Rescue Mission for North Korean Escapees
Caleb Mission values every individual and is dedicated to rescue efforts that prioritize the safety of North Korean escapees and missionaries. Our team, including Pastor Seungeun Kim, accompanies North Korean escapees as they journey through China, navigate the jungle, and cross the Mekong River, ensuring their safety at every step.
Throughout this perilous escape process, where life and death are at stake, North Korean escapees experience the living God's presence and His grace through the constant prayers offered by our ministers.
And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose.
-Romans 8:28
Preaching the Gospel
Caleb Mission Safehouse in Southeast Asia
After North Korean escapees complete the perilous 7,500-mile journey to freedom, Caleb Mission offers them refuge in safe houses.
They can rest, receive proper nutrition, and access care before transitioning to refugee camps. For three months, we focus on providing hope and healing to those who are weary.
Our approach emphasizes physical, mental, and spiritual recovery through Bible study, healthy meals, and a safe resting place.
Many individuals experience a transformation during this time, accepting Jesus, getting baptized, and beginning new lives filled with faith and freedom.
at the Caleb Mission safehouse in Southeast Asia.
Pastor Seungeun Kim teaches the Bible to the Roh family, North Korean defectors he rescued, at the Caleb Mission Safehouse in Southeast Asia.
rescued in November 2023 at Caleb Mission safehouse in Southeast Asia.
Sharing the gospel in North Korea
North Korea is one of the most unreached countries in the world. Caleb Mission has been actively working to spread the gospel to the people of North Korea. In the early days of our ministry, we provided protection for North Korean escapees in safe houses located along the border areas of North Korea and China, where we also taught them the Bible. As a result, some of these escapees, who felt called by God, memorized the entire Bible and returned to North Korea to share the gospel.
After the popularity of South Korean pop culture, we started creating discs that contained Korean shows and music, additionally including worship songs and gospel messages to smuggle into North Korea.
As our ministry progressed, we gained valuable know-how and developed new technologies. Recently, North Korean escapees who have settled in South Korea have been able to share the gospel with their families in North Korea using secure methods, allowed by special circumstances from God. We are diligently working to spread the gospel to the people in North Korea.
North Korean Defectors’ Community Center
North Korean Defectors’ Community Center in Cheonan, SouthKorea
North Korean Defectors’ Community Center in Cheonan, SouthKorea
North Korean Defectors’ Community Center in Cheonan, SouthKorea
To assist North Koreans in adapting to life in South Korea and to promote their growth as followers of Jesus, Caleb Mission established the North Korean Escapees’ Community Center in Cheonan, South Korea.
This center provides a supportive environment for North Korean escapees to heal from trauma, overcome loneliness, and build a sense of belonging. Together, they engage in activities such as farming, sharing meals, and worshiping alongside South Koreans dedicated to the ministry.
The community fosters mutual support and healing while also preparing for the potential unification of Korea. Furthermore, Caleb Mission trains North Korean missionaries who will spread the gospel within North Korea and participate in ongoing rescue missions, sharing the grace they have received.
North Korean Defectors Scholarship
North Korean people are not properly educated to contribute to modern society. The North Korean regime promotes “free education,” but in reality, it is not free and rather than being educated, the children are indoctrinated with government propaganda, with students being punished if they do not bring firewood to heat the school. Additionally, because group labor is included in regular school programming, North Korean schools are instead used for child labor exploitation.
North Koreans who search all day for food often don't even send children to school.In addition, due to the class system that still exists in North Korea, children from low-class families cannot enter college even if they want to study.
Therefore, North Korean defectors who successfully escape from North Korea and settle in South Korea feel a hunger for knowledge.
In South Korea, where more than 70% of people are college graduates, it is difficult for North Korean defectors without higher education to find decent jobs and live a middle-class living in South Korea.
Caleb Mission offers scholarships and career resources to North Korean escapees and their children, enabling them to pursue higher education in South Korea or the United States.
In addition, We offer scholarships and living expenses for pastoral courses at seminaries to North Korean escapees who aspire to become pastors. These individuals are dedicated to ministering to fellow North Korean escapees and serving as pastors in North Korea once unification is achieved. While we currently support a limited number of individuals, we aim to expand the program by increasing our support.
Psychological Healing for North Korean Defectors
Hangil Jang, a North Korean defector, drew these in 2000. Hangil was 17 years old at the time. These drawings were based on his real experiences in North Korea.
North Korean Defectors rescued by Pastor Seungeun Kim and Caleb Mission
North Korean Defectors’ Community Center in Cheonan, SouthKorea
All North Koreans are forced to watch public executions from an early age. The sight of neighbors living in a village being shot dead in front of one's eyes is a trauma that will last a lifetime.
However, for North Korean people, this is just one of many wounds. Remembering a family member who died because they had nothing to eat, feeling guilty about not being able to help someone even after seeing them dying…
These are just some of the numerous traumas North Korean defectors suffer, including guilt about the family they left behind in North Korea, and the experience of being sold into human trafficking in China after defecting from North Korea, being forced into marriage, being sold into prostitution, and being abused.
Caleb Mission is developing a psychotherapy program rooted in the gospel to help address these deep emotional wounds.
This initiative includes biblical counseling and trauma treatment tailored to the unique experiences of North Korean escapees. We also seek to collaborate with professional organizations specializing in trauma care to provide comprehensive healing for defectors.
International Advocacy for North Korean People
The North Korean regime has been avoiding its human rights violations of its citizens because it strictly controls its image to the outside world.
Using an underground network, Caleb Mission began filming videos inside North Korea in 2013 and has shared them with domestic and international media to publicize the reality of human rights violations in North Korea. Vast amounts of internal North Korean data have been shared on Caleb Mission's YouTube channel and provided to the BBC, The Times, and other international and domestic broadcasters.
In addition, more than ten documentaries have been produced about Pastor Seungeun Kim's rescue process of
North Korean defectors to inform people of the reality of
North Korean defectors who, even after escaping from
North Korea, have to go through an arduous journey to freedom due to China and its affiliated communist countries' repatriation policy and human rights violations.
The documentary Beyond Utopia was released in 2023 which covers Caleb Mission’s mission to rescue
North Korean defectors. It has garnered international attention by winning multiple awards, most notably, the Oscar short-list for Best Documentary as well as the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. It was screened not only at international film festivals but also at the U.S. State Department, CSIS, the Koreat Foundation, Asia Society, the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Unification, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It is playing a role in drawing international attention to the reality of North Korean defectors.
Pastor Kim participated as a speaker at events in Oslo,
New York, and Taipei at the “Oslo Freedom Forum,”
the most recognized international human rights conference
in 2023, to publicize the human rights situation in North Korea and urge united action from the international community.
Apply Political Pressure Uponthe DPRK and Chinese Regimes
In September 2023, Pastor Kim and Caleb Mission members participated in a protest against repatriation to North Korea in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and in front of the White House, in order for the U.S. to join in putting pressure on the Chinese government.
In addition, through our ministry to North Korean street orphans, which we have focused on since 2013, we discovered that North Korean defector orphans cannot be adopted under international law, and we have made constant efforts to revise this law.
However, in 2017, Pastor Seungeun Kim and his wife were approved as foster parents for the orphaned sisters rescued through Caleb Mission by winning a lawsuit filed in the Family Court of Korea in 2017. The couple raised them with warm love until the children entered college.
Over the past several decades, the international community has taken hardline measures such as economic sanctions against
North Korea. South Korea has also taken a hardline policy and has embraced North Korea, depending on the party in government,
but the North Korean regime has not waivered and has succeeded in developing nuclear weapons, continuously threatening international peace.
Experts who study North Korea say that freedom in North Korea can only be achieved by the people. For that to happen, outside information must flow into North Korea and enlightened residents must rise up as a result.
How can we deliver outside information to people who are restricted from using the Internet, are blocked from accessing outside information, and have been brainwashed by their state?
NGO groups, including Caleb Mission, have used various methods, such as smuggling in flash drives, launching balloons, etc., in order to send outside information and the gospel to the people of North Korea. Additionally,the impact of the “Korean Wave” has spread to North Korea, and many Korean movies and music are being smuggled into North Korea through the Chinese border.
While the North Korean government does its best to launch missile provocations on the international stage, domestically, the regime focuses primarily on preventing defections.
Woo Young-bok (“Mama Roh”) who was rescued by Pastor Kim of Caleb Mission and featured in the documentary
Beyond Utopia, recently stated in an interview with the London Sunday Times that when she was in North Korea, she saw how advanced South Korea was through a video call through a broker with her younger brother who had defected first. At that time, she had realized
the lies she had been told by the North Korean regime. Since then, she had dreamed of defecting from North Korea.
The rescue of North Korean defectors ultimately will lead to the enlightenment of the people inside North Korea so that they can find
their own freedom. As a result, the nuclear regime that threatens the world can be eliminated and we all then can take one step closer to promoting world peace.
