North Korean Christians keep faith underground amid crackdowns

One rth Korean defector in Seoul describes her family back home quietly singing Christian hymns every Sunday while someone stood to watch for informers.

A second cowered under a blanket or in toilet when praying in rth. Yet ar recalls seeing a fellow prison inmate who'd been severely beaten for refusing to repudiate her religion.

se accounts from interviews with Associated Press provide a small window into how underground Christians in rth Korea struggle to maintain ir faith amid persistent crackdowns.

rth Korean's treatment of Christians could become a bigger issue if rth Korean leer Kim Jong Un's expected second summit with President Donald Trump produces significant progress, and if Pope Francis follows through on his expressed willingness to take up Kim's invitation to visit rth Korea.

Most of rth Korea's underground Christians do t eng in extremely dangerous work of proselytizing, according to defectors and outside experts. Inste, y largely keep ir beliefs to mselves or within ir immediate families. But even those who stay deep underground face danger, defectors say.

rth Korea has previously arrested South Korean and American missionaries for allegedly attempting to build underground church networks or overthrow its government. Only a small number of rth Korean believers risk trying to win converts, defectors say.

One woman interviewed said she converted about 10 relatives and neighbours and held secret services before defecting to South.

"I wanted to build my church and sing out as loud as I could," said woman, who is w a pastor in Seoul. She insisted on only being identified with her initials, H.Y., because of serious worries about safety of her converts and family in rth.

pastor and ors spoke with AP because y wanted to highlight persecution y feel Christians face in rth Korea. Although comments cant be independently confirmed, y generally match previous claims of or defectors.

Kim Yun Tae, he of Unification Strategy Institution, a private think tank in Seoul, said he's heard similar testimonies about religious crackdowns and underground Christians during interviews with more than 1,000 defectors from rth Korea over past 20 years.

rth Korea has five government-sanctioned churches in its capital, Pyongyang, but experts say y are fakes aimed at covering up nation's religious abuse and winning outside aid. rth Korea h a flourishing population of Christians before 1950-53 Korean War, but it has wired amid successive clampdowns against a faith government sees as a U.S.-led Western threat.

"From an outside perspective, re is absolutely religious freedom in rth Korea," said Kim Yun Tae, who isn't religious.

U.S. State Department has included rth Korea on its list of countries violating religious freedom every year since 2001. rth Korea has previously bristled at U.S. criticism of its religious record, calling it proof of hostility toward its leership.

In October, Pope Francis indicated his willingness to visit rth Korea to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who conveyed Kim's desire for a papal visit, according to Vatican and South Korean officials.

Moon's office cited Francis as saying that "if invitation comes, I will surely respond to it, and I can possibly go." Most remaining Christians in rth Korea likely learned about religion when y went to China after a devastating famine killed hundreds of thousands in mid-1990s. Converts were later captured in China and jailed once y were sent back to rth.

Most denied ir faith while being interrogated, as H.Y. said she was later forced to do when imprisoned in rth, so y could survive. But t everyone did.

Ar defector in Seoul, Kwak Jeong-ae, 65, said a fellow inmate in rth Korea told guards about her own religious beliefs and insisted on using her baptized name, rar than her original Korean name, during questioning in 2004.

"She persisted in saying, 'My name is Hyun Sarah; it's name that God and my church have given to me,'" Kwak said. "She told ( interrogators), 'I'm a child of God and I'm t scared to die. So if you want to kill me, go ahe and kill me.'" Kwak said Hyun told her about what she did during interrogations, and Hyun's actions were confirmed to Kwak by ar inmate who was interrogated alongside her. Kwak said she later saw Hyun, n 23, coming back from an interrogation room with severe bruises on her forehe and bleeding from her se. Days later, guards took Hyun away for good.

Actions like that strike many defectors and South Koreans as extraordinary.

More common are stories like that from ar defector, who also insisted on anymity because of fears for her family in rth. She said she only prayed under a blanket or in toilet because of worries of being caught.

Ar, who was jailed after being repatriated from China, described praying silently in his cell after a hungry fellow prisoner shared some precious kernels of corn.

"We communicated by writing on our palms (with our fingers). I told him I was a Christian and asked wher he was too," said man, who asked to be identified only as J.M., citing safety concerns about his siblings in rth.

Some were even more outspoken.

Jung Gwangil, a rth Korean defector-turned-activist, said he saw a man praying and singing hymns when y were held toger at a detention facility in rrn city of Hoeryong in October 1999. man was beaten frequently and one day was hauled away, Jung said.

"While leaving, he shouted to us, 'God will save you.' I hn't encountered Christianity before at time, and I thought he was crazy," said Jung. It wasn't clear what happened to man.