Secret Church In The Face of North Korean Christian OppressionBy Will Maule for Faith Wire
“Forty-two” might sound like an insignificant number to most. But for one North Korean Christian, this abstract figure is the very thing that identifies who she is. “Prisoner 42” is the simple name that was assigned to one anonymous North Korean inmate on the day this faithful believer in Jesus walked into the squalid prison she now calls home.
“The name I was born with in North Korea was the first thing they took away from me when I arrived here in this North Korean prison,” Prisoner 42 told Open Doors USA in a recent interview.
Speaking of the harsh treatment she has received at the facility, the inmate explained how she is “beaten and kicked” on a daily basis.
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“It hurts the most when they hit my ears. My ears ring for hours, sometimes days,” she said.
Every day, she revealed, Prisoner 42 is marched into an interrogation room where guards bark questions at her about her religious background:
“Did you go to church?”
“Did you have a Bible?”
“Did you meet any South Koreans?”
“Are you a Christian?” they scream.
Tragically, despite wholly trusting in Jesus Christ, “42” is unable to confess her love for the Lord while within the confines of North Korean incarceration.
“Am I a Christian? Yes,” she said. “I love Jesus. But I deny it. If I admit that I was helped by Chinese Christians, I will be killed, either quickly or slowly.”
