When Min-ji was arrested and imprisoned in North Korea for selling South Korean DVDs on the black market, her husband, a high-ranking member of North Korea’s State Security Department, fled to China to delay his own capture and potentially save his children. While in China, he encountered a Christian family who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. And when he returned to North Korea after Min-ji’s release from prison, he was a different person. He began sharing the gospel with other North Koreans and praying regularly at home with his family.

“At that time, I was so resentful of him. My case had just been closed. Why would he put all the family in danger, a greater danger, again?”

–MIN-JI

Soon after Min-ji’s husband returned from China, someone reported his Christian activities to North Korean authorities. Even a mention of Jesus Christ can lead to arrest in the restricted nation, and, predictably, he was sent to a concentration camp without trial. Min-ji never saw him again, and she believes he died in the camp.

Min-ji was in danger because of her husband’s Christian faith. So for her own protection, her uncle, a North Korean government official, had her sent to a labor camp before authorities could send her to a concentration camp.

Min-ji endured six years in the North Korean labor camp for a faith that wasn’t her own. But God wasn’t finished with her yet.

Upon release from the North Korean labor camp, Min-ji decided to defect to South Korea by way of China. After a 10-hour walk through the mountains, she crossed into China, where she spent a month working as a caregiver for a Christian woman with Alzheimer’s disease. Min-ji participated in regular prayer and Christian worship, but she did not yet believe in Christ.

A short time later, Min-ji decided to resume her journey to South Korea. But when she reached Beijing, she and some other North Korean defectors were reported, and Chinese authorities sent them to prison.

A month into her imprisonment, Min-ji discovered that a North Korean woman from her defection group was a follower of Christ; one day, the woman used her toothpaste to write “Jesus Christ” on the prison wall. “It was my first time to see the words ‘Jesus Christ,’ so I asked her what it was,” Min-ji recalled. “She began to share with me what Christianity is.”

The woman also began reading the Bible with Min-ji. “The first time I read the Bible,” she said, “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 [in prison].”

In addition to her North Korean friend, some Chinese Christians in the prison showed Min-ji kindness and shared the love of Christ with her. Gradually, she began to understand their love and the gospel responsible for it.

“I had received so much grace from them. I began to wonder about the God who was consistently intervening in my life.”

—MIN-JI

Min-ji decided to put her faith in Jesus Christ.

After her release from the Chinese prison, she finally made her way to South Korea, where she learned about The Voice of the Martyrs through another North Korean defector. She then enrolled in VOM’s Underground Technology program, where she receives instruction in life skills, character development, relationship skills and spiritual formation.

Min-ji now wants to follow in her husband’s footsteps, ministering to others and doing God’s work. Pray for Min-ji and other North Korean defectors who follow Christ at great personal risk.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 1 Peter 4:16