State Dept.: North Korea Using Executions, Torture Against ‘Serious Threat’ of Christianity
The U.S. State Department affirms in its annual International Religious Freedom Report, published Tuesday, that the communist regime controlling North Korea “considered Christianity a serious threat, as it challenged the official cult of personality and provided a platform for social and political organization and interaction outside the government.”
The State Department – citing United Nations reports, NGOs, and media organizations specializing in North Korea coverage – found that Kim Jong-un’s regime regularly employed “arbitrary executions, political prison camps, and torture amounting to crimes against humanity” against anyone suspected of adhering to any faith, but targeted Christians in particular throughout 2017.
Various reports estimated “119 killings and 87 disappearances” based on religious persecution, the report notes. It also cites multiple advocacy groups that have concluded that North Korea hosts a population of up to 400,000 Christians, though it is nearly impossible to confirm those numbers, and that between 10-45 percent of Christians are languishing in the nation’s concentration camps.
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) found this year that “based on the government’s own figures, the proportion of religious adherents among the population dropped from close to 24 percent in 1950 to 0.016 percent in 2002,” the report notes.
The report also suggested that persecution of individuals suspected of being Christians increased recently, targeting North Korean citizens for “crimes” ranging from being found in possession of religious material to simply loitering near a church too long for police to be comfortable with their presence, or driving by a church too many times.
North Korea does allow a small number of legal churches in Pyongyang, the capital, but defectors and visitors report that they appear largely for show, with no proof that real Christians attend services in them, or that the sermons provided in the few known services to occur offer anything more than Kim cult propaganda. Some defectors said that they knew of the churches as “sightseeing spots for foreigners,” without knowing the true nature of a place of worship.
Nonetheless, defectors have said in interviews that North Korean police are quick to arrest anyone who appears too interested in the areas. “One defector said when he lived in Pyongyang, authorities arrested individuals who they believed lingered too long outside these churches to listen to the music or consistently drove past them around each week when services were being held on suspicion of being secret Christians,” the report notes.
The full International Religious Freedom Report for 2017, is available at the State Department’s website, divided by country. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a press conference Tuesday morning announcing the publication of this year’s edition.
The State Department concluded, citing interviews with defectors and NGO reports published throughout 2017, that there existed in the country “an almost complete denial by the government of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and in many instances, violations of human rights committed by the government constituted crimes against humanity.”
The report notes that the UN “condemned in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” against religious people in the country. Christians suffered the most systematic persecution, but the report also notes that some Buddhists exist in the country, and that others who may not subscribe to any particular religious engage in shamanic practices.
“Defector reports cited an increase in party members consulting fortune tellers in order to gauge the best time to defect,” the reports noted.
The State Department published the report shortly after President Donald Trump confirmed that the United States was allowing Kim Yong-chol, one of the regime’s top diplomats, to visit New York and meet with American officials to discuss the logistics of planning a summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un. Kim, formerly the head of Pyongyang’s intelligence services, is believed to be responsible for some of the deadliest acts of terrorism in North Korea’s modern history and attacks on U.S. companies, in particular the Sony picture studio following the release of The Interview, a film mocking North Korea, in 2014.
North Korean defectors have pointed to Christianity as a means of helping free the repressed people suffering under the Kim regime. Last week, Thae Yong-ho, one of the highest-ranking North Korean officials to defect to the South, encouraged religious groups to pressure Seoul into demanding that any peace agreement with Pyongyang require the Kim regime to allow South Korean churches to build places of worship nationwide.
“You must insist that North Korea builds churches for both South Koreans and foreigners,” Thae said, addressing South Koreans. “You must convince the North that allowing religious freedom will instill trust. Seeing churches with the crucifix will move North Koreans.”
‘Diabolical War Criminal’: North Korea’s U.S. Envoy Under Sanctions for Terrorism
Kim Yong-chol, a top North Korean official en route Tuesday to New York for meetings with American officials, stands accused of a litany of terrorist acts and holds a “Specially Designated Person” sanction from the U.S. Treasury, banning U.S. citizens from business with him.
His alleged involvement in the killing of dozens of South Korean citizens and key cyberattacks against the West led to South Korean conservative politicians’ branding him a “demonic war criminal” and protesting his presence at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics this February.
President Donald Trump confirmed that Kim Yong-chol is traveling to New York from Beijing on Tuesday, writing on Twitter, “Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!”
President Trump wrote a letter to communist dictator Kim Jong-un, published Thursday, announcing that a planned summit between the two, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, would be canceled due to “the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement.”
North Korea’s state media had recently disparaged National Security Adviser John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence as well as not sending officials to a planned logistical meeting in anticipation of the summit. North Korea responded to Trump’s letter with a conciliatory statement from its Foreign Ministry stating that Kim was still open to meeting, which prompted a frantic second round of talks among American, South Korean, and North Korean officials seeking to ensure the meeting takes place on time.
Sending Kim to New York – where the United Nations is located, avoiding setting foot on as much legal American soil as possible – is reportedly part of these plans. Kim, a former spy chief who now carries the title of vice chairman of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, is expected to meet with senior American officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo.
As of Tuesday, Kim Yong-chol appears on the list of “Specially Designated Persons” curated by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Treasury explains that these individuals’ “assets are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.” Washington deemed Kim’s management of Pyongyang’s intelligence operations in 2010 “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
Neither President Trump nor the White House has clarified how Kim will be legally allowed to engage with senior American officials without being arrested or deported, though this may be the reason why. According to South Korean news service Yonhap, he was initially reported to have booked a flight to Washington, DC, but changed his route to New York.
Kim made his largest diplomatic debut ever in February when he attended the Winter Olympics in South Korea. South Korean conservatives widely panned his presence in the country as an insult to the victims of North Korean terrorist attacks throughout the years, many of which occurred while Kim Yong-chol was running Pyongyang’s intelligence operations.
“Kim Yong Chol is a diabolical war criminal who attacked the South,” the parliamentary Floor leader of South Korea’s conservative Liberty Korea Party, Kim Sung-tae, said at the time. “He deserves death by hanging in the street.”
Yonhap reported that 70 lawmakers belonging to the Party protested Kim’s presence in the country in front of Seoul’s Blue House, the presidential palace, outraged that leftist President Moon Jae-in had allowed senior North Korean officials into the country.
South Korean investigations have found Kim responsible for a number of deadly terrorist attacks, among them the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean navy ship. Pyongyang denies reports that Kim ordered the torpedoing of the ship, which killed 46 people, in 2010, but has not presented evidence refuting Seoul’s findings. That same year, Kim reportedly ordered North Korean soldiers to shell the South Korean island Yeonpyeongdo, which killed four people, and to place landmines on the demilitarized zone (DMZ), injuring two South Korean soldiers.
Kim Yong-chol also ordered the assassination of Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of North Korea’s communist Workers’ Party who defected to the south. Hwang survived, and two of Kim’s officers reportedly received ten-year sentences for attempting to kill him after telling the South Korean court that Kim Yong-chol had ordered their murder plot.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Report: ‘Praying, Singing Hymns, and Reading the Bible’ Can Lead to Prison Camp in North Korea
Kim Jong Un, photographed here at a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Saturday, May 26, 2018, presides over a regime widely viewed as the world's worst violator of human rights. (Photo: Uriminzokkiri)
(CNSNews.com) – Weeks before President Trump is expected to meet with Kim Jong Un, a State Department report issued Tuesday painted a grim picture of religious freedom abuses at the hands of the Stalinist regime – including “executions, torture, beatings, and arrests” of people of faith.
The report said that some of the up to 120,000 North Koreans being held in prison camps “under horrific conditions” were incarcerated for religious reasons.
It cited North Korean defectors and international non-governmental organizations as reporting that “any religious activities conducted outside of those that were state-sanctioned, including praying, singing hymns, and reading the Bible, could lead to severe punishment, including imprisonment in political prison camps.”
A South Korean NGO had recorded 1,304 cases of religious freedom violations carried out by North Korean authorities during the year in review, including 119 killings and 87 disappearances. Detentions accounted for another 770 of the incidents.
“Religious and human rights groups outside the country continued to provide numerous reports that members of underground churches were arrested, beaten, tortured, and killed because of their religious beliefs.”
“The government continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings, and arrests,” the report said. “An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the political prison camp system in remote areas under horrific conditions.”
It cited a religious freedom advocacy group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, as saying the regime often applies a policy of “guilt by association,” targeting not just Christians but detaining their relatives as well, irrespective of their own beliefs.
The envisaged Trump-Kim summit in Singapore is focused on the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs and related security concerns. But rights campaigners are urging the president to put human rights on the agenda too.
Releasing the international religious freedom report at the State Department, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom Sam Brownback was asked whether human rights abuses should “be a topic of conversation with the North Koreans.”
He said that in a sense the topic has already been raised, pointing to the recent release by North Korea of three imprisoned Americans, after a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“The president is right on point on North Korea. He’s very engaged on this, as you know. The Secretary is very engaged on this. And I think they’re raising all of these issues,” he said.
Brownback said North Korea’s infamous “gulag” system has been operating for many years.
“We know it’s very difficult and desperate, and particularly for people of faith,” he said.
Asked again whether the rights situation should be linked to any overall move to normalize U.S.-North Korean relations, Brownback deferred to Trump who, he said, was “doing an outstanding job on this, of elevating and dealing with the issue.”
Brownback recalled that during his days in the Senate – he was a Republican senator from Kansas from 1996-2011 before serving as governor of Kansas – he raised concerns about North Korea, “but you couldn’t get anybody to act.”
“Well, this president is acting and he’s taking this issue on, even though it’s threatened us for years, if not decades.”
‘Cruel dictatorship’
Pompeo will hold preparatory talks in New York this week with Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man, Kim Yong Chol, a hardline general sanctioned by the U.S. and South Korea for terrorism and other provocative actions.
Asked Tuesday whether human rights abuses would be raised with the North Koreans, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, “We have a lot of very important matters to discuss with the government of North Korea, chiefly the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Beyond that, I’m not going to get into any of the specifics.”
Nauert said in response to a further question that she was not saying that the topic of human rights would be included, and neither was she saying that the issue would not be included.
“We’re just not going to get ahead of the Secretary’s meetings that start this week.”
North Korea has long topped governmental and NGO lists of the worst violators of religious and other basic freedoms.
In his State of the Union address last January Trump highlighted rights abuses by the “depraved” regime, and declared that “no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea.”
The regime has been at the top of Open Doors USA’s annual world watch list – which ranks the “countries where it is most dangerous to follow Jesus” – every year since 2002.
When a major U.N. commission on inquiry report on North Korea was presented to the world body’s Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2014, its chairman remarked that the atrocities committed by the Kim regime were “without parallel in the modern world.”
Earlier this month a dozen international human rights groups appealed to Trump in a letter to “include human rights issues in all discussions with the DPRK including in the summit agenda.”
“As you described during the SOTU address, any discussion about the nuclear threat North Korea poses cannot be separated from how the DPRK treats its own people,” the signatories wrote.
It called on Trump to urge North Korea, among other things, to open its prisons and forced labor camps to international observers, and to release those being detained for activities which under international law should not be criminalized, such as exercising rights to freedom of speech and religion.
Pyongyang is sensitive to human rights criticism, and after the release last month of another annual State Department report – on human rights around the world – regime mouthpieces published commentaries calling U.S. criticism “an unacceptable challenge to our dignity.”
“Our people enjoy true human rights and enjoy a rewarding life,” said one, while another described North Korea as “the most advantageous and dignified cradle of genuine life of working people in the world.”
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