Lee Chul-ho Escaped from North Korea to be Imprisoned by China



Lee Chul-ho fled from his native nation of North Korea to escape the famine that ravaged his country by crossing the Tumen River into China.  Shortly after he escaped, a South Korean missionary helped him and shared with him the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  In 1998, Lee gave his life to Jesus and for the next three years, shared the Good News with other North Korean defectors.  Then one day, without warning, Lee was arrested by Chinese authorities along with his wife, who was seven months pregnant.  Lee tried to protect his wife by saying he didn't know her, but it was to no avail.  The Chinese authorities took them both back to North Korea.  His wife was taken away by North Korean authorities and forced to abort her child.  Lee never saw her again.  



A few months later Lee escaped to China again to resume his ministry work with other defectors.  In Spring of 2002, Lee was once again arrested by Chinese authorities and charged with "charged systematically organizing a group and illegally helping them cross the river."  Lee was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  The three-story prison cell he was in held 2,000 people with 40 inmates packed in each room.  Lee was classified as a dangerous prisoner because he was a Christian and a North Korean defector.  Nevertheless, he received letters of support from all over the world and this helped sustain him.  Instead of giving into despair, Lee studied the Bible and learned Chinese.  He then began sharing the Gospel with his fellow prisoners.  He shared the Gospel with Chinese prisoners along with 200 other North Korean defectors, who fled their country mainly to escape starvation.  

On the final day of his sentence, the Chinese authorities took Lee back to the border to deport Lee to North Korea, and to certain death.  However, as fate would have it, the North Korean border office was closed because North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Il, had died.  Lee was taken back to to the Foreign Office where a sympathetic Chief of Staff managed to get him released.  As Lee had relatives in South Korea, he was allowed to fly there.  Once in North Korea, he worked with Voice of the Martyrs and began ministering to other North Korean defectors in Laos, South Korea and other parts of Asia.  He helped provide them with care packages of clothes, medicine, and Bibles.  Despite all his trauma and suffering, Lee is determined, now more than ever, to keep doing God's work.  

Sources:

"The Prisoner Who Set Others Free."  Voice of the Martyrs.  February 2021.  

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