[Feature] N.K. defectors often find solace in religion

Posted on : 2007-02-23 14:18 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
For many, church provides a social network, window into S.K. society

Until settling in Heilongjiang Province, China, after fleeing from North Korea in 1997, Pyongyang's ideology of juche, or self-reliance, was comforting to Yu Jin-ok. During his childhood in Musan, North Hamgyeong Province, Kim Il-sung, and Kim Jong-il were like religion to him. Yu had never heard the name "Jesus."

He first learned about Christianity when he began to work as a farmer in Heilongjiang. Yu's family met other North Korean defectors and ethnic Koreans in China through a church there. At the time when he first heard about Christianity, he was more interested in meeting other people and sharing food together. Naturally, his faith in the religion accumulated little by little.

In March 2002, when he entered South Korea after being among 25 North Korean defectors that stormed the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, he began to form a closer relationship to concepts like God, faith, and prayer. Whenever he felt there was no one he could depend on, he prayed. People he met in the process of settling in South Korean society encouraged him to go to church. When his father died two months after entering South Korea, he attended church more regularly.

To Yu, the church means both relief and a place to gather information about the new, strange society in which he now lives. He says he obtains much useful information about life in South Korea at services.

However, the church does not always do things that please him, he said. In 2005, he was taken to a church of a different denomination and baptized, something which he found uncomfortable.

Some large churches in South Korea fund North Korean defectors who attend services regularly, in amounts between 200,000-300,000 won (US$225-329) monthly. The defectors must repay the church by offering testimony of their faith and conversion before the congregation.

According to a survey performed by the Korean Institute of Criminal Justice Policy, 48.1 percent of North Korean defectors become Protestants. Most North Korean defectors that attend church services say they find relief there, whereas they previously found relief in believing in the guidance of the North's leader.

But Yu made a distinction between the two categories, saying, "Loyalty in North Korea is different from religion."

Defectors become Protestants in large numbers because about nine out of 10 defectors enter the South via China, and most organizations supporting defectors in China are connected with the Protestant church. Young defectors, in particular, tend to be introduced to Bible study by these organizations. Some choose theology as their major after entering university in South Korea.

Yu entered the department of Chinese Literature at Seoul's Hanyang University this year after graduating from Wonkwang Health Science College. He used to attend a church in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, where Wonkwang college is located, but he said he will start attending services in a large church in Seoul.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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