foreign [Music] Jewish [Music] Timothy thank you so much for being here thank you for having me here it's an honor you don't they should always speak up um thank you so much for being here and sharing a little bit uh about the story and what God is doing in your life thank you oh thank you for inviting me here so I want you to share a little bit of your story because you were born in North Korea yes and how are you here right we don't know a lot of North Koreans Koreans it's quite overwhelming this morning well when we were driving to this city we were listening to this song Living Hope and now this is and you mentioned the beginning of this interview Jesus so we know that Jesus is Living Hope experience it's one of the reasons over 74 years North can regime experience has not been successful destroying faith hope and love there is one more and without that I couldn't be here and should I pinch myself because I'm not in a dream thank you welcome to Brazil [Music] so you're born in North Korea and how old were you when you escaped I was 17. watching The Sessions so all that during period until age 17. I still believe that at some point North Korea was the best country and the leaders were best leaders in the world even though I had seen people were starving children were dying over a starvation um that part of grain was an indoctrination my is that you could not see anything from outside or inside even within the information it was a long thing from us and the generic freedom of a tourists what to wear was that you have and what kind of clothes you want to wear and that very very that dude the genetic opportunity that was not allowed in North Korea um you could not expect watch anything from outside at 24 7 you gotta watch the Kim family Kim Family Programs one of the examples when you buy a TV in North Korea government to come home and they take all channels out Elizabeth and they put very strong bond tape on that left one channel and every three weeks they come back and inspect it is in case anyone tried to move with that channel to get something different a program when they put antenna at China Direction you can watch Chinese programs so when I when we were going through the lockdown pandemic and I heard from several friends they were panicking yes it was a trauma because we couldn't do anything foreign whole world around in the 21st century we know people know what a passport is and Koreans they don't know what a passport is we can ever imagine and for any foreign holidays now significant ly [Music] um what do they know about the outside world what do they tell them about the outside world as far as I do I remember what they used to told us outside is very poor poverty um it is a complete capitalism always about money capitalism and one program I remember picturing World in Iraq and they said Iraqi was winning against the U.
S and and Ally side is and and also when visited North Korea visitors and it was like people treated like a very special yeah so they portray outside of North Korea is is it's kind of terrible place to live internally I don't know cartoons stories which I used to read not many available but they portrait outside this terrible hunger sickness things going on so it controls a lot inside domestic North Korea things like you don't have any crime you don't have much thing as you don't have much disabled people is later we discovered those people in the society got problems they take them into kind of labor camps Depot is I truly believe that the king family was my God a special day morning wake up we have a king family picture frame Prince and today you start about that Kim family picture frame or even during when I was in primary school early in the morning go to outside and cleaning the Kim family statues in it was kind of very proud of things so from nursery and Primary School you you start having criticism sessions in North Korea is a weekly session you criticize one another yeah this could compare with Christians we go to church we ask you God's forgiveness because this week we have not been thinking about God more than something else foreign and you have to work hard and harder if but at the end of the session teachers usually collect all who have been to cleaning The King Family statues early in the morning it's like special Awards live what if I compare just with one picture it was like in a cage foreign Our God in North Korea's King song more shockingly later I discovered um North Korean State itself built like a Biblical structure is Pyramid shape leader is and they have 10 ideological principles neurological every single sentence declares give absolute love so that you can paraphrase it looks like the paraphrase from Ten Commandments then how come the king family is very familiar with and Christian and biblical structure families because the Kim family come from Christian Roots the first Kim's mother she was baptized by Billy Graham father-in-law family foreign missionaries from Western societies they arrived in Korea from late 18th late 1800s they built schools even Korean King's wife Queen she was learning English from a missionary that time is 1907 career had very very big Revival in Milos and the search many missionaries called Korea Pyongyang it was Pyongyang it was the second Jerusalem of the East missionaries so all King Family come from presbyterian pastors missionaries in his biography he actually said I used to go to church following my mother in a biography but then he says the reason he went to church because they gave him sweet every Sunday afternoon so if you think North Korea is a generic dictatorship that's how mistaken generation we have seen many dictators Mao Stalin purple Peter Castro none of them have passed on to first second and third now there is a huge spiritual battle is going on in North Korea is so my question is this with all this doctrination and and all this view that you had about North Korea and outside world uh how did you come with this idea of escaping of getting out well I was given a son of a betray attack um it was left after my father escaped to China so any defectors of family members left in North Korea they cannot avoid the describe of three generation punishment it is in the category of enemy classes and you get discriminate against everything um jobs Healthcare education food comedy so I was not even able to go to school from age 10. it was very tough because my both parents were high school teachers and I love to to study go to school please call them to during that time I often stood at the school gate and watching other children were attending schools because after they escaped my life was on the street so both of your parents escaped um yes they have yeah so um didn't have paper pen but I was able to practice my Korean language on the floor with the sticks I repeatedly testified one of the traumas I have is collecting pens today so even when I was in Santos one of the church congregations they gave me this pen because I mentioned about this song but it's true the pen and paper have empowered me today so I'm able to speak on behalf of these who cannot speak about 30 of the total population of North Korean people they are belong to the enemy class so they have a very simple structuralized system they run whole population within three classification today's categories top is the ruling who runs that regime continue on second is the first is ruling class dominance and the second one they call wavering class wavering we could compare like middle class so they are more likely nationalistic sentiment people um propaganda brainwashed education because of that is so if anyone watches the Korean drama crass landing on you I know Brazilian people love Korean drama I foreign [Laughter] individual stores it was a person because they check if any strangers visiting their house they come to ask for your ID card where you from what purpose so they're freedom of movement from town to town you need permission from government so that class it was where I was belonging to you and it was it was it was because of that discrimination I still did not realize it was real discrimination um when I actually realized I had the attack was relative military office as I was turning into age 17 Finnish High School age thinking about my future daily I want you to have some kind of normal life so I was hoping to join the Army in North Korea it's a national compulsory service for 10 years even from one that the criteria is from 145 centimeter height requirements as long as your fingers are available you have to join the Army Apache moment so they actually have over 7 million Army North Korea seven million seven million at all mention is I was going to ask you this because to do this monitoring all the time and everywhere they need a lot of people right to to do that so you cannot trust anyone so one example when I was I think I was 15 first opportunity I had to watch James Bond film until you know James Bond it was a smuggled item from a smoker between China and North Korea foreign and we locked the door made this year no one able to come inside as soon as we started watching this film we were so excited we forgot completely of our site and ironic was that the the theme was Die Another Day the James bonder film Die Another Day Another Day is a Chinese lady yeah and after we watched it I was so excited I couldn't not hold the story myself I shared with other friends for the friends but one of my friend's father was working for the police and he shared with his father and then I was called to come to the police station there are a few days punishment I had to the force the labor cleaning the police station that time the punishment was much much weaker than this time it was only December last year and three teenagers watched the squid game round six round six and two of them will executed and one was sent to label campus it was a telling the public did not watch anything so they have the system of kind of wire system the wire twisted so you cannot trust anyone someone from behind the next front keep watching me yeah the military officer told me unfortunately you can't join the Army I started with Theirs to combination because your father betrayed the country and actually well I will work hard I will pay back my father's crime the shocking was I didn't even know what my father's crime was um I asked them what can I do yeah and we will send it to Coraline core mind core core the fire call this thanks um some of my friends who were belong to enemy class were sent to different coal mines but the place is very dangerous you have to crawling Inside the Mind often collapse killed and disabled then I realized wow even if I married had children in North Korea that crime will follow them first century we still have that country born with a crime that is North Korea Elizabeth that's where I made the determination to escape unfortunately I had a test game twice until I put this scale this is and during that journey I was imprisoned four times three times Well in China One was in North Korea um each of this imprisonment it has its own story of persecution and crimes [Music] during my first escape the story still makes me even love myself when I I met missionary guy in China there are a number of missionaries that time they were helping North Korean orphan children all skps like open doors and other group organizations they support people who were able to work uh foreign my impression with this missionary guy and precautions when I first entered his house the first things I saw in this house I thought the Bible and cross necklace was a curse and this missionary guy he was wearing big cross necklace every time he moved he was keep dangling like this and I was keep following I really thought even if I touched that briefly my finger would be rotten straight away rotten foreign and seeing those few children I thought they were kidnapped by this missionary guy there are several stories in North Korea how missionaries used to come to Korea I think that is kidnapped the children took their organs out so there's a kind of a vampire story so when they were offering me with food I was thinking he they put sleeping pills in the rice a yeah if I fall asleep I could wake up in human trafficking anything but I would keep thinking I have to escape from this house but I I remember that missionary guy told me most of North Koreans when they first come to this house they have the eyes so it's very dangerous I'm powerful from that from Young Nursery age brainwashed education is someone to begin I'll do material it's how they educated us how to hate one another instead of love one another is school activities we were often hitting American toys because they are our enemy they are the one who wants to destroy our society there are a lot of propaganda paintings and they urge them we must stand together to against our enemy side yes it makes me yeah really sad for those children are still in North Korea is [Applause] you have this physical prison where you have this really strong reason your mind right exactly yeah so I escaped from the missionaries house I think it was a definitive God's first provision because you could not have inside North Korea foreign I'm we were I was arrested with other North Korean escapees the city called manchuri uh I'm few weeks in the Chinese prisoners and then we were Deport it to the near North Korean Border City prison uh foreign three days on the bus that transportation and all of us were handcuffed and boys particularly even the the leg was tied up in case we were trying to run away Elizabeth soon we were sent back to North Korea is foreign and I remember like 10 people each group when they're sending back to North Korea they tie up our leg foreign and the policeman was smiling at us but the smile was very horrible smiling yeah um now we arrived at a first Detention Center the policeman asked us has anyone in this group been to church and prayed in China yeah it was unexpected questions not really just education in North Korea at all and come to each person have you been have you been Have You Been yeah immigration then in front of the children they asked the children to open the Palms and because um when children pray desperately holding their hands like this if we keep doing that you have thick layers on your each fingers finger point and specifies the Supreme windows so with the stick the policeman was Finding finding discovering oh you've been to church or you've been to missionaries house and kids are afraid and they told everything yes then we know where they are going to end up in a prison camp with all the parents foreign when you went to church or met with any missionary in China they say you are a spy when do is an act the guy next to me and when the question came repeatedly [Music] and he eventually confessed I went to church in China because they were giving me some money and clothes this guy was very very upset police and he was taking handicuff hours really beating on top of his head and blood was streaming down that was out on our first day arrival in North Korea so we were sent to small prison cell I was in there with over 50 people um and we didn't have enough space to lie down we were sitting offside against each other that's how we were sleeping toilet was next to us no private of course I was early in the morning my back was getting very heavier um I was going to tell him hey could you lean on me less because it was too heavy for me foreign and his body was drugged out of the cell by two policemen and I thought I was going to be killed like him and I can stay here screaming and shouting from what was happening to say well I have to say if God was protecting me all the way through I was sent to my grandparents house I asked my grandmother I needed to get her from this country I will be killed otherwise she helped him to cross the border to China second time yeah second time I went to American School in Shanghai because I couldn't try another border uh foreign so we were nine people we crossed the fence of the American schools and we asked the school principal if you could help us to get her from China they said no unfortunately this is a public school not a diplomatic Center yeah many Chinese police came inside the school values and track those out of the school forcefully yeah foreign is my fourth imprisonment as I was expecting to go back to North Korea a second time I could be executed publicly great example to the public so I would crying every night in the prison cell not eating where yeah one of my image I had seven image in my prison sir Elite he came to me young Elizabeth why are you crying if I shouldn't and he was a South Korean gangster is he looked very scary yeah muscle many tattoos I'm very short hair it was very uncomfortable foreign he was translating it to other inmates image from America Japan Colombian Colombia Chinese China Malaysian Malaysia so both North and South Korea I was the youngest North Korean boy in the prisons God's work is it's so mysterious videos but this gangster he brought something small and dark uh it's very old Bible it was written even in vertical directions and he told me we have some time perhaps you could read the Bible I told him I never read the Bible throughout those imprisonments are read by three times and then He suggests me he couldn't stop praying to God for your Survivor yeah I thought he was a crazy gangster yeah and I told him I was going to be killed and he's telling me the Bible and prayer to God yeah because I didn't know who God was there but then like he said because I could not do anything in prison except for crying and thinking about go back to North Korea and be killed uh so I made the decision why not let's ask God yeah I didn't know how to pray myself so I asked him how do you pray without any facial expressions you just say Amen at the end of your wishes that's how I first learned how to pray foreign those words came to me was God I don't want to be killed amen this was the first sentence came up on my mind continuing God I don't want to go back to North Korea amen yeah I want to catch up from this prison amen very simple simple words and very pure that what I was desire I don't want to be killed him so many times I pray today it was the only thing I could do from morning to evening because I didn't want to be killed I saw a different world first time I saw people were able to wear different jeans different clothes and people had different hair colors red yellow yes so what if if I thought during my first Escape was for Survivor second Escape was different light and hope and Different World Experience desperate to live survive d desperation now is is all going to the someone called God and I added amen at the end of it is praying many weeks now is and nothing was happening no God is not there you lied me because I first thought if you keep asking God God might send an helicopter to me and get me out from the prison cells nothing not so that moment I was thinking okay let me ask God once lost if it was really existing this world so I asked him God if you are really really there you are existing this world then in return I would devote all my life to you in history but if I was sent back to North Korea if I was sent back and I was killed I told him I would deny your existence I was betting my last card everything in there and I was hoping with that same world keep asking God and holding the last hole wrong and because Chinese police came and kept on telling me you'd send back to North Korea by Boards until last day I prayed with the same moles foreign say again I prayed with the same world until the last day when two men visited me in the prison visit I thought they were from North Korean Embassy but when I went outside of the prison two men were from South Korean diplomats until the guy was a Westerner they were smiling at me from far distance and told me you're very very lucky yes China made very unusual decisions ashina you and your group to the Philippines my first reaction was thank God Obrigado singer and I still believe that God was someone really looked like a real man you know performance and they were they took a passport photos and came back to us in two weeks so when I told this story and to the gangster the gangster so funny he said I didn't know if you could you could get Freedom like this way and everyone in my presence of the world clapping for me however there was a behind the story of this foreign and she said North Korean escapists came to our schools they were arrested by a Chinese place and we were all traumatized watching them we are powerless students no no students please do something for them then this journalist asked the BBC Washington Post on the Chinese government those who watched it Christian groups and human rights groups organizations they protested in front of many Chinese embassies so it turned out International campaign International so when this 17 year old young boy was hoping and helicopter God would descend to me God sent four people International campaign is permission now and I didn't know anything about that what was going on outside the prison but that time I was holding that word amen tightly I was asking God for my freedom so we were given a diplomatic passport and sent to the Philippines I still remember first time getting on that plane um tears keep keep coming had never seen any passport in my life had never been any on the plane and when we arrived at Manila airport Filipinos police were protecting us a police in case North Korea followed us North Koreans and soon we were transported on a second flight it was the first class waiting for US foreign in a simple way just thinking I survived on the street foreign non-existence boy was counted in God's love is a kingdom of passport yeah I don't know why God has worked in my life this is the story of when God works he does not count whether you're a powerful man there's no grade of ABCD no no Services when you look at Jesus sometimes riding on Warriors Halls but he sometimes rides on Warrior's horse but he also ride on donkeys so we don't know when Jesus come back to us whether he could be someone like an ordinary man um foreign [Music] this is what our current world is facing 360 million persecution going around this persecution is God's people videos so why do you persecute me that's what Jesus said forgive using my people that's you persecute me when there was a person it was Jesus who was on the cross king of a man of God um he was sent by God he had the most power than anyone else but he has chosen to be persecuted by others and before he died on the cross he said father they don't know who they are Prosecuting is please forgive them North Korean regime thinking they are persecuting their own people and all these 306 million people those regimes thinking they are persecuting killing their own people but they are God's people it is counted at the moment at the same time God is telling urging us to stand together with our brothers and sisters it is another moment God telling us persecution calls everything World conflict and and refugees versus and that is past present and future tense even your country Brazil was going through persecution years ago and England France even U.
