North Korea (MNN)–The World Bible Translation Center continues to ask for prayer regarding the distribution of Scripture in North Korea.
Due to the severe restrictions on religious and personal freedoms, such work is very dangerous and painstaking.
North Korea has topped the Open Doors’ World Watch list for several years. The list is a ranking of the worlds harshest persecutors of Christians.
Their ranking comes among growing evidence of severe oppression in North Korea has confirmed what many observers have believed for years, that the communist dictatorship of Kim Jong Il stops at nothing to eradicate all belief systems other than the worship of Kim himself and his deceased father, Kim Il Sung. Both father and son have made every attempt to purge the land of Christians.
It is against this backdrop that the Center committed to getting 20,000 New Testaments into North Korea over the next twelve months. Team members have already laid the groundwork for the project, since the WBTC released the Korean New Testament in Seoul, South Korea in December 2003.
The New Testament has been well received by churches and mission groups working within the country. WBTC has an opportunity to establish an office in South Korea with a board of interested and dedicated Christians to oversee increased distribution efforts into Korea and neighboring countries.
Pray that God will protect those involved in the project and that He will open the doors. Pray too, that freedom of religion be granted in North Korea.
