Deacon Jang Moon Seok was released from prison in North Korea and returned home to China on 5 November after serving eleven years of his 15-year sentence.

Deacon Jang, whose Chinese name is Zhang Wen Shi, ministered to North Koreans in China until he was abducted on 1 November 2014, brought across the border into North Korea and imprisoned.

Voice of the Martyrs Korea representative Dr Hyun Sook Foley stated, “Deacon Zhang is an ethnically Korean Chinese citizen who was kidnapped in November 2014 from China and put in a North Korean prison. We believe the reason for his kidnapping was to gather information about the North Korean ministry work we were doing with Pastor Han.”

Before his arrest Deacon Jang lived in Changbai, a Chinese town in Jilin province on the border with North Korea, and worked with Pastor Han Chung-Ryeol (also an ethnic Korean Chinese citizen) among North Koreans who crossed into China. Fifteen months after Deacon Jang’s kidnapping and arrest, Pastor Han was stabbed to death.

Read Deacon Jang’s Prisoner Profile.

(Voice of the Martyrs Korea)

Photo: Voice of the Martyrs Korea