Interview: Open Doors USA President on North Korea
As the third annual North Korea Freedom Week heads towards the much anticipated North Korea Freedom Day Rally and All Night Prayer Vigil on Friday, one of the sponsors of the event explained why supporting freedom efforts in North Korea is so important not only to everyone who believes in human rights, but especially to Christians.
Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, spoke with The Christian Post on Apr. 26, two days away from his scheduled speech at the North Korea Freedom Day rally in Washington, D.C. The president of one of the world’s largest ministry for the persecuted church spoke, among other topics, about Christians living in the anti-religion totalitarian regime.
CP: Open Doors USA World Watch List 2006 ranked North Korea as the top country for worst persecution. Especially during North Korea Freedom Week, can you explain why your ministry listed North Korea as the world’s worst persecution country?
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Moeller: First of all, North Korea really represents the epitome of what a diabolical regime can do to its citizens and particularly what it does to Christians. Christianity in its roots is an affront to totalitarianism because Christians give their primary allegiance to Jesus Christ.
I really believe the North Korean regime, particularly Kim Jong Il, is afraid of what can happen when his population or if his population is impacted by the liberation that comes through Jesus Christ – the spiritual, mental, and emotional liberation that is there. This fear is producing an incredible crackdown on the Christians that includes torture, solitary confinement, work camps, martyrdoms, and even the most heinous types of medical experimentation on human subject. Christians are bearing the greatest brunt of that.
By direct reports we know that North Korea is the worst persecutor in the world.
CP: Last Saturday, at the Concert and Program for North Korean Abductees across from the White House, Suzanne Scholte of the North Korea Freedom Coalition (NKFC) said that before talking about nuclear issues, the U.S. should talk about human rights and when that is resolve all the other problems will be resolved. How do you feel about this statement?
Moeller: I would tend to agree with that statement. I think that the address of the human rights issue from what we can call a symptomatic level is not as effective as dealing with the heart issues. The human rights issue – that is really at stake in North Korea – really goes to the heart of every human being.
I know that we are mostly dealing with Christian persecution, but I don’t think any human being could sit by and understand what is going on and watch it happen without getting involved emotionally. And until we do that and until we see that, I think any address from economic, political, or military issues are going to be just symptomatic and superficial rather than dealing with the real heart issues of human rights that are at stake here.
CP: What is Open Doors and your personal hope in sponsoring North Korea Freedom Week?
Moeller: Our personal desire and the desire of everyone associated with Open Doors is that true freedom would ring on the North Korean peninsula. And again, we do not mean just a political or military or even an economic freedom, but a true freedom of the soul, a freedom of the spirit that comes through liberation in Jesus Christ.
We don’t believe that we need to be satisfied just praying for relief. We can pray for real freedom to take affect in North Korea. And we believe that God desires this in his timing.
I understand that North Korea is really a fragile house of cards on many levels. Economically, it is very, very unstable; politically, of course, it is ruled by a very unstable dictator; militarily, things are always triggered point away from a flare up with the south and with the world community. But I think most importantly on a spiritual level, North Korea needs to be addressed as a fragile environment and that the power of prayer unleashed on North Korea can produce real changes for the people of North Korea.
CP: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Moeller: I think it is important to remember that this is not simply a matter of a distant, small Asian country that may or may not have an impact on the United States. I think for Christians, in particular, this is about family issues. There are brothers and sisters of ours who are today fully baring the brunt of horrible torture and horrible torture at the hands of a diabolical regime. This is a family issue for us that if we don’t get involved and awaken to the fact that our brothers and sisters are suffering, we will bear the condemnation of history at this critical time.
Dr. Carl Moeller began ministry for the persecuted church in 1983 with Campus Crusade for Christ International. He ministered in Africa, Central America, South America and Australia while working for Campus Crusade and Saddleback Valley Community Church, where he was Pastor in Membership. Moeller now serves as president of Open Doors USA with a passion for mobilizing support of Christians in the United States for the people suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ.
