Beauty for Trashes: Korea’s Balloon Battle

On Saturday, North Korea sent another 720 rubbish-laden balloons across the border to South Korea, bringing the grand total to about 3,500 balloons dumping 15 tons of refuse.

Why all the mess? News reports tell of NK defectors and activists sending anti-Communist and K-pop propaganda by balloon to North Korea for years now and how these trash balloons are tit for tat.

But did you know balloons are one of the main ways Christians send Bibles, tracts and humanitarian aid into North Korea?

“We always refrain from making comments about what we are or aren’t doing in regard to specific field activities,” said Eric Foley of Voice of the Martyrs Korea. “But what we do say is this: We continue to look for every opportunity—by land, sea, air, or radio…. We look for every opportunity to bring the Bible into North Korea…. Every year, by the grace of God, we’re bringing in an average of 40,000 Bibles through all those different means.” (Lyndsey Koh, Mission Network News, May 31)

North Korea ranks #1 on Open Doors’ World Watchlist of most dangerous countries in the world for Christians to live. “Being discovered to be a Christian in North Korea is effectively a death sentence. Either believers will be deported to labour camps as political criminals, where they face a life of hard labor which few survive, or they are killed on the spot. The same fate awaits family members. There are believed to be tens of thousands of Christians held in labor camps across the country.

“The deplorable treatment of believers is driven by the authoritarian regime’s view that Christians are a particular threat to the country’s leadership and society. The ‘Anti-reactionary thought law’ (enacted in December 2020) makes it amply clear that being a Christian or possessing a Bible is a serious crime and will be severely punished.”

North Korea has been closed to the world for so many decades that little news from persecuted believers reaches the outside world. To read letters to us written by North Korean Christians and smuggled out of the country, click here:

Letters Smuggled Out of North Korea

Lord, thank You for the ways You are getting the good news into North Korea. Guard every Bible, every tract, the food, medicine and other aid to make it to just the spiritually and physically hungry North Koreans You have planned them for. Don’t let anything get in the way. Push back the darkness with Your light and bring tens of thousands of North Koreans to faith in You this year. Watch over every Christian. Be their Refuge and Strong Tower. Be their Shield, their Help in times of trouble. Guard them from sickness, hunger and harm. Hide them from those who seek to do evil against them. Speak Scripture into their minds and hearts to encourage them and keep them strong, even when no Bible or hope is available. You be their Hope, their Strength, their Song. Open up the way for Christians in jails and labor camps to share Your love with those around them. Give lost guards and prisoners a deep, deep hunger for You. Make Christians shine so brightly those who live in spiritual darkness will know where to go to find You. In the midst of terrible poverty, bless Christians so abundantly they will have more than enough to share with their needy neighbors. In the midst of persecution, give Christians grace to forgive and to love their persecutors such that cold hearts melt with regret over their sin and turn to Jesus. Break the chains that bind Kim Jong-un and those who follow him to Satan’s purposes. Lift the veil from their eyes so they will see You as You truly are. Invade their dreams at night and their thoughts by day, showing them the Truth and drawing them into Your love. Give them courage to lay down Communist ideals and oppression and choose Christ. Raise up leaders who will bless the people of North Korea, not oppress them, who will open the way for Your gospel to freely enter every heart and home. Please, Lord, don’t let even one more person die without hearing the good news that brings salvation. Awaken North Korea to You.

Stay plugged in to what’s going on around the world here at the Prayer Wall, where we are praying daily for persecuted Christians, whole nations lost without Christ, our own families and communities and more. To get the daily prayer guides in time for your morning quiet times with God, enter your email address in the space below:

About the author: Mikaela Vincent and her husband have served the Lord for many years a dark area of the world where Christians are persecuted and few have heard the good news about Christ. They are missionaries who live by faith, trusting in God to provide for their needs as they pray for and share Christ with the nations. If you would like to help their ministry through giving a donation, shopping at Mikaela’s online bookstore, praying for them or inviting them to speak at your church, retreat or other event, click the buttons below:

For 30 Days of Prayer for Global Awakening and other powerful resources for all ages on walking in the fullness of God’s love, overcoming the enemy in these trying times and shining Christ, visit MoreThanAConquerorBooks.com.

Any proceeds this author receives from the sale of the deep devotional Bible studies and other MoreThanAConquerorBooks.com books mentioned in this post go to shining Christ’s light in the darkness and seeing the nations come to Him. 

Thank you for your support! If you have any questions or want to help with this ministry, please contact Mikaela.