Christian Group Threatened Over Faxes to North Korea
Remember when, several months ago, I published a long list of fax numbers for North Korean entities of various kinds, both inside and outside North Korea? I wondered if any of those faxes would actually get though. I guess we have our answer:
North Korea has threatened a Christian ministry to stop sending Gospel messages to the country through fax, saying the consequence will be “very bad,” amid testing of seven missiles on U.S. Independence Day. Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) confirmed that an anonymous fax apparently from the North Korean embassy for Finland on 5 June promises workers affiliated with VOM that “something very bad will happen to you” if VOM continues a special project to share the Gospel.
VOM said during the past year it had collected many fax numbers from inside North Korea, and have been sending weekly faxes containing Christian messages and Scripture passages on love and forgiveness to each of the fax numbers.
“This fax is good news,” said Todd Nettleton, VOM’s director of Media Development and the author of a book on the history of Christianity in North Korea. “This means that the faxes are getting through, and they are being read. It is highly unlikely that this type of response would have been made from an embassy without some approval from Pyongyang. [Christianity Today]
Even if the response appears to have been less than a come-to-Jesus moment, the North Koreans will probably have to consider changing some of those fax numbers, thus creating a modest drag on the efficiency of their revenue-seeking enterprises. Hey, because of you, the Syrians might one day have to buy their sarin precursors from France instead:
Apparently, the project has touched a nerve at the highest levels of North Korea’s repressive government, VOM stated in a public statement made in its Web site.
“We know who you are,” begins a fax, written in Korean but without a signature. “We warn you that if you send this kind of dirty fax again something very bad will happen to you. Don’t do something you will regret. [….]
It said, the threatening fax came to a VOM-affiliated office just days before two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years hard labor for allegedly crossing the border into North Korea. It came just one day after the latest round of faxes sent by VOM to North Korean fax numbers.
President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008 to reward its regime for promising to give up its nuclear weapons. Under , “international terrorism” includes acts that “appear to be intended” to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or “to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion. Discuss.
If you’d like to receive you own unique, personalized death threat from North Korea — absolutely free of charge while the regime lasts! — here are some sample faxes that ReACH has helpfully translated into Korean. I’m going to publish another list of fax numbers below the fold, because at OFK, we’re all about bridging what divides us, tearing down walls, and bringing all the children of the world together to dance around one, big happy drum circle. And how are we doing that today? Fax “A” helpfully untangles the complex liaisons that produced Kim Jong Il’s various broods of little porcine sucklings. Fax “B” explains the actual origins of the Korean War and how two countries with the same people, language, culture, and weather patterns managed to diverge into two completely different places — one totalitarian, blighted, starving, and deeply insecure; and one democratic, prosperous, overfed, and deeply insecure.
On a related note, the North Korean Freedom Coalition is still helping to launch balloons into North Korea. You may think they’re not much, but judging by the North Koreans’ reaction, someone appears to be reading the leaflets they carry. The NKFC is inviting you to send along your own personalized message (which will also contain small food packets in the near future) to people stuck inside Earth’s very own alternative universe. Even if you don’t believe the messages will have any effect at all, it must cost the regime in readiness, maintenance, and morale to deploy its military to pick up all the subversive litter that’s being spread.
850-2-381-4031 850-2-381-4033 850-2-381-4034 850-2-381-4035 850-2-381-4047 850-2-381-4050 850-2-381-4098 850-2-381-4150 850-2-381-4316 850-2-381-4377 850-2-381-4405 850-2-381-4408 850-2-381-4410 850-2-381-4411 850-2-381-4412 850-2-381-4413 850-2-381-4418 850-2-381-4422 850-2-381-4426 850-2-381-4432 850-2-381-4435 850-2-381-4442 850-2-381-4445 850-2-381-4464 850-2-381-4467 850-2-381-4470 850-2-381-4474 850-2-381-4477 850-2-381-4480 850-2-381-4482 850-2-381-4485 850-2-381-4489 850-2-381-4490 850-2-381-4498 850-2-381-4502 850-2-381-4503 850-2-381-4506 850-2-381-4507 850-2-381-4531 850-2-381-4531 850-2-381-4543 850-2-381-4544 850-2-381-4546 850-2-381-4560 850-2-381-4563 850-2-381-4565 850-2-381-4567 850-2-381-4576 850-2-381-4581 850-2-381-4582 850-2-381-4592 850-2-381-4597 850-2-381-4598 850-2-381-4603 850-2-381-4606 850-2-381-4615 850-2-381-4617 850-2-381-4618 850-2-381-4619 850-2-381-4622 850-2-381-4627 850-2-381-4633 850-2-381-4644 850-2-381-4645 850-2-381-4652 850-2-381-4652 850-2-381-4657 850-2-381-4660 850-2-381-4668 850-2-381-4672 850-2-381-4674 850-2-381-4676 850-2-381-4677 850-2-381-4679 850-2-381-4685 850-2-381-4687 850-2-381-4688 850-2-381-4691 850-2-381-4692 850-2-381-4707 850-2-381-4723 850-2-381-4732 850-2-381-4746 850-2-381-4755 850-2-381-4759 850-2-381-4770 850-2-381-4776 850-2-381-4777 850-2-381-4788 850-2-381-4795 850-2-381-4799 850-2-381-4842 850-2-381-4857 850-2-381-5274 850-2-381-5822 850-2-381-5827 850-2-381-5827 850-2-381-7336 850-2-381-8088 850-2-381-8847 850-2-381-8888