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Young North Korean refugees are not the only ones longing to return to their troubled homeland. In an interview after her arrival in South Korea, Chi Ha-yang said she wants to help believers still inside.

As the widow of a senior North Korean official, Chi Ha-yang witnessed brutality against Christians and watched the bloody execution of seven believers. "Like the crucifixion, their hands were pierced through with iron wire," she recalled.

After Chi Ha-yang became a Christian, authorities beat her publicly. At one beating, Chi Ha-yang "prayed to God in my heart for help." Suddenly the lights went out, and the man who was beating her stopped.

Before her flight from North Korea, she wrote a note to a close friend: "I have kept seven Bibles." She brought one of them during her flight to freedom. "I buried the other six in North Korea for the day of our return."

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For more articles and resources, see Yahoo's full coverage area on the North Korea.

Previous Christianity Today articles on North Korea include:

Forgotten GulagWhat you can do to help persecuted Christians. (August 6, 2002)

South Koreans Help Neighbors (Aug. 9, 1999)

Famine Toll Exceeds 1 Million (Oct. 5, 1998)

Editorial: North Korea's Hidden FamineThe poor and the weak should not have to starve due to the policies of their government. (May 19, 1997)

Evangelicals Plead for Korean Aid (April 7, 1997)

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October 7 2002, Vol. 46, No. 11