Here is a big surprise: North Korea isn't all that bad for Christians.
Although it has been called "the worst country on Earth to be a Christian," the East Asian country of 26 million people ruled by communist dictator Kim Jong-Un actually has a strong underground church and has a surprising message for Christians in America.
The revelation was made by Dr. Eric Foley, head of Voice of the Martyrs Korea, in an interview last week with Hope 103.2.
For the past 14 years, Open Doors USA has listed North Korea at the top of its list of countries where Christians are persecuted. According to the organisation which champions the cause of persecuted Christians worldwide, North Korea's rulers see Christianity not only as "opium for the people" but also as "deeply Western and despicable."
In this country, Christians try to hide their faith as much as possible to avoid arrest and internment in labour camps under horrific conditions, according to Open Doors USA.
However, Dr. Foley said depicting North Korea as a "country with a big barbed wire fence around it ... is not a very accurate picture."
Foley nevertheless confirmed that Christians are treated like terrorists under the communist regime and that Bibles, churches, and prayer meetings are all banned. He also attested that many Christians have either been executed or taken to concentration camps.
But despite the constant threats to their lives, North Korea's Christians are strong and creative about sharing their faith, Foley said.
"North Korean people face great difficulties, but it's not as if there is a black cloud hanging over the people of this nation," Foley said. "They have joys and strengths and hopes also."
He said Christians in North Korea don't consider their country as the worst in the world as foreigners do. "Not because their life isn't difficult, but because they believe that God has drawn close to them in a real way, that the rest of us may not even be able to imagine fully," he said.
Foley said he once told a group of North Korean defectors that the American church is praying for North Koreans.
The answer they gave stunned him.
"You pray for us? We pray for you!" one North Korean defector told him. "That's the problem with you American Christians and South Korean Christians! You have so much, you put your faith in your money and in your freedom. In North Korea we have neither money nor freedom, but we have Christ and we've found He's sufficient."
The unnamed defector said North Korean Christians do not pray for the freedoms Americans have, because "freedom in Christ is something that can't be granted or taken away by a government."
"They don't pray for a regime change. They don't pray for freedom and money. They pray for more of Christ and to mirror more of Christ in their life. That's what we should be praying for ourselves as well," the defector said.
