Interviews with Kim Seong Min

In North Korea there is propaganda against Christianity starting from elementary school and in middle school. So the North Korean people are raised with this belief and are terrified of Christianity and US missionaries. They were also told that the South Korean Christians were responsible in going to war with the North Korean people since they can speak English. Since religion is forbidden in North Korea, the North Korean people do not have anything to compare with about Christianity or any other religion. So when I came to China and then to South Korea, it was then when I found out the true meaning of the cross for myself and about Christianity.

I realized that I was ignorant. So when I first came to South Korea, people would ask me if there were underground churches in North Korea and I always answered no. But there is a staff member at my radio station who is a female defector from North Korea. She told me that her grandparents and her father and mother are Christian believers and participate in an underground church in North Korea. This was how I found out that there are underground churches in North Korea. There are indigenous groups of Christians in North Korea.

There are also defectors who learned about Christianity in China but got sent back to North Korea and continue to practice their faith. This movement is becoming more active in North Korea thanks to the support of the US and South Korean missionary organizations.

Kim Seong Min was born in 1962. He grew up and received his education in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim is the son of a poet and was trained as a writer. After serving ten years in the military, he worked in one of the regime’s propaganda offices. Troubled by the society in which he lived, Kim escaped to China in 1997. He eventually arrived in Seoul, South Korea in 1999, and ever since has fought for the liberation and democratization of his homeland.

In 2004, Kim established Free North Korea Radio (FNKR) to broadcast messages about freedom to those being oppressed and exploited by the regime in Pyongyang. These tireless efforts have been recognized by several international awards, including the “Prize for Press Freedom” from Reporters Without Borders and the “Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award” from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Recently, Kim was elected as a Representative of the Coalition to Promote the Democratization of North Korea, an alliance of North Korean defector organizations based in South Korea.

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