Underground University

UU 학교

Underground University isn’t just a school that teaches North Korean defectors how to do North Korean ministry—it’s a school through which North Koreans actually do North Korean ministry. Rather than waiting for Reunification, UU students take steps toward reunification by ministering to their own people—North Koreans who have defected, been sex trafficked, or who have been sent out to work in order to make money for the NK regime in countries around the world.

One of VOMK’s UU Ministry Training Parties

MINISTRY TRAINING PARTIES

Lunar New Year is the main time for gathering together and celebrating in Korea. But, for many NK defectors, it is a time for being lonely and depressed. This is because there are many NK defectors who have family in North Korea and China, but not in South Korea.

In the past, we hosted Lunar New Year’s events to eat food, play games, and preach the gospel, inviting any NK defectors who wanted to come. We found these events to be successful in getting NK defectors to focus on God at least for the day. But we wanted to have the kind of event that resulted in real change in their lives. We wanted something that brought them one step closer to being ministers rather than spectators. Something that intentionally moved them from being our “Hanawon” constituents to being our “UU” students.

So, this year we hosted three “ministry training parties” for NK defectors in Seoul, Daejeon, and Busan around the Lunar New Year holiday. These events gave a total of 127 North Korean defectors the opportunity to do ministry rather than to be recipients of ministry done by others.

We emphasized to North Korean defectors that “today is the day for gospel ministry to North Korea”, and that North Korean defectors have both a responsibility and an opportunity to be leaders in gospel ministry to North Korea because there are things only North Korean defectors know or can do.

The day-long events, which were held at the our regional offices in Seoul, Daejeon, and Busan, included a Bible translation workshop, where North Korean defector attendees participated in the ministry’s multi-year project to create a new “reader’s edition” of the John Ross Bible. Attendees at the party also participated in dramatic skits and songs drawn from our John Ross Bible Musical Drama.

NKs translate at a UU Ministry Training Party

Participants at the event also learned about our “Mobile Chosun” camping ministry, which divides the country into six regions that our UU missionaries regularly travel in our camping vehicles to visit NK defectors who live beyond the reach of ministries focused on NK defectors in Seoul.

Here are some testimonials from the event:

The event was so so good and I was impressed. It was shown for us through the drama when, from where, through where, and in what form the Bible came to our land. I had the honor of actually going up and doing the movements. I do not think I will forget this until I die and even when I go to heaven. ~ KJH

It was a very enjoyable day that gave me a variety of experiences. Although I don’t deny God, I was very nervous about God, but after hearing the experiences of four missionaries, I realized that I should believe in God more urgently. It was a time to realize once again that God is alive and it was a valuable time to know our history. ~ JEY

Attendees at the events were encouraged to apply for admission to Underground University. Since that time, we have been able to follow up with the event attendees and recruit a number of them as regional students.

Prayer Requests for this project

Pray for our 2025 North Korean UU recruitment trips – We continue to travel around the country and recruit North Koreans to become UU students. At the beginning of this year, we had 42 North Koreans enrolled in our UU program. Pray that the Lord will send us new North Korean defectors who have a heart for gospel ministry.
Pray for UU students’ relationships – North Koreans have almost no experience of resolving conflicts in relationships. So, in the midst of doing ministry activities, it can be easy for UU students to have misunderstandings and conflicts with each other. Please pray for them to put into practice what are learning about biblical conflict resolution at UU and form deep relationships in Christ.

About Underground University

1. We train and deploy students for ministry to North Korea today.

We do “works of mercy field trips” each month where we practice sharing our bread, opening our homes, healing and comforting, visiting and remembering, and other disciplines with North Korean defectors and South Korean outcasts. Students are required to minister to NKs internationally before they graduate. That puts them in a very small category of experienced NK ministers!

2. There is an emphasis on hearing and doing the word.

This is not only a field ministry training program. There are homework assignments and quizzes for every class session. Students memorize large amounts of scripture weekly, in keeping with the tradition of the North Korean underground church. Each of our tracks, like Persecution Theology (using In The Shadow Of The Cross), is serious study. We hold ourselves and our students to a seminary standard in theology while offering and requiring more practical theological participation than many South Korean seminaries.

3. Rooted in mentoring.

1 Timothy 3:1-5 shows that the key to effective missionary service is learning to be an effective minister in one’s own family. That can only be learned life-on-life, and that has made UU a one day classroom experience supplemented by a six day supervised life experience—one that continues well beyond their graduation.

Alumni mentor existing students by acting as examples, coaches, and understanding elder brothers and sisters. This is proving to be a crucial missing piece in both enabling more thorough instruction and also creating greater connection with our alumni.