There is one nation that has been locked down longer than any other due to the pandemic: North Korea.

This is no prize for this distinction, only sorrow.

North Korea completely sealed their borders shut due to the pandemic in January of 2020 and now, in May 2023, they are STILL closed. Its closed borders has been a major concern among missionaries focused on North Korea for the last three months.

North Korea was expected to open its borders already this month, but it simply hasn’t. There have been many indicators that it was going to open up any day, but the Hermit Kingdom has remained closed. The nation has secretly ridden out the pandemic, a famine, and one of the most anemic economies seen in decades, but still stubbornly refuses to open its border.

“We are here waiting with our goods ready to go into North Korea,” says a missionary from China, who BTJ has been supporting in the country. “We have been promised many times that we will be able to go in soon, but no one knows what they are talking about.”

Both missionaries and businessmen have been frustrated at the situation. “The people are suffering. We have food. We have clothes. We have money to hire locals so they can pay their bills, but the border is not open.” The BTJ missionary, who cannot be named for security reasons, is noticeably disappointed, because he can see the government officials in Pyongyang prospering, while the normal people are starving.

The North Korean government has been promoting one-day tours to Pyongyang to its own people, but these one-day tours are usually for government employees.

“Now the latest news is that North Korea will open their borders in a little over two weeks in June,” the missionary says hopefully. Let’s pray that this will happen.