The shadowy network of front companies Christian missionaries use to spread gospel in North Korea

[SecularMotion]

For nearly two years, Kenneth Bae, an undercover missionary from Lynnwood, Wash., safely shuttled groups of Christians in and out of North Korea’s Rason Special Economic Zone. In November 2012, Bae’s crusade ended abruptly. The owner of Nations Tour, a China-based front company he formed as a cover to evangelize in the world’s last Stalinist state, Bae was arrested by North Korean agents as he passed through the Wonjong border crossing with a small group of European travelers. The 44-year-old Korean-American was charged with possession of “anti-DPRK literature,” convicted of encouraging foreigners to “perpetrate hostile acts to bring down [the] government,” and sentenced to 15 years hard labor.

It is relatively rare that North Korea arrests a foreign national, even rarer when one considers that a company like Nations Tour is hardly unique. The so-called “Business as Mission” movement, which instructs devout Christians to set up companies as vehicles for spiritual outreach, dates back to the 18th century but found new life at the beginning of the 21st. It’s a missionary model that, by definition, assumes a certain amount of risk for those setting out to reach the “unreached.” But the risks haven’t dissuaded the faithful from taking up the cause. Today, there is an extensive, well-financed network of for-profit missions, using shadowy front companies to evangelize in North Korea. Though precise numbers are impossible to pin down, missionary-businesspeople have set up a staggering breadth of enterprises, including tour agencies, bakeries, factories, farms, even schools and orphanages, all in the name of spreading the Good Word.

Christianity’s roots in what today is known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are deep. The Great Pyongyang Revival of 1907 was touched off by Western missionaries during an evening service on Jan. 14 of that year and planted thousands of churches across Korea. The movement lasted about four decades before the religion was effectively “disappeared” in 1948 by Kim Il-sung. (Kim—whose parents and grandparents were devout Christians and his uncle a minister—believed the faith would pose a threat to his regime.) Today, North Korea, a country widely regarded as the world’s most hostile toward organized religion, has a strong pull for a certain stripe of evangelical Christians, whose fervent efforts are focused, laser-like, on recapturing lost souls. And the 746-square-kilometer Rason Special Economic Zone—the same northeastern corner of North Korea that attracted Kenneth Bae—is ground zero for these modern apostles.

Generations of central planning and Soviet-style inefficiencies have left North Korea in dire need of food, fuel, and just about everything else. The nation’s largest trading partner is neighboring China, from whom it buys much and sells little. With no rational person likely to accept Pyongyang’s terms for foreign direct investment, Kim Jong-un’s regime has few options.


http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/11/christian_missionaries_in_north_korea_inside_the_front_companies_christians.html

North Korean university draws U.S. evangelicals despite risks

The university, which is open about its Christian affiliation, says its sole mission is to help North Korea's future elite learn the skills to modernize the isolated country and engage with the outside world. Former teachers say the faculty is careful to avoid anything that looks like missionary work.

The university attracts a steady stream of devout American Christians, despite North Korea's history of handing down long sentences with hard labor to missionaries accused of various transgressions.

North Korea has in the past used detainees to extract concessions, including high-profile visits from the United States, which has no formal diplomatic relations with North Korea.

Chancellor Park said roughly 60 U.S. citizens come to PUST each semester, but now "there's less than that".

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-university-idUSKBN1870ND

[dalton99a]

1. And every time North Korea decides to keep them, the U.S. government has to bail them out

[Igel]

2. And reports like this

merely tell the North Koreans that their suspicions are right. Those people who they let in to teach and who agree not to preach really *are* subversive and should be even more closely monitored.

It's like when the NYT outed the Israeli hackers to ISIS: The press' purpose was to say one thing, but in so doing they said something much more important. Not only weren't they aware of the consequences of their actions, but afterwards they say it's not their fault they said it. They're aware of their responsibility to speak; they seem to be obtuse when it comes to any other. With the Pentagon Papers there was at least a serious discussion of consequences beyond, "Will this make us famous and get us more revenue?"