Christians are not expecting any improvement in their human rights in North Korea with any change in leadership, the head of a church coalition said recently.

Sam Kim, executive director of the Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom said a transference of leadership from Kim Jong-il to his son Kim Jong-Eun may even, in the short term, auger worse persecution of Christians, Christianity Today said.

Kim told Christianity Today that although Jong-Eun was educated in Switzerland and may have some western influence, he still lacks the respect of North Korea’s communist party leaders, Christianity Today said.

It is more likely that Jong-Eun will be a figurehead and the true leader will be his ruthless uncle, Chan Sung Taek, Kim told Christianity Today. “In the short run, the succession can be viewed as a bad thing for Christians in North Korea. Borders are likely to be tightened, the activities of the few scattered aid workers will likely be more closely monitored, and many may even be expelled,” Kim said.

Last Monday, Jong-Eun, 27, was appointed four-star general. The following day, he was made vice chairman of the Workers Party of Korea’s central military commission, despite having no experience in leadership and the military, Christianity Today reported.

Many other Christian leaders are calling for Christians globally to pray for North Korean believers. Andy Dipper, CEO of Release International, urged the faithful to pray and express solidarity with N. Korea Christians, Christian Today reported.

Dipper said Release will hold a conference on Nov. 6 for persecuted Christians globally. One of their speakers will be a North Korean Christian defector who will talk about the difficulties of Christians in the North, according to Christian Today.

Dipper told Christian Today, “The eyes of the world are currently on North Korea – one of the world’s worst abusers of religious freedom. Up to three generations of Christian families are rounded up and thrown in prison camps to try to eliminate the faith.”

A 2009 U.S. State Department report estimated that some 150,000 to 200,000 political and religious prisoners are in North Korea. A 2010 U.S. Commission on International Freedom report that said some 40,000 religious inmates are treated worse than other prisoners, Christianity Today said.

Open Doors ranked North Korea No. 1 in its World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians. (For details, go to http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/09/north-korea-ranks-no-1-for-deadliest-persecution-of-christians-13638).

Open Doors USA president Carl Moeller said, “We need to continue to not only pray, but also advocate for those brave Christians who live under brutal and nightmarish conditions with no basic freedoms,” Christianity Today reported.

In Boston, Freedom & Life for All North Koreans organized a prayer vigil and conference. The group was cofounded by Robert Park, an American who was imprisoned for 43 days in North Korea, and Jo Sung-rae, head of Pax Koreana, a leading Christian website in South Korea, The Boston Globe reported.

Sung-rae told The Boston Globe, “Our end goal is not just reunification, but the right to worship God in public. Since they (N. Korea government) recognize how powerful the gospel is, they’ve been trying to create fissures in the Christian groups.’’

Nonetheless Sung-rae expressed hopefulness in the knowledge that South Koreans, North Koreans, defectors and Americans can come together for this cause, The Boston Globe said.

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North Korea ranked No. 1 recently out of 50 countries in the world where the worst persecution of Christians exist.

The Open Doors 2010 World Watch List showed that North Korea has the questionable “distinction” for having the “deadliest level of Christian persecution in the world.”

The four countries following North Korea are Iran (No. 2), Saudi Arabia (No. 3), Somalia (No. 4) and Maldives (No. 5). Other countries on the list include Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Iraq and Palestinian Territories.

The World Watch List ranks the countries by their level of oppression and is compiled through a specially-designed questionnaire which includes 50 questions covering various facets that comprise religious freedom.

In North Korea one can only worship its leader Kim Jong-Il and his patriarch, Kim Il-Sung. Any other religious activity is immediately viewed as insurrection, Open Doors said.

Forms of torture of Christians include being routinely tortured, beaten, mutilated, imprisoned for life, and murdered. Christians are also used for the testing of chemical and biological weapons. Punishment includes confinement and/or death of parents, siblings, children and grandchildren, Open Doors country profile said.

Efforts to track down Christians include the infiltration of underground prayer groups by police to identify and arrest Christians and sentence them to slave labor and starvation in prison camps, Open Doors said.

Self serving propaganda

The North Korean government also issues consistent self-serving propaganda that the enemies of its citizens are the U.S. and South Korea. However, a recent Peterson Institute survey showed that 60% percent of North Koreans are gaining information beyond government propaganda, Open Doors said.

North Korean government has responded to the news leaks through “combat campaigns” where almost every North Korean is forced to work as a slave on government farms for 100-150 days, Open Doors said.

During such times, anyone on the street for no valid reason is sent to a labor camp, which has resulted in fathers unable to support their families. Worst hit is Hwangae province where the bodies of dead children were commonly found on the streets, Open Doors said.

Economic meltdown

In November 2009 North Korea experienced further economic meltdown when the government instituted currency reform to stabilize prices and seal government control of the national market. When the program failed there was hyperinflation and daily necessities were in short supply nationwide, Open Doors said.

Public protest was quickly quelled by government even as more and more died from starvation. Hardest hit were the provinces Jakang, Hamkyung and Hwanghae. Disease was rampant and in Hamgyung local authorities even urged people to seek help from any relatives they may have in China, Open Doors said.

Defection not an option

Defection is not an option, as many North Korean Christians who try to escape to China face a tightly guarded border and any defectors caught are returned to North Korea to face certain death, Open Doors said.

With the rising number of defectors is a concurrent rise in house searches and a tightening of surveillance. Exacerbating the situation is a new order that Kim Jong-Il added last January as a supplementary penal code, which orders the immediate execution, or sentencing to death of defectors, Open Doors said.

Growing Christian church

Despite the above, Christianity is growing in the country and chances to learn the gospel are increasing particularly for those residing in cities near China. Open Doors says Christians are risking their lives to lend comfort and strength to each other, and they look forward to the day when their churches in North Korea are restored.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has recently appealed to the EU to investigate humanitarian crimes in North Korea. The EU is set to discuss the pending U.N. General Assembly Resolution on North Korea. For the story, go to http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/09/christian-solidarity-worldwide-appeals-to-eu-to-investigate-humanitarian-crimes-in-n-korea-13614.

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The following is submitted by Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Director, Open Doors USA:

Today U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling returned home to their friends and family in an emotional reunion after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il issued a special pardon. Their return came after former U.S. President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to Pyongyang to help secure their release.

Ling and Lee had been found guilty of allegedly entering North Korea illegally across the Chinese border in March and later sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. They reportedly were being held at a "guest house" during their confinement.

The North Korean News Agency said the two reporters’ pardon and release was a sign of North Korea’s "humanitarian and peace-loving policy."

That might be the case in this instance, but let’s look at the facts:

·         North Korea is suspected of detaining more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world. Open Doors, an international Christian organization which supports persecuted believers (www.OpenDoorsUSA.org), puts the number of prisoners at least 200,000, including 40,000 to 60,000 Christians.

·         North Koreans can be imprisoned for virtually any state-defined crime such as owning a Bible, making a negative comment about the regime, failing to have a picture of Kim Il-Sung in their house and traveling to China to look for food and freedom.

·         KimJong-Il’s government keeps its citizens in its grip through systematic use of torture, public and private executions, brutal imprisonment, lack of due process of law, starvation and even forced abortions.

·         North Korea has been known to arrest not only the suspected dissident but also three generations of his/her family to "root out" the bad influence.

·         This year North Korea was re-designated by the U.S. State Department as one of eight "Countries of Particular Concern" for its severe religious freedom violations. The Open Doors World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians has ranked the hermit country as the worst offender of religious freedom for seven years in a row.

The Associated Press reported last month that North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman for distributing Bibles, based on information it received from South Korean activists. Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents, according to the Associated Press. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16, according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korean groups.

Ri’s parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, according to the report, citing unidentified documents it said were obtained from North Korea.

This is the shocking reality of what takes place inside this communist country where there is no basic human rights. One colleague of mine who has traveled to North Korea described North Korea "as an on-going nightmare."

It surely was a nightmare for Kim Young Soon, a special witness during North Korea Freedom Week in April before a group of Congressmen in Washington, D.C. The North Korean refugee is one of the few survivors of the infamous Yodok political prison camp. She was thrown into prison for nine years on a trumped up charge of divulging a secret about Kim Jong-Il’s marriage. Her parents and four children were also imprisoned. In the Yodok prison camp, her parents died of malnutrition, an eldest son drowned. Her husband was shot to death in 1970 while attempting to cross the border to escape from North Korea.  Mrs. Kim’s youngest son was arrested in 1988 while attempting to cross the border and was put in prison for four years. He was executed in 1993 by a firing squad because he tried to escape from North Korea again. Mrs. Kim escaped from North Korea and resettled in South Korea.  She has made it her life’s mission to expose the cruelty and truth about the prison camps in North Korea.

She testified: "I entered prison camp No. 15 at Yodok. I spent nine years there; treated like an animal. What made me feel most mortified was the fact that my father, mother, daughter and three sons, who were innocent of any crime, were also sent to Yodok, all because of me.

"We were forced to engage in heavy labor day and night. On August 5, 1971, I lost my father. I had to wrap his body in a straw mat since there were no coffins in Yodok. Before long, my mother also died of malnutrition. Unbearable sadness cut my heart to pieces.

"Still with tears in my eyes, I was struck by another painful accident when my eldest son drowned. I was nearly mad with grief. Yodok was really a hell to me. I cried to God asking that He might burn them all to death in Yodok with lightning.

"Every mountain and field in Yodok was covered with dead bodies because of malnutrition and hunger. In 1973, two detainees were killed by public execution at a place between Sector 3 and 4 on charges of trying to escape from prison. Countless numbers of detainees were killed by public execution and torture. Due to malnutrition and hunger, little children withered to death with their stomachs swollen. Adult people were looking everywhere for young rats which they believed to be a kind of medicine to save their children. And they literally ate up all the snakes in Yodok to avoid painful death from malnutrition."

Yes, we should rejoice for Ling and Lee. They now have complete freedom in the United States.

But please join me in praying and advocating for those who have not received pardons; for those languishing in the "hell" that is North Korea.

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