A Christian who had been arrested around the Korean/China border in 2019 was released from a detention centre in March and reunited with her husband and children.
Eunji*, was a leader of a Bible study for North Korean women refugees when she was arrested. Repatriation back to North Korea would have meant torture or even death for her.
Eunji would likely have been transferred to a kwan-li-so, a maximum-security political labour camp. Approximately 50,000 Christians are held in inhumane prison camps in North Korea in conditions that have been described by Auschwitz survivors as ‘worse’ than the infamous World War II concentration camp.
A former North Korean believer and prison camp survivor said: ‘People who are sent to the kwan-li-so are never sentenced by a judge. They just disappear. No one survives the kwanl-li-so. Most Christians go to these maximum-security North Korean prison camps.’
While the details of Eunji’s release and escape are few, Eunji said that because her deportation to North Korea was delayed, she was able to remain in China and be released before she was repatriated. The delay gave her Chinese husband an opportunity to rescue her.
Keeping God in the centre of her story, Eunji thanked Him for His protection over her and for guiding her ‘in the valley of the death’. She thanked Christians for their prayers.
