North Korea: how preacher Billy Graham opened door for America to the ‘hermit kingdom’
Billy Graham’s 1992 trip paved the way for other Americans, including former president Jimmy Carter and basketball star Dennis Rodman, to independently visit North Korea and pursue closer ties
One of Graham’s most significant foreign trips was to North Korea in 1992. He was one of the first international religious figures – in fact, one of the first significant non-communist foreign figures – to visit the country, which was reeling from the end of the cold war.
That trip paved the way for other Americans, including former president Jimmy Carter and basketball star Dennis Rodman, to independently visit the “hermit kingdom” and pursue closer ties.
That Graham went to North Korea at all was somewhat surprising. He was a staunch anti-communist and a famous religious leader.
North Korea was not only officially communist but also atheist, discouraging religion and persecuting Christians.
But Graham had already made a name travelling to other communist nations in visits he dubbed “crusades,” and evangelicals had long considered Korea a vital place for the growth of Christianity in Asia.
