When a Tyrant replaces God: the brutal persecution of Christians in North Korea

The strict regime in North Korea severely punishes those who believe in something other than Kim Jong-un and communism. Timothy Cho was arrested for being a Christian. In prison, the guards mercilessly beat him in front of other prisoners. This happened to everyone who went to church. Fortunately, the man managed to escape and hide in South Korea, and then move to the UK. Now Timothy is talking about the terrible attitude towards Christians in North Korea in order to draw the attention of the civilized world to this problem.Timothy has scars on his back that remind him of the horror he experienced in prison. The man was beaten with metal pipes, wooden sticks, mocked him morally. Timothy barely survived being in a small cell with 50 prisoners. Before his eyes, one of the cellmates died from beatings and high fever. In the morning, the guards dragged the deceased out of the cell like a dead animal.

The terrible reality in which Christians have to survive in North Korea is shocking. Only idols in human form are allowed to serve here: To Kim Jong-un and his family. The totalitarian regime in the country has caused terrible conditions for the followers of Christ.

The charity organization Christian by Open Doors helps Christians who are persecuted for their faith around the world. According to her calculations, about 300,000 Christians in the DPRK live in constant fear, which is about 1% of the country's population. Of these, between 50,000 and 70,000 are in prisons and labor camps, where they are treated worse than animals.

A terrible fate awaits Christians in the prison camps. People are forced to catch and eat rats to survive. They are forced to perform the most difficult and dangerous work.

Like many other North Koreans, Timothy converted to Christianity after he met missionaries trying to escape to China. Over the last years of the totalitarian regime, more than a thousand people have left the country for various reasons, including in search of religious freedom.

The struggle for Timothy's survival began back in the 1990s during the famine, when food shortages were caused by flooding and political factors. It is still unknown how many North Korean citizens died of starvation, according to various sources, the number of deaths ranges from hundreds of thousands to millions.

Timothy's parents abandoned the child and fled the country. The boy, like many other children, was left without a home and means of livelihood. He was eight years old. Timothy teamed up with friends, and they looked for food together every day and went to bed. Some of them died on the street, the fate of the survivors is still unknown to the Korean.

In China, North Korean citizens are in mortal danger. If the deserters are found by the police, they are arrested and forcibly repatriated. In the DPRK, refugees are sent to labor camps, from where many do not return.

Timothy had to hide when he came to China. The first place where he was helped was the missionary's house. There was a secret hideout there. At first, the Korean was suspicious of the preacher who sheltered him. At school in the DPRK, he was told that Christians are like vampires, they kidnap children, eat their internal organs and drink blood. His teachers put it into his head that missionaries came to North Korea to rape local women.

In North Korea, the United States is considered the worst enemy, so American missionaries are hated as peddlers of harmful Western ideology. Nevertheless, while at the mission house in China, Timothy did not see anything wrong. He was afraid of the cross on the preacher's neck, because the guy was taught that his hand would rot if he touched the Christian symbol. The Korean still escaped from a temporary shelter. He tried to cross the border with Mongolia, but was wounded by Chinese soldiers and captured.

As soon as Timothy arrived at the detention center in North Korea, he realized that he was in a place where he was in mortal danger. The guy was a deserter, and Christians helped him hide. The investigators asked questions about whether the refugees had visited the church and whether they had met with foreign missionaries. The young man denied everything, and he was beaten half to death, trying to get information about his stay in China.

During the three days that Timothy spent at large, he found an intermediary and again escaped to China. This time, the Korean tried to find another way to freedom. Together with eight other deserters from the DPRK in 2004, he turned to An American school in Shanghai with a request for help. The Koreans hoped that they would be granted asylum there. But without diplomatic immunity and ties with the United States, the school was forced to hand over the refugees to the Chinese authorities.

Incredibly, the Chinese government decided not to send Timothy and his comrades back to North Korea. This was the first and probably the only case when the refugees were not sent to their homeland, but were sent to the Philippines. When the deserters arrived in South Korea, they were filled with joyful emotions from the feeling of freedom.

Here Timothy was able to find his father and began to comprehend the Christian faith. In 2008, the Korean had the opportunity to move to the UK. He now lives in Manchester and works for a Christian charity organization.

Kim Jong-un does not spare anyone who falls out of favor with him. The dictator, whose power is not limited to anyone and nothing, regularly arranges brutal massacres.