North Korea Executes Christians for Bible

[muman613]

This is horrible how North Korea treats its Christians. The North Korean regime ranks amongst the most evil in this world today.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/23/international/i232737D48.DTL&tsp=1

(07-24) 10:59 PDT SEOUL, South Korea (AP) --

A Christian woman accused of distributing the Bible, a book banned in communist North Korea, was publicly executed last month for the crime, South Korean activists said Friday.

The 33-year-old mother of three, Ri Hyon Ok, also was accused of spying for South Korea and the United States, and of organizing dissidents, a rights group said in Seoul, citing documents obtained from the North.

The Investigative Commission on Crime Against Humanity report included a copy of Ri's government-issued photo ID and said her husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the day after her June 16 execution.

The claim could not be independently verified Friday, and there has been no mention by the North's official Korean Central News Agency of her case.

But it would mark a harsh turn in the crackdown on religion in North Korea, a country where Christianity once flourished and where the capital, Pyongyang, was known as the "Jerusalem of the East" for the predominance of the Christian faith.

According to its constitution, North Korea guarantees freedom of religion. But in reality, the regime severely restricts religious observance, with the cult of personality created by national founder Kim Il Sung and enjoyed by his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, serving as a virtual state religion. Those who violate religious restrictions are often accused of crimes such as spying or anti-government activities.

The government has authorized four state churches: one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox. However, they cater to foreigners only, and ordinary North Koreans cannot attend the services.

Still, more than 30,000 North Koreans are believed to practice Christianity in hiding — at great personal risk, defectors and activists say.

The U.S. State Department said in a report last year that "genuine religious freedom does not exist" in North Korea.

"What religious practice or venues exist ... (are) tightly controlled and used to advance the government's political or diplomatic agenda," the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a May report. "Other public and private religious activity is prohibited and anyone discovered engaging in clandestine religious practice faces official discrimination, arrest, imprisonment, and possibly execution."

The report cited indications that the North Korean government had taken "new steps" to stop the clandestine spread of Christianity, particularly in areas near the border with China, including infiltrating underground churches and setting up fake prayer meetings as a trap for Christian converts.

Ri, the North Korean Christian, reportedly was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon — near the border with China.

"North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime," Do Hee-youn, a leading activist, told reporters Friday in Seoul.

The South Korean rights report also said North Korean security agents arrested and tortured another Christian, Seo Kum Ok, 30, near Ryongchon. She was accused of trying to spy on a nuclear site and hand the information over to South Korea and the United States.

It was unclear whether she survived, the report said. Her husband also was arrested and their two children have since disappeared, it said.

The U.S. government commission report cited defectors as saying an estimated 6,000 Christians are jailed in "Prison No. 15" in the north of the country, with religious prisoners facing worse treatment than other inmates.

In Seoul, the rights group said it would try to take North Korean leader Kim to the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against humanity.

Activists say such alleged crimes — murder, kidnap, rape, extermination of individuals in prison camps — can't take place in North Korea without Kim's knowledge or direction since he wields absolute power over the population of 24 million.

[briann]

This doesnt shock me one bit.  In order to have an efficiently running dictatorship, you HAVE to remove/replace religion.

This is the case with Communism as well as Islam.  Its also the case with Naziism.  Many people arent aware that by the end of the Nazi regime, the Nazis had replaced nearly every christian holliday with a pagan one (Including christmas), and they had banned the cross from being displayed, which had to be replaced with a pagan rhunic symbol.

[~Hanna~]

I was actually thinking about posting this one last night!

[eb22]

This is horrible how North Korea treats its Christians. The North Korean regime ranks amongst the most evil in this world today.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/23/international/i232737D48.DTL&tsp=1

(

Agreed,   muman.       A regime change in North Korea is essential.        Both for the purpose of freeing the people of North Korea from this brutal regime.      And in terms of the security of the people of the United States,    Israel,  and anywhere there are righteous people.

[angryChineseKahanist]

Now that cold. Satanic.
NK knows shes innocent.
She was used as an example.
And why were the children taken?

[Cato]

Now that cold. Satanic.
NK knows shes innocent.
She was used as an example.
And why were the children taken?

North Korea commonly uses whole family arrests for biological experimentation.

[Gentile]

Holy cow!  Didn't see this on CNN.  How long before it starts happening here?

[ProudAndZionist]

They are communist killers. Ugly yellow monkeys.

[Sentinel For Truth]

And God is killing Kim Jong mentally Il publicly as well.

[TruthSpreader]

The North Koreans are just as barbaric as the Saudis!!!

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

May G-d avenge the blood of this sweet martyr, zt"l.

[Rubystars]

I think she is an excellent example of a Christian because she was willing to face death to practice her faith. I hope given the same circumstances that I would be as brave.

[IsraeliGovtAreKapos]

The Commies in Israel would probably called those Christians lawbreakers like they do with the Jews in Judea and Samaria.

[TruthSpreader]

And G-d is killing Kim Jong mentally Il publicly as well.

Thank god he's on his way out. (to hell that is)