SEOUL, South Korea - Forty-eight churches and Christian organizations across South Korea launched a 21-day prayer campaign this month for the release of three South Korean missionaries imprisoned in North Korea, a cause the movement has pursued for the last 10 years without success.
The campaign, running from June 5-25, is organized by Peace Korea under the banner of its annual Seire Peace Prayer Meeting, a united prayer movement held every year since 2007. The effort follows the biblical model of Daniel 10, in which the prophet dedicated three weeks of prayer for his people. Since 2017, the movement has seen five individuals released from North Korean detention, but the three missionaries remain in custody.
“The Seire Peace Prayer Meeting is a Korean church united prayer movement that transcends denominations,” the organizer told Christian Daily Korea. “I hope that the Korean church will present a direction to the world with the gospel, and that the Korean Peninsula will become one in the gospel.”
The theme of this year’s gathering, the 20th Peace Prayer Assembly of Seire, is drawn from Isaiah 43:19: “Behold, I am doing a new thing.” Peace Korea published the “Seire Peace Prayer Book” to guide participants, featuring messages from pastors, accounts of Christian martyrs, and meditations on the theme.
“The purpose of this prayer book is to look back at the seniors of the Bible, the world church, and the Korean church’s martyrdom faith, and to help today’s faith lead to obedience in life,” the organizer said.
North Korea has ranked as the most dangerous country in the world for Christians on Open Doors’ World Watch List for more than two decades. The communist regime under Kim Jong Un treats Christian faith as a political crime; believers face imprisonment in labor camps, torture, and execution. The three missionaries whose release the campaign seeks have been held for a decade, with no public acknowledgment from Pyongyang of their status or condition.
Churches in Germany, Russia, France, Indonesia, the United States, and the United Kingdom have joined the campaign online. Participants can access daily prayer videos through Peace Korea’s website, peacecorea.org, or its YouTube channel. The 21-day campaign is scheduled to conclude on June 25.