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What does the North Korean bible contain?
On the 2nd of this month, Free North Korea Broadcast (Free NK, Kim Sung Min, president) revealed through the website the North Korean ‘complete bible’ which consists of corrected expressions of the South Korean ‘Jointly Translated Bible’.
This bible is the second version that the ‘Central Committee of Chosun Christian Association’ published on April 10, 1990, and that the Pyongyang General Printing Factory printed on April 20, 1990.
It took two years, from 1883 to 1884, for the first bible to be published in North Korea. In 1983, ‘New Testament’ and ‘Hymn’ and in 1984, ‘Old Testament’ were published.
The bible, which consists of 1,884 pages of the Old Testament and 589 pages of the New Testament was written horizontally. It is same as the Revised Version of the Bible (which most Christians use), except for ‘Exodus’, the ‘Kings’ and the ‘Chronicles’ in the Old Testament and ‘Revelations’ in the New Testament. Quotation marks and the numbering are slightly different.
If the People Possess a Bible, Hunted by the Political Prisons
Such bibles seem to be used only in BongSu church and ChilGol church, which were established for foreign exhibition by the North Korean administration.
The North Korean bible can be introduced into South Korea for the purpose of missions in the North-South Interchange Cooperation Act. Currently, the ’21 Century Internet Missionary Broadcast’ (www.21tv.org) serializes the original text of the North Korean ‘complete bible’ through the ‘North Korean Bible’ program.
However, this bible is published just for foreign exhibition in order to say that North Korea also guarantees religious freedom.
Religious activities in North Korea are considered ‘national crimes’ that are the same as antiestablishment activities. According to defector witnesses, it is to the extent that after defection, if the defectors meet missionaries or obtain bibles, they will be be taken to political prisons.
Last November, the US Commission of International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued a report that analyzed the status of religious freedom in North Korea and announced that North Korea has suppressed religions such as Christianity, Buddhism and Cheondo religion.
The report stated, “North Korea sorts out the repatriated defectors who came in contact with or joined Christianity by questions asked by the science of religion students at Kim Il Sung University. They were made to pick out Christians under instructions, which were given based on the fact that Christianity encourages the collapse of juche ideology”.
Unblocked Will of Religious Freedom, Increasing Underground Churches
The annual report that the US State Department issued in the same month regarding international religious freedom pointed out North Korea as a nation which has suppressed religious freedom.
In September of 1998, the corrected North Korean socialism constitution stated, “The people have a right of religious freedom. This right is guaranteed to be allowed to build religious buildings and perform religious ceremonies.” Yet, it has the term that “nobody can use religion as a means of destroying national order or attracting foreign powers”.
On the other hand, in spite of strict suppression of the North Korean administration, underground churches in North Korea have rapidly increased in secret.
This pas January 31st, Tode Nettlton, who is working for the ‘Sound of Martyrs’ as the head of the Office of Public Information, which is located in Oklahoma in the U.S., stated through an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA) that, “Because of the security of the Christians working in North Korea, we cannot reveal the number of the underground churches or of the believers. However, since the people who ran away to China and have been in contact with Christianity were repatriated to North Korea, the underground churches in North Korea have augmented.”
‘Sound of Martyrs’, an international missionary organization, carries out missionary activities for the North Korean defectors in China, and sends bibles to North Korea or lets balloons fly on which biblical expressions are written.
