‘Judas’ has become a scornful nickname for informers in North Korea.
For example, when a girl confided in her
friend during the COVID-19 pandemic that she planned to escape North Korea once
the border with China reopened, she was brought before authorities and
punished.
Residents began calling the friend who sold
her out “a modern-day Judas,” a woman from Kimjongsuk county, in the northern
province of Ryanggang, told Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for
security reasons.
“After this incident, whenever the informant
passes by, other people in the neighborhood turn their backs on him and curse
him as Judas,” the woman said. “Authorities who encourage the informants are
called Judas as well.”
The reference to the disciple who betrayed
Jesus in the New Testament might be surprising given that Christianity has been
illegal in the country for nearly 120 years.
It is not a new term because underground
Christians – who are persecuted in North Korea – are familiar with it. And
Christianity does have roots in the country. Pyongyang was once such a bastion
of Christians that it was called “Jerusalem of the East.”
Korea was one of the only places in East Asia
where Christianity had staying power after it was introduced in the 17th
century. But came to an end once the peninsula fell to Japanese rule in 1905
and Shinto became the state religion, pushing believers underground.
At the end of World War II in 1945, Christian
missionaries returned to Korea, but only in the south, as the Soviet-occupied
north forbade religion. Once North Korea was officially established in 1948,
Christianity and other religions were completely outlawed, and the church
remained underground.
Efforts to stamp out Christianity
But the nickname does appear to be used more
widely these days.
The fact that people are still aware of the
story of Judas, who betrayed Jesus to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver,
indicates that despite North Korea’s best efforts to stamp out Christianity,
the religion still maintains a presence there.
“People who lack loyalty or who stab their
friends in the back are cursed as ‘Judas,’” a man living in Pyongsong, South
Pyongan province, north of Pyongyang, told RFA on condition of anonymity to
speak freely.
“The five-household propagandist, who reports
the movements of people and even trivial words to the police, is also called
‘Judas’ by his peers,” he said.
The five-household watch is a sophisticated
surveillance system in which paid informants, called propagandists, are tasked
with monitoring five households in their neighborhoods. Five-household
propagandists are enthusiastic Party members selected from factories and
schools for exhibiting traits of loyalty.
“As the public sentiment has worsened due to
the prolonged COVID-19 crisis, the authorities are focusing on monitoring the
residents by mobilizing the informants,” the South Pyongan resident said. “As
if that was not enough, the authorities secretly planted more informants in the
neighborhoods.”
“In response, the residents are criticizing
the authorities for creating distrust among the residents, telling them not to
trust anyone, because they do not know who could be ‘Judas.’”
North Korean authorities have tried hard to
eliminate Christianity from the country, but believers are still there – though
it’s impossible to know how many.
The international Christian missionary
organization Open Doors, citing a trusted North Korean source, described how in
2022 dozens of members of an underground church were discovered and executed,
and more than 100 of their family members were arrested and sent to
concentration camps.
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