COMMUNISTS IN KOREA

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28399, 4 October 1957, Page 7

COMMUNISTS IN KOREA

Recollections Of Minister “About 300 Christian ministers were taken away by the Communists and were not heard of again when the United Nations Forces advanced into Seoul,” said the general secretary of the Korean Bible Society (the Rev. Young Bin Im) addressing the annual general meeting of the Canterbury and Westland branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society, last evening. Mr Im described incidents which occurred in Seoul in 1953. When the Communists were searching for Christian ministers Mr Im hid inside a hollowed-out pile of firewood and escaped detection. The arrival of the United Nations armies gave a short period of freedom. Soon after the Communist armies attacked again, and the United Nations armies pulled out. Mr Im said.

“The inhabitants lost faith at this stage and many made their way to Fusan. I have not been to hell, but Seoul at that time was very much what I should imagine it to be,” he said. View of Bible

Mr Im said that when the Communists c.ime again he was taken by them. The captain of the Communist police told Mr Im that he thought the Bible was made up of a lot of fictitious characters, created by the British imperialists for a capitalistic outlook. Mr Im was placed in a room about 6ft by Bft with 11 other men. “No man who had ever been arrested before was released by the Communists. Yet one day the captain of police told me I was free to go,” he said. “I did not trust them, so I disguised myself,” Mr Im said. After reaching Pusan he rented a small ,room and translated 400 pages of the Bible into modern Korean. Mr Im had begun this work in Seoul but the Communists forced him to stop. Mr Im said that the need for the Bible among Korean Christians was very great. In four hours he sold 20.000 copies of the newly translated Bible to the inhabitants of Pusan. Six months'later 70.000 more Bibles were received and these were sold in two months.