United States (MNN) — There’s a new legislative bill in the United States government … about North Korea. Here’s what happened and what it doesn’t mean. 

On November 20, the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2023 passed in the House of Representatives. Now it’s in the Senate. If it passes there, it will reauthorize and update a piece of legislature from 2004 (with practically the same name) intended to promote human rights in North Korea, among other related items. Read the bill in full here.

(Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA)

Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says the bill is largely symbolic, despite some practical calls within it to reunifying families. 

“It’s hard to say that it means a lot, because the North Korean regime is obviously not checking with the U.S. government before they persecute Christians, before they persecute their own people,” he says. 

“This bill first passed in 2004 and North Korea hasn’t changed much since then. That answers [the] question, ‘How much do they (North Korean leaders) care?’”

How indeed to hold a state accountable who resists attempts at accountability? Earlier in November, North Korea representatives rejected dozens of recommendations from UN leaders in a review of human rights.

“[The U.S. is] in the midst of an administration change. Incoming President Trump has met with the leader of North Korea, has talked about their warm friendship and relationship,” Nettleton says. “So there may be a pathway that this [bill] does make a difference. I don’t know that that’s the case, but certainly on behalf of our Christian brothers and sisters in North Korea, I pray that there can be a change, that they would be given more freedom and better treatment.”

Why the persecuted church is persecuted

“Here at Voice of the Martyrs, we know that among those who are singled out for the very worst treatment are followers of Jesus Christ,” Nettleton says.

You’ve heard the grim stories about what North Koreans suffer. (If you haven’t, you can read a summary here.) Nettleton says there’s a reason behind the lack of religious freedom in North Korea.

VOM Korea smuggles Scripture and discipleship material into North Korea through shortwave radio broadcasts.
(Photo courtesy VOM Korea)

“It’s in the interest of the government for Christianity to be shut down. That is because the government is built on this idea — they call it the philosophy of juche, or self reliance. But it is built on the idea that members of the Kim family are divine beings,” Nettleton says. 

“Children in kindergarten are taught before you sit down to a meal to say, ‘Thank you, Father Kim Il-Sung, for our food,’ Kim Il-Sung being the founder of North Korea, the grandfather of the current leader of North Korea.” 

The idea that Christianity is a Western religion is not actually the key reason behind persecution. “The key fact is Christianity is treason, because if you say that Jesus is Lord, if you pray to Jesus, then you’re saying Kim Il-Sung is not Lord.”

Yet the gospel is reaching North Korea! 

“There are lots of ways that that [gospel proclamation] is happening, and some of them we can talk about, some of them we can’t talk about,” Nettleton says. 

Find your place in the story. Pray for the North Korean regime, for them to encounter Christ, “for their hearts to be changed and for that to [ultimately] change the way our Christian brothers and sisters in North Korea are treated,” says Nettleton. Find more prayer requests at VOM’s webpage for North Korea. 

Header image of a North Korean concentration camp courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs.