Ji Ho* vividly remembers the moment she saw her father for the last time. North Korean security agents had ransacked their house – and dragged him away when they found his ‘secret book’ buried in the garden. “My father and I both sobbed,” she remembers. “In that moment, we knew we’d never see each other again.” 

At the time, Ji Ho didn’t realise her father was a Christian, or that the book was the Bible. To her, it was just a book of stories ‘about a wise man who sat on a mountain and began to teach’. But she did know about his hidden radio, and started listening to it in the hopes of finding a source of food. Instead, she heard stories about the man from the secret book: Jesus. 

“As I listened, I became more and more convinced,” she says. “This Jesus was the great teacher that my father had been trying to tell me about. Jesus wanted to be my Lord and Saviour – and I wanted to follow Him, in the same way my father had.” 

Ji Ho loves hearing the radio broadcasts, but knows she has to keep her faith secret from people she knows. “I know that it would be dangerous to tell anyone about Jesus,” says Ji Ho. “Our leaders don’t want us to worship anyone or anything besides them. I’ve realised that’s why my father was taken – they saw he had a Lord that was bigger than our country’s leaders.” 

North Korea’s ‘persecution score’ – based on detailed research by World Watch List experts – is slightly lower than last year, but it remains the hardest place in the world to follow Jesus. The past year has seen North Korea fortify its border with China, making it increasingly challenging for North Koreans to flee the country and for organisations to operate within the region. 

There has also been a growing shortage of food, with thousands at risk of starvation. Many fear a return of the famine of the 1990s. The crisis has been so severe that the authorities began a mobilisation campaign to get people farming – but many have avoided participation, because food isn’t provided.  

 However, even as believers experience their own shortage of food, people like Ji Ho have been selflessly helping others. “As I continued to learn more about Jesus, I also found that my life was changing in other ways,” says Ji Ho. “I was still hungry, but I started to share my food. I knew I could give up some of my food to my neighbours who didn’t have a garden. I hoped this might show them in some way that Jesus loved them.” 

Matthew* and Peter* are two Open Doors field workers who support North Korean secret Christians. In this rare interview, they talk about the dangers of their ministry and, of course, ask for our continuing prayers for Christians in the most hostile country in the world.

Through secret networks outside the country, Open Doors secret workers are helping around 100,000 North Korean believers by providing vital food and aid, shelter and discipleship training for North Korean refugees at safe houses in China, and training through radio broadcasting from outside the country.