![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CUS1906AO_01151_pub_MinJi-1024x613.jpg\")
Min-ji believes her husband died in the camp. \u201cI still do not know how my husband died,\u201d she said. And she never learned who reported him either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time of the arrests, Min-ji\u2019s uncle, who held a chief position with the SSP, knew that Min-ji was in danger of being sent to a concentration camp because of her husband\u2019s Christian faith. So for her own protection, he instead had her sent to a labor camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prisoners in labor camps, known as kyohwaso<\/em>, spend 15 hours a day working in coal mines, performing farm labor or doing construction work. And they receive only a few mouthfuls of simple food, such as corn, porridge or cabbage, twice a day. But despite the torturous work, they at least know they\u2019re likely to be released one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who, like Kun-woo, are found guilty of serious crimes, are sent to concentration camps known as kwanliso<\/em>. They are typically imprisoned for life, if they aren\u2019t executed. Conditions at these camps are so bad that nearly 40 percent of inmates die of starvation, and those who don\u2019t starve often lose up to half of their body weight. Former prisoners have reported that inmates sometimes eat grass and rats to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was the luckiest among my family, since I was only in the labor camp,\u201d Min-ji said. Two years into her detention, her uncle was fired for breaking protocol with her case, and all of her relatives faced interrogation. She said her mother and a nephew died from the stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After more than six years in the labor camp, Min-ji was finally released. She said she barely survived its brutal conditions, but she knows it could have been worse. Someone in the labor camp who had known a concentration-camp survivor told her that authorities there pack the mouths of Christians full of gravel so they can\u2019t scream as they are beaten to death. \u201cThey always beat Christians to death,\u201d Min-ji said. \u201cThis is what I heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After her release, Min-ji decided to defect. She said she felt it was necessary in order to support her children, who were young adults at the time. \u201cOur family had no future in North Korea after the death of my husband and my own six years of imprisonment,\u201d she said. \u201cI needed to find a way to live, at least for my children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Min-ji bribed a border guard to allow her and one of her children to cross the Yalu River into China. But after crossing the river, her child decided to turn back. Alone, Min-ji continued the walk toward Yanji, China, where a friend had a car waiting for her. \u201cTo get there, I had to walk for 10 hours alone, crossing at least five mountains,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Min-ji stayed in Yanji for a month, earning money by caring for a Christian woman with Alzheimer\u2019s disease who lived with other believers. She found it odd that the women believed in the same God that her husband had worshiped. \u201cThey invited me to sing Christian songs together and to pray together,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About a month later, Min-ji decided to try moving on to South Korea. She first traveled to Beijing, where she met a broker who was going to help her and other North Korean defectors cross into South Korea. But before they could leave China, she and her group of defectors were reported as possible human traffickers because the group included young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe police showed up,\u201d Min-ji said. \u201cBecause we had no proof of citizenship or visa, we were taken to a prison.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese authorities considered sending the group back to North Korea. But some Christians in South Korea who had been praying for the group of defectors contacted the South Korean embassy in China and explained that the North Koreans were simply trying to reach family members in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, however, the South Korean government was in a state of transition \u2014 the president had just been impeached \u2014 so they weren\u2019t accepting any refugees. As a result, Min-ji remained in the Chinese prison for nearly two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInterestingly, and thankfully, the Chinese guards treated us well,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes, the police even gave us certain foods that we wanted when we asked for them. The hardest part was not knowing whether I would be sent back to North Korea or if I would be able to defect to South Korea. It was very stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in prison, Min-ji met many Chinese women who had been detained for their Christian faith. And a month into their imprisonment, a North Korean woman from her defection group finally felt comfortable enough to share that she, too, was a follower of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we were sent [back] to North Korea and it was discovered that we had encountered a church and Christianity, we would surely die,\u201d Min-ji said. \u201cSo she could not share anything with me for the first month that we were together. But in prison, one has a lot of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After confessing her faith to Min-ji, the woman \u2014 filled with joy \u2014 grabbed her toothpaste and used it to write \u201cJesus Christ\u201d on the prison wall. \u201cIt was my first time to see the words \u2018Jesus Christ,\u2019 so I asked her what it was,\u201d Min-ji recalled. \u201cShe began to share with me what Christianity is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chinese guards had allowed the woman to bring a Bible into prison with her, so she began reading it with Min-ji. \u201cThe first time I read the Bible, I felt it was odd to do so because it was on account of the Bible that my husband was killed and I ended up there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the influence of her North Korean friend, Min-ji was moved by how empathetic the Chinese Christians were toward her family\u2019s story. \u201cThese sisters were very nice to us and prayed for us,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they prayed, they did so with tears. I wondered why they cried out like this even though it was my problem, not their own matter. I also wondered why they kept their faith even though they were persecuted and imprisoned for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But one day their love started to make sense, and so did the gospel. Min-ji then decided to place her faith in Jesus Christ. \u201cI had received so much grace from them,\u201d she said. \u201cI began to wonder about the God who was consistently intervening in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the Chinese Christians were released, they gave Min-ji 1,000 Chinese Yuan (roughly $150) through the guards, who normally did not allow prisoners to receive money from other prisoners being released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Min-ji contacted her nieces in South Korea after her release from the Chinese prison, and they arranged for a broker to help her cross into South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once there, Min-ji learned about The Voice of the Martyrs through another North Korean defector and soon enrolled in VOM\u2019s Underground Technology (UT) program. Along with other North Korean defectors, she received an academic foundation as well as instruction in life skills, character development, relationship skills and spiritual formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love UT because the teachers teach me the Bible,\u201d she said. \u201cI see and hear things that I could not see in church. Also, I have never seen any people like [these] students before. The students truly become transformed, so much so that they do not look like the people in North Korea. Also, the school administration is merciful, and the people have kind manners. I want to follow in my husband\u2019s footsteps. I have a heart to follow Jesus like my husband. I want to go to a theological school to do God\u2019s work after I retire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Min-ji\u2019s grown children have also now defected to South Korea. One of them, she said, still suffers from the trauma of Kun-woo\u2019s imprisonment and death for his faith. And as a result, that child struggles with Christian faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNeither of my children go to church regularly,\u201d she said, \u201cbut they believe in God. Please pray for both of my children and for me to faithfully walk in the path that my husband had already walked through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back, Min-ji wishes she would have considered her husband\u2019s faith when he first shared it with her. \u201cAt the time, I did not see with the same eyes that my husband did,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I had only had the spiritual eyes that I have now at that time. My concern then was only to earn money for my family and be loyal to my beloved nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kun-woo\u2019s walk with Christ is never far from Min-ji\u2019s memory. When she watched the VOM video Sang-chul: North Korea<\/em>,<\/a> produced for the 2019 International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians, she said it reminded her of her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPursued by God<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"North](\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CUS202009AG_0002_pub_MinJi-1024x1017.jpg\")
Moving Forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n