Underwater railroad

North Korea | A network of activists is trying to help North Koreans flee the starvation, oppression, and despair of Kim Jong Il's brutal regime—and not be sent back | Anne Morse

In a North Korean prison camp, inmates went about their work in a furnace—backbreaking labor their jailers forced them to perform 18 hours every day. As they worked, many of them appeared to be mumbling under their breath. They were not complaining; they were singing hymns. The prisoners were Christians—locked up for the crime of believing in God. Eventually, a guard noticed a female prisoner singing—and trampled on her face.

This woman got off relatively easily, compared to those caught trying to escape North Korea into China.

North Korea's leaders especially hate Christians. By some accounts, 90 percent of those who help people trying to escape the North's brutal regime are followers of Christ. Many live along the border between China and North Korea, descendants of Koreans who moved into China fleeing the famine of the 19th century and persecution from the Japanese occupation force during the first half of the 20th century.