Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping: the threat to Christians

President Trump shocked the world last week when he accepted North Korea’s invitation for direct talks with Kim Jong-un, to be held in May. We were less shocked when China’s government voted yesterday to make Xi Jinping president for life.

Both developments carry enormous implications for Christians in these two countries and for the larger body of Christ around the world.

North Korean Christians risk their lives for Jesus

Let’s start with North Korea. Some analysts believe that talks between the two leaders are a positive step forward; others are far more skeptical.

In a previous article, I gave a brief overview of North Korea’s history and its drive for nuclear weapons. My purpose today is to focus on the state of the church under Kim, a dictator described by one commentator as “the criminal proprietor of the world’s largest open-air prison.”

Open Doors, an organization that advocates for persecuted Christians around the world, ranks North Korea as the worst nation on earth for believers. According to their analysis, followers of Jesus are viewed as direct threats to the government and its continued power.

As a result, North Koreans who are found to be Christians are typically deported to labor camps as political criminals or even executed on the spot. Their families share their fate as well. Meeting with other Christians for worship is almost impossible.

People can be sent to horrific labor camps simply for being in contact with a religious person. In these camps, prisoners are forced to stand on their toes for twenty-four hours in tanks filled with water up to their noses. They are stripped and hanged upside down while being beaten. Food rations leave inmates on the brink of starvation, so many prisoners hunt rats, snakes, and frogs for protein.

There are an estimated three hundred thousand Christians in North Korea. Every one of them risks his or her life to follow Jesus.

Chinese Christians face growing persecution

Meanwhile,…