735 Days of Imprisonment in North Korea

Kenneth Bae is a South Korean-born American. In 2005 he began work as an evangelical missionary through Youth With A Mission in Dandong, China, near the North Korean border. One day, when he was sharing food with North Korean soldiers on the Yalu River, he prayed: “Lord, if you want to use me as a bridge connecting North Korea with the world, Here I am, Lord.”

God responded to Bae’s prayer. With the North Korean Government’s invitation, Bae was able to open a China-based tour company called Nations Tour specializing in tours of North Korea. It seemed like a small travel agency; however, its purpose was to gather people who have a passion for North Koreans so that they could worship and pray while they traveled. 

Bae succeeded in leading 17 separate North Korean tours. In November 2012, on his last outing, he was caught by North Korean security police and charged with “hostile acts against the republic.” The following April, he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment with hard labor. With the people’s prayers and the efforts of the U.S. Government, he was released on November 8, 2014. 

Bae shared his testimony at the October 18 D.C. Unification Square Prayer Meeting (USPM), a weekly prayer meeting for North Koreans’ salvation and freedom and reunification of North and South Korea in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

The USPM started in 2011 at the Seoul Metro Station Square. It was motivated by the Monday demonstration in East Germany, began by a small number of church members praying for freedom at St. Nicholas Church in East Germany in 1982.

Remembering the small number of church members’ prayers, more than fifty USPMs are happening primarily in South Korea and abroad: the United States, Canada, Philippines, Japan, Israel, Colombia, and New Zealand.

The D.C. USPM was started last year by South Korean missionary Star Lee. About twenty people gather together to pray for North Korea every Tuesday. At the last prayer meeting, after Lee led worship, the members prayed for the recently intensifying DPRK’s military tension and the six South Korean missionaries imprisoned in North Korea.     

“It has been ten years since I was caught,” Bae recalled of his imprisonment. On Bae’s last tour, he accidentally brought the flash drive, containing every mission report and video Bae recorded in North Korea to share the poor reality with people outside of North Korea and was detected by a secret police agent.     

After Bae heard that every tourist safely returned to China, he made a frank confession of what he had done in North Korea to the secret police agents: “I have brought about three hundred tourists to pray and worship the Lord in North Korea.” The secret police asked: “Who sent you? Whom do you work for?” Bae answered: “God sent me here, and I’m working for him.”

After the missionary’s confession, the secret police agents told Bae that he had conspired to overthrow the Republic (DPRK). Bae wondered how he plotted to overthrow DPRK and was shocked at their answer: “Through prayers and worship.”

Bae said to the audience in the Washington meeting: “Do you guys know what we are doing right now? We are conspiring to overthrow North Korea!”

“You don’t even believe in Jesus, but why do you believe in the power of prayer and worship?”      Bae asked the agent. The agent replied: “we don’t care about the United States’ nuclear weapon. However, once our ideology (Juche ideology) is contaminated by such as you, missionaries, it’s like a virus that will collapse the Republic (DPRK).”

Later as Bae stopped to pray: “Save me, Oh Lord,” and started to pray: “Use me, Oh Lord,” the missionary realized God did not send him to North Korea as a prisoner but as His servant to share the gospel.

After that prayer, the prison officers started to visit Bae to get counseling for the personal problems in their family. “I became their friend,” said Bae. Because of the DPRK’s brutal punishment of believers, the missionary could not directly share the gospel with prison officers; still, Bae tried to show who Jesus was through his prison life.

Bae was released on November 8, 2014. On the way back to the United States, he thought God was telling him this: “Do you know how many people have prayed for you? As the prayers rescue you, now go and proclaim and make them pray for North Korea. As I have never forgotten you, I have never forgotten the 25 million people in North Korea.”

To follow God’s calling, Bae is now leading a prayer campaign called ‘Nehemiah One Million Prayer Petition,’ which is “designed to engage people from all over the world who have a heart for North Korea.” The campaign is now with about 5800 people from 89 countries.

As Bae insisted during his preaching, I firmly believe that reunifying North and South Korea is necessary to share the gospel. No matter how hard the DPRK reforms its policy or opens its border, it cannot be enough if we cannot speak out the name of Jesus in North Korea. We must pray for North Korea to see the day when the name of Jesus will resonate again in Pyongyang.