Ju Il-Lyong was born in 1996 in Chongjin, in the northern part of North Korea, as the youngest of three children. For nearly ten years, his parents secretly listened to banned South Korean radio broadcasts.
Inspired by what they heard, they made the difficult decision to defect. His father escaped first, working in South Korea for a year to save enough money to bring the rest of the family out. They were reunited in 2012.
In 2022, Il-Lyong earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Korea University, where he is now pursuing his Master’s degree in the same field. He is the chair of Tong-il Majoong (TIMJ), a non-profit organisation dedicated to North Korean human rights and evangelisation.
Have you ever considered how a fragile chick comes into the world? When a fertilised egg is kept at the right temperature, it begins to develop quietly under the hen’s warmth.
After about three weeks, the moment of hatching arrives. From inside the shell, the tiny creature starts to gently tap with its beak. But for the chick to break free and be born into life, something more is needed: the mother hen must hear that subtle sound and respond from the outside, pecking the shell in unison. Only through this simultaneous action – inside and out – can life emerge.
In many ways, this mirrors the journey of the North Korean people in their pursuit of freedom – freedom that is their inherent right.
‘Something remarkable has been happening within...’
For nearly 80 years, they have lived under the iron grip of the Kim dynasty, isolated from the world by a regime-built shell of fear, deception and control. To the outside world, their voices have been muted, heard only faintly through the distorted lens of state propaganda. And yet, while the world has not always seen it, something remarkable has been happening within.
The North Korean people, through their own quiet resilience, have created spaces of resistance – building grassroots markets within a planned economy, shifting the economic balance from state to citizen. In some instances, the state has even been forced to apologise for failing these very people.
Now, they are beginning to tap – gently but persistently – on the shell that surrounds them, seeking to reach the outside world. The flow of information into North Korea – truth, freedom and the gospel – has become a vital response. It encourages, empowers and enlivens this inner awakening.
Now, more than ever, the world must respond.
Freedom partners on the outside
North Korean defectors have become catalysts for freedom – external allies responding to the quiet taps from within.
Today, an estimated 300,000 North Korean defectors are living around the world. That’s roughly one for every 80 people still inside the country, and a number greater than the population of Chuncheon, a mid-sized city in South Korea with around 280,000 residents.
Many of these defectors maintain covert contact with their families back home, providing not only emotional support but also financial lifelines. According to some estimates, in 2015 alone, defectors collectively remitted between 10 to 15 million USD into North Korea. Given that one US dollar can sustain a family of four for a day in North Korea, the impact is both tangible and life-giving.
These courageous defectors are not merely sending money. Through the same clandestine routes, they are also passing on news of the outside world, the gospel, and the values of freedom, human rights and democracy.
In the past, families of defectors were often punished, even sent to prison camps. But in recent years, the regime has begun to reframe them not as political liabilities, but as channels of hard currency, with some local officials even seeking to stay close to such families.
From remote farming villages to elite urban districts, defectors – who now live beyond the reach of the regime – continue to stand with those they left behind, quietly assisting friends and family who are pressing for change on the inside.
In places too dark for the world to see, North Koreans have begun to sprout seeds of freedom in their own quiet ways. They have pioneered underground markets, reshaped the economy, and raised a new generation ready for change. Now, it is the defectors – those who fled first – who are delivering vital momentum from the outside. North Koreans are calling out to us:
‘I am alive.’
‘I have not given up – I am running toward life.’
‘I need your help to reach a free world.’
And the path to respond already exists. Through international pressure on the regime, and through sustained support from defectors, we can continue to deliver truth, hope and help directly to the people of North Korea.
As long as they have not given up on themselves, we must not give up on them. We must respond – not with indifference, but with love, with urgency, and with the heart of a mother hen answering the chick’s call from within the shell.
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This is a shortened version of an article published on 26 August 2025. Read it in full at forbinfull.org