Extreme Devotion: North KoreaНамуна

 They Are Listening In North Korea

When Hannah was a child in North Korea, she spent nearly every night huddled next to her family’s illegal radio with her father. Though forbidden, the smuggled radio was purchased by her father so they could tune in to South Korean radio stations. After midnight each night, when their neighbors were asleep and couldn’t hear the broadcasts, they listened to people talk about the world outside North Korea.

The world they heard about each night differed greatly from the one their government had told them to fear. Hannah’s father especially enjoyed listening to Christian sermons, which taught him the truths about life and why he was born. Hannah was interested in other programs. 

“The music was very different than North Korea,” she recalled. “It made me curious.” 

As they listened and learned about life outside their country, Hannah’s family decided to make a risky move: They planned to defect. 

Hannah left first, hoping to raise enough money to help the rest of her family flee the country. She hired a North Korean broker to sneak her into China. From there, she traveled on to Thailand, where she was placed in a temporary detention center for North Koreans. After being cleared and released from the center, she moved to South Korea. 

At the age of 19, Hannah felt alone in her new country. One day while passing a church, she decided to go in and introduce herself as a North Korean. 

“They welcomed me into the church,” she said. “At that time it was the most difficult time of my life, and the church was there.” 

Hannah started attending services, and as she listened to the sermons, she remembered the ones that she and her father had listened to on the radio. 

Hannah’s family never made it out of North Korea. Shortly after she left the country, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, died, and tightened border security made their defection impossible. Once a year, Hannah pays a broker to place a secret call to her family, but the calls are kept short so they can’t be monitored. 

During one call, Hannah learned that her beloved father had died. “The situation back there with my family is very difficult, painful,” she said. 

Though Hannah had made a life for herself in South Korea and continued to grow in Christ, she longed for meaningful Christian service. One day an elder in her church mentioned a Christian radio program that broadcasts into North Korea. Hannah knew it was the missing piece. 

She became involved in the radio work, confident that her father would be proud of the way she was reaching out to fellow North Koreans. Two Saturday mornings each month, Hannah records Christian programs in the studio for the shortwave radio broadcasts. 

As a former listener, Hannah understands how important these programs are in reaching North Koreans with the gospel, and she is sure her involvement in radio work is not an accident. 

“There was a plan for me to be involved with radio …,” she said. 

While she may not see the immediate results of her work, Hannah knows that all over North Korea people are listening. 

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for how You have woven Hannah’s life story into Your greater purposes for North Korea. Bring joy to each persecuted brother and sister in North Korea, and may Your peace guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Thank You that You have also created me to be used to share the gospel with others. I pray You will continue to bless Hannah and others who are proclaiming Your truth across radio waves and through the closed border of North Korea. I pray that those listening will come to know You as their Savior and Lord. In Your mighty name I pray, amen.