{"id":1204,"date":"2021-09-27T19:19:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T18:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2021-09-27T19:19:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T18:19:44","slug":"north-korea-portrays-christians-as-blood-sucking-monsters-murderers-and-spies-to-deter-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=1204","title":{"rendered":"North Korea Portrays Christians as Blood Sucking Monsters, Murderers and Spies to Deter Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Map of North Korea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Faithwire Newsletter<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret the North Korean regime has no tolerance for religion, but a recent\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) details how the Workers Party of Korea led by Kim Jong Un targets and tortures Christians and other people of faith while going to great lengths to conceal its crimes.<\/p>\n

The report spells out the acts of terror committed by the regime \u201cdesigned to remove all traces of Christianity\u201d and reveals \u201cthe campaign to exterminate all Christian adherents and institutions\u2026has been brutally effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Korea\u2019s secret police, the Ministry of State Security, are incentivized with promotions when they apprehend Christians and other believers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose charged with Christianity often face execution or are forced to live out the rest of their lives in political prison camps,\u201d testified Inje Hwang, an investigator with Korea Future Initiative, during a webinar hosted by USCIRF.<\/p>\n

Hwang interviews North Korean defectors who have experienced or have first-hand knowledge of abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne victim was arrested for the possession of a Bible was detained in solitary confinement and beaten with a metal rod used for cleaning rifles,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Christians are the most persecuted because of the faith\u2019s association with the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n

Undercover government spies search for any evidence of worship making it impossible for Korean Christians to congregate without being reported.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
North Korea Leader,
Kim Jung-un<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAll the Christians that we interviewed for this report told us that they dared not practice their religion in front of any other people,\u201d recalled Hwang.<\/p>\n

Even children are taught from a young age to be suspicious of Christianity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn schools, young children are taught that Christian missionaries are spies of the countries who seek opportunities to invade North Korea and they\u2019re shown graphic images of missionaries sucking the blood of children to show how malicious they are,\u201d said Suyeon Yoo, co-director of Korea Future Initiative. \u201cAnd they are taken to state-run exhibition halls where religious adherents are presented as murderers, spies, and where Bibles are displayed as trophies taken from enemies of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big question: what can be done to deter these atrocities in a country so closed off from the world?<\/p>\n

Some experts say targeted sanctions are effective because Kim Jong Un cares what the world thinks of his regime.<\/p>\n

A fact demonstrated by \u201cshow churches\u201d set up by the government to feign tolerance to the outside world along with efforts to cover up persecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a reason they go to incredible lengths to conceal political prison camps,\u201d noted James Burt, chief strategy officer of the Korea Future Initiative. \u201cThere is a reason they have built show churches, show temples, and have actors pretend to be congregations when foreign visitors visit Pyongyang. There\u2019s a reason they respond so aggressively to human rights council resolutions that condemn their human rights record more broadly and there\u2019s a reason they push back so hard against human rights sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is why they go to incredible lengths to conceal \u2026 the reason why they push back against targeted sanctions,\u201d Burt said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, North Korean Christians and others continue to suffer and inspire.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it says something about the power of faith that in the face of that kind of just egregious, ongoing systematic persecution of people for their religious beliefs \u2013 people still choose to believe,\u201d said USCIRF Commissioner Fred Davie.<\/p>\n

Davie said the world should know the USCIRF is painstakingly documenting these abuses and the persecuted are not forgotten.<\/p>\n

This article was culled from Faithwire Daily Newsletter<\/p>\n

The Christian Editor\u2019s Note: North Korea has retained the first position for 20 unbroken time among 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted in the world, according to Christian watchdog organisation, Open Door USA.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Faithwire Newsletter It\u2019s no secret the North Korean regime has no tolerance for religion, but a recent\u00a0report\u00a0by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) details how the Workers Party of Korea led by Kim Jong Un targets and tortures Christians and other people of faith while going to great lengths to conceal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1205,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}