A group, Voice of Martyrs, has initiated a campaign to demand the freedom of an ethnic Korean Chinese Christian, Jang Moon Seok, currently serving a 15-year jail term in North Korea.
Christian Headlines reports that Seok was kidnapped along the border by the North Korean authorities and charged for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and for telling the citizens about the saviour of mankind.
The report says Seok was further accused of defaming the North Korean administration, attempting to incite subversion of state power, and providing aid and the gospel to the people of the country.
The clergyman has just spent his 2,000th day in jail.
Voice of Martyrs said many North Korean citizens have encountered Jang in prison since 2014.
“Jang is a simple man who never did anything political. He just helped North Korean people for many years. That should never be a crime, and Christians should join together to help Deacon Jang and his family,” Hyun Sook Foley, who represents Voice of Martyrs in the country, said.
Jang preached the gospel to defecting North Koreans in Changbai, China alongside the late Pastor Han Chung-Ryeol, a Chinese, who was assassinated in 2016. Pastor Han had live along the border and disciple about 1,000 North Koreans before he was killed.
“We believed the reason for (Jang’s) kidnapping was to gather information about the North Korean ministry work we were doing with Pastor Han,” Foley continued.
In the campaign, Voice of Martyrs asked Christians to email or write the ambassador of North Korea to the UN, Kim Song, demanding Jang’s release.
It said the emails and letters should be addressed to dpr.korea@verizon.net and Ambassador Kim Song, DPRK Permanent Mission to the United Nations, 820 2nd Ave RM 13b; New York N.Y. 10017.
North Korea ranks first among 50 nations where it is difficult to practise Christianity, a report by Open Doors USA, said.
The 2020 report, which was unveiled in January, listed communist and post-communist oppression as the source of persecution of Christians.
It said North Korea has a population of 27.7 million people out of which about 300,000 are Christians.
It said the country’s citizens are traditional believers while others are atheists.
North Korea is ruled by Chairman Kim Jong-un and has a single party dictatorship.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem Post has reported that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un’s health is believed to be in a vegetative state after undergoing a failed cardiovascular procedure recently.
The newspaper said the information was disclosed by the medical team attending to his health.
Referring to a report by Shukan Gendai, a Japanese weekly, Jerusalem Post said a medical expert from China revealed that Kim clutched his chest and fell to the ground, adding that a doctor who was accompanying the leader immediately carried out CPR and took him to a nearby hospital for emergency.