Radio remains best way to share Gospel in North Korea

North Korea (MNN) – As technology continues to race ahead, Eric Foley with Voice of the Martyrs Korea says radio is still the best way to share the Gospel in North Korea. However, even radio has its challenges for the Korean church.

“Listening to shortwave radio broadcasting, listening to any foreign radio broadcasting is illegal and highly punishable,” Foley says.

However, he shares that this doesn’t mean radio is obsolete. “Twenty percent of North Koreans are estimated to possess radios where they can listen to shortwave broadcasts. That’s a much higher percentage than any other means of reaching people for the Gospel,” Foley states. “North Koreans are very private. When they hear those things, they don’t share them with many people. But when something is heard by North Koreans on the radio that really impacts them, there is that opportunity that they may share with other family members.”

(Image courtesy of mon18marti via pixabay)

Likely Increase in Jamming

Unfortunately, dwindling government broadcasts into North Korea likely mean some of the jamming efforts previously focused on the US and South Korean governments will now be turned to Christian radio broadcasts. The threat is real, but Foley says they are making preparations.

“Outlets in the US have erroneously reported that already the jamming has occurred, or that Christian radio broadcasts have been stopped. And that’s simply not true. That’s not an accurate statement. Instead, what’s accurate is that Christian broadcasters are really aware of it, and we’re taking all of the steps we can in order to prepare for the possibility that North Korea may repurpose some of that electricity that they used to use against the US and South Korean government broadcasts to jam ours.”

Continuing to Share the Gospel

Despite the challenges, Foley states that VOM Korea is adding another radio broadcast to their daily schedule. Like their other programs, this broadcast will feature sermons from early Korean Christians as well as continuous reading of the Bible. They try to make these broadcasts as practical as possible.

Man reading Bible (Photo courtesy by Unsplash)

“We started using North Korean announcers, and from the beginning, our broadcast has only had North Korean announcers. And then we found that these sermons from the early Korean Christians really spoke to the hearts of North Korean people today, because their situation is so identical. The South Korean church has changed a lot, as South Korea has become a much more modernized, westernized country. But for North Korea, you can draw a straight line from the early Korean Christians of the 1880s, which is when Protestant Christianity came to the Korean peninsula. Today, North Korean Christians haven’t changed. So the sermons from these great beginning first, early Korean Christians really speak to their hearts.”

Foley asks that the Church pray for North Korean Christians. Any Church activity is dangerous, but listening to radio broadcasts can be conducted in a great degree of secrecy. Please pray that any efforts to jam Christian broadcast signals would be thwarted. If you want to learn more about North Korea’s radio broadcasts, click here.

Header photo courtesy of Roman Harak of Flickr