends and family inside North Korea, and God’s light will continue to penetrate the darkness.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the life of Pastor Han, who risked his life to share the gospel with North Koreans. I pray that You will strengthen and encourage his wife and the believers he led to You, and I pray that many more will hear the gospel as a result of his faithful work for the kingdom. I also pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to move inside North Korea, preparing the hearts of the people to hear and respond to the gospel as many work carefully and tirelessly to share Jesus Christ’s love inside this closed country. Father, I commit to live my life so boldly for the gospel that I can proclaim “to live is Christ.” In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.