The Righteous Outlaw: More Thirsty Than Hungry

By Steve Hammond

This book tells the compelling story of Brother J, who became a Christian in North Korea, where such faith is forbidden, in the spring of 1996 through Gods Providence. Brother J reminds our readers that God has not forgotten the people of North Korea; His light is shining even in that dark land. North Koreans are coming to Jesus Christ for salvation. Once they become Christians, these underground North Korean brothers and sisters are steadfast and resolute for the Lord. They stand up for the Truth despite persecution and heavy penalties, even death. They work as one to spread the Gospel of salvation in the clandestine society of North Korea.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491823552

Steve Hammond

Only a brief background of Brother J is available. Brother J was born in 1962 as the third and youngest child to intelligentsia parents in Pyongyang, North Korea. His father was an army reporter and his mother was a history teacher. His mother’s grandfather fought very closely with Kim Il-Sung, the founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), against the Japanese in Manchuria. Therefore, Brother J’s family enjoyed the special, privileged political status of living in the capital, Pyongyang, during Kim Il-Sung’s reign. Only an elite group of DPRK citizens are allowed to live in Pyongyang. Kim Jong-Il succeeded his father, Kim Il-Sung, following his death, and became the Supreme Leader of the DPRK in 1994. Kim Jong-Il immediately formed his own coterie, and Brother J’s family were pushed out of the mainstream. From then on, Brother J’s family began to encounter political persecution and was branded as anti-party. That was one of the reasons why Brother J was eventually expelled to a remote area of RyangKangDo, formerly North HamKyung Province, the most northern part of the DPRK and far away from Pyongyang. Initially, Brother J wanted to major in Korean literature and become a reporter, but the Workers’ Party steered his career to medicine. Medicine was far from his interest and character, and he quit medical school within a year. We know from Chapter 1 in this book that he finished college, but do not know what his major was. As noted in the preface to this book, Brother J was well schooled in DPRK politics, economy, culture, and military affairs while he was trained as a member of the special forces. Right before he was expelled from the Workers’ Party as a cadre to a rural farming community to work as a farmhand after being found guilty of noncompliance with government agricultural policy, Brother J worked on a team at the Local Committee’s Organization Department of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang. Brother J was tragically killed in October 2012 in China near the North Korean border.

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© 2013 Brother J. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/11/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-2357-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-2356-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-2355-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917954

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Preface: The Choice Is the Lord’s

1.   You Will Surely Die

2.   Trained by a 380-Degree Spin-Kick

3.   Now Is the Time to Make a Choice

4.   This Is My Command

5.   I Should Die in Order for Other Members to Live

6.   A Bull’s Death Meant My Death

7.   Prepare to Die While Evangelizing North Korea and Unifying the Two Koreas through the Gospel!

8.   Hey, Bastard, Do You Think I Am a Gang Leader?

9.   Do You Want to Be a David?

10.   Do Not Steal

11.   Chul-Kap, You Are Truly a Preacher

12.   See You Again in Heaven, My Friend

13.   How Long Do We Live—a Thousand Years or Ten Thousand Years?

14.   You Will Surely Shine, Even after Death

15.   A Special Correspondent Dispatched by the Lord

16.   The Old Has Gone; the New Is Here!

17.   To Live, You Must Accept Jesus as Your Christ

18.   God Preserves the Seed of Faith

19.   Jesus Is Christ

Epilogue/Translator’s Reflection

Questionable Cause of Death

Authenticity of This Book

Summary Notes

Gideon Brothers Mission World

About the Author

Endnotes

Introduction

I am a pastor in the United States and serve the Lord in a small way by offering help to North Korean residents in China, as well as to North Korean defectors hiding there. I provide them with relief aid and medical support.

Before I met Brother J in person, I received Brother J’s handwritten diaries for publication through one of the local missionaries working in the northeast China border area adjacent to North Korea.¹ The diaries were composed during a three-month period before his defection, while he was still living in North Korea, and after the defection while he was living and hiding in the Chinese mountains adjacent to the North Korean border. He was highly critical of the North Korean communist regime and was well aware of the North Korean people’s suffering. His diaries also showed remarkable familiarity with South Korean affairs. He wrote honestly from the heart; his words were woven through with faith. I was hesitant, though, to publish his diaries, because it would put his life and the lives of people close to him at risk. I put his writings in a cabinet in my office for the next three and a half years. I still have them in my office, unpublished.

A former middle-class North Korean cadre, Brother J defected to China in 1999. He was engaged in evangelical work, encouraging underground North Korean churches, and preaching the Gospel to Chinese people from time to time all while he was in hiding in China. Then, on April 29, 2012, three and a half years after I received his handwritten diaries, I finally met Brother J in person in China. He was a well-built, handsome man, about five feet eleven inches tall.² We met in the evening and talked until three in the morning. He handed over a disc containing this story for publication. Won’t it be dangerous to you and others around you when your story is published? I asked him. His answer was firm and definite: We need to be willing to make sacrifices until the two Koreas are united as one through the Gospel, and I am ready for that. Brother J wanted everyone to know how he became a Christian in North Korea and about his fellow Christian friends there. By sharing his story, he hoped to raise awareness of how God is at work in the dark land of North Korea. Brother J was quite willing to make his testimony public, even at great risk to his life. After listening to his testimony face to face, I realized it was time to publish his account.

I recommend this book not only to Christians in South Korea but to people all over the world. I hope and pray that more and more people will read this book and be touched. I pray that this book will contribute to spreading the Gospel around the world. I pray that the two Koreas will become one through the Gospel. I pray that the Lord will pour His love upon these faithful underground North Korean Christians suffering under persecution. I pray for the day when they share their faith freely with the world (John 17:21). Hallelujah!

Pastor Danny Park

Director, Gideon Brothers Mission World

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Preface

The Choice Is the Lord’s

I have lived as a pilgrim since the spring of 1996 when I gave my life to God in North Korea. One thing I learned in all these years was that in order to preach the Gospel to revive dead souls, you cannot rely on your own human reasoning and powers; it is the work of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, you are subject to the power of Satan.

I used to be confused, thinking all my thoughts, words, and actions came from the Spirit simply because I believed in God; however, we cannot trust ourselves. We need spiritual discernment: the Holy Spirit gives us righteous and pure thoughts, and Satan gives us dirty and evil thoughts. I did not understand this in the early days of my life as a Christian. Only by the Holy Spirit can we preach the Gospel. Our thoughts are controlled by the invisible; if they are not from the Holy Spirit, then they are from Satan.

When I think back to earlier days when I thought I believed in God, I realize that I had been, in fact, manipulated by Satan. I fell into Satan’s grasp and was ruled by him. The same thing happened to people in the Bible; even though they thought they were being loyal to God, eagerly serving him to the best of their ability, they were unintentionally walking in the way of wickedness, acting apart from God’s Word, heading straight down the path of destruction.

I was at one time chosen and trained to be a member of the special forces on the front line to sustain the North Korea, and thereby support Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il in all their wealth and glory. Under their wings, I was well schooled in North Korean politics, economy, culture and military affairs, just as Moses was. As an adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he was trained in the ways of the Egyptian court. Perhaps I am a lucky chosen one—once chosen by Satan, but now chosen by our Lord.

Previously, I had indeed been chosen by Satan and shouted slogans like, Prepare to die for your country! or Attack the target with all your life! in North Korea. I used to be the worst red of reds.³ But now, like Apostle Paul, I preach the Gospel to the people, proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ. It seems that the biggest of all God’s miracles is that I am a preacher today.

I picked up a pen to tell my story to Christians and unbelievers throughout the world. I wanted to share how the Holy Spirit truly worked in me, even though I was the vilest red of reds. God chose me to be His child and to live the life of a preacher.

I absolutely do not believe I accepted Jesus as my Christ by my own will. In fact, back in 1996, when I declared that I believed in Jesus, I merely recited the Apostles’ Creed, Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer. That was the truest expression of my faith in God at that time.

I pray that the Lord will shower abundant blessings upon you, and may love, grace, and peace be with you. Now, let me tell you my story, sharing how our Lord has guided me and has led me to be a preacher today. Amen.

Brother J.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Christians worldwide who are living under persecution.

1

You Will Surely Die

I t was March 1996 when I first believed in God. I used to be a cadre ⁴ at the Local Committee of the Workers’ Party in North Korea, but I had been expelled to a rural farming community as a farmhand, guilty of not complying with Juche principal agricultural technique. ⁵ There were various cadres on the farm—from a comrade commissioner of the farm management committee to a warehouse manager of agricultural equipment. The committee chose me to fulfill the revolutionary task of getting fertilizer for our farmland from the Province Farm Bureau. ⁶ Even though I had been expelled to the farm, I was selected because I had once been a cadre from the capital. I could not refuse the commissioner’s trust in me personally to accomplish the revolutionary task, so I accepted the assignment. The comrade accountant of the committee gave me a sack of barley on a tractor so that Mr. Chung, ⁷ the tractor driver, and I did not go hungry. Then the committee bade us farewell, instructing me to perform my task well without failure.

When we arrived at the supply office at the Province Farm Bureau, there were swarms of clever cadres from many provinces. They came to the supply office to receive farming fertilizer and equipment in preparation for the spring. Because of the crowded situation in the office, I had to be very cunning to compete with the other players. If I should lose the game, I would not get any fertilizer, and also I would not achieve anything worthy of a sack of barley. I could not afford to lose, indeed. In order to obtain the trophy and defeat so many other players, I ran, panting, to the house of a top official cadre who was in charge of the distribution at the supply office. He was a friend of mine, Mr. Seo; we attended the same elementary school. However, friendship could be easily turned into treachery in North Korea. Even though he had been a friend of mine, nothing could be done without bribery. So I exchanged two scoops of barley from my backpack for a couple of bottles of farm-made alcohol, and I hurriedly brought them to my friend’s house.

When I arrived at his place, he was in some sort of meeting. There were two women, a man, and my friend. They gathered around in a circle. When I entered the room, they were tense, looking as if they had been discussing important secrets. Soon, my friend broke the tension and introduced me to these anxious people.

He told his associates, who were still sitting, "Relax, all. As far as I know, this comrade is as black⁸ as he can be. Don’t be nervous. Let’s proceed and finish what we have been doing."

His emphatic false assertion upset me, but I sat quietly observing them. My friend continued with them, burying their faces between their knees, like pheasant hen chicks burying their heads in the bush to avoid the attack of an Asiatic Sparrow Hawk. Their lips were twitched as if they were reciting something.

I thought that their behavior was laughable, though pitiful. Whatever they were doing should not have mattered to me. It should have meant nothing to me if these people buried their faces and uttered an incantation or recited Juche. But I imagined saying to them: Hey, you chumps. What the hell are you doing here confining yourselves in this house? I don’t suppose you are offering the official three-year anniversary memorial service to Kim Il-Sung commemorating his death,⁹ are you? It’s too early for the ceremony. What’s up, then? Are you rededicating your loyalty to him now? What’s going on here, you crazy bitches? If you are conducting a memorial service to offer your loyalty to Kim, at least you should have prepared a meal before such a ceremony so that my empty stomach can be satisfied, thankful for his death. I am so hungry.

I looked at the people still reciting with their eyes closed. My quick, uncontrollable tongue always caused me problems. I might have been praised as a reticent gentleman if I had shut my mouth and just sat down quietly, letting it pass. However, alas, I could not sit quietly with my mouth closed. Instead, I ended up flapping my lips, Hey, chumps. Why on earth are you burying your heads like that? You look miserable. Here I am, your guest, but you do not even look at me. What nonsense!

As soon as I spit out the words, a woman came forward. I now dearly love her as a sister in the Lord, but at the time she reminded me of a vicious squirrel doll from a Japanese movie, with sharply protruding cheeks. Looking straight into my eyes, she shouted, "Woe to the cursed soul. It is a disaster. Anger smote the poor soul. Oh, please forgive this