Source: www.worthynews.com
Date: October 15, 2024
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Human rights activists report that China has exposed hundreds of North Korean Christians to torture, enslavement, sexual violence, and imprisonment by forcing them to return to North Korea and the violent dictatorship of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in the last year, Christian Daily International (CDI) reports.
At a hearing before the US Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Sept. 26, Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the non-governmental Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said Jong Un is a criminal who violently oppresses people of faith in his country. “Any religious belief, and Christianity in particular, as well as South Korea, constitute the only challenges to the Kim regime’s absolute monopoly on power,” Scarlatoiu said.
“The Kim family regime is a criminal organization masquerading as a sovereign state. This is a regime that holds [an] absolute monopoly on political power through oppression unparalleled in the contemporary world.”
For its part, while oppressing its own Christian citizens, China’s ruling Communist Party has shown mercy for North Korean believers in forcibly repatriating them, CDI reports.
Addressing the USCIRF hearing, Hanna Song, executive director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) explained: “Upon returning back into North Korea, one of the first questions they will be asked by authorities is whether they have met with a missionary during their time in China.”
“This question is not merely a formality,” Song emphasized. “The answer determines the severity of punishment they will endure. If an individual admits to or is found to have had contact with a missionary, particularly one affiliated with Christianity, they’re often subject to the harshest forms of torture and imprisonment.”
Secretive, isolated North Korea ranks 1 on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.