A Frightening Look Inside North Korea’s Physical and Spiritual Torture of Christians
“The knowledge of the one true God is the greatest threat to the regime.”
The human rights advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has just released a report
on the plight of Christians in the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK),
or North Korea. Among other systemic torture, CSW says there are
documented incidents of Christians “being hung on a cross over a fire,
crushed under a steamroller, herded off bridges and trampled underfoot.”
After years of unprecedented censorship and secrecy on the part of DPRK’s leaders, CSW’s report gives us a glimpse into the torture and horrific murders of Christians in this closed nation—unfortunately, this report confirms some of our worst fears. Starting on page 10, the persecution of Christians are listed out.
The report explains that Christians try to keep their faith a secret—even attempting to keep it from their loved ones. However, the government is so suspicious of Christianity that they ruthlessly find believers out and punish anyone associated. “If discovered, [Christians] are subject to detention and then likely taken to political prison camps (kwanliso); crimes against them in these camps include extra-judicial killing, extermination, enslavement/forced labour, forcible transfer of population, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, persecution, enforced disappearance, rape and sexual violence, and other inhumane acts.”
As to how CSW obtained the information presented in the report, the group explains: “This report is entirely based on secondary sources. On-the-ground research inside North Korea is not possible, and access to recent North Korean escapees with firsthand accounts of violations of freedom of religion or belief has proved challenging.” The majority of their testimonies come from the few escapees who are able to relay the stories of atrocities happening inside the country.
So why are the leaders of DPRK so wary of Christianity, yet somewhat lenient toward other beliefs like Buddhism and Shamanism? According to CSW’s report, Christianity “is identified as a dangerous security threat and a tool of ‘foreign intervention.’ It is seen as a means of conducting espionage and gathering intelligence by South Korean and American intelligence agencies.”
But the government’s fear of foreign intervention isn’t the only reason Christianity is seen as suspect. There is also a leader-worship factor that smacks of the ancient leader-idol worship we are told about in the Old Testament. Suzanne Scholte, the chair of the North Korea Freedom Coalition and vice co-chair of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told the Christian Post, “Because the DPRK regime was set up so that North Koreans are raised to worship the Kims as their gods, there is nothing the regime fears more than the spread of Christianity.” Furthermore, “The knowledge of the one true God is the greatest threat to the regime.”
This leader-worship system was put in place by DPRK’s first leader, Kim Il-sung. “Kim [Il-sung] set himself up as a god, perverting the holy trinity with Kim Jong-il as the Christ and juche as the Holy Spirit,” Scholte explained. Juche is the political ideology Kim Il-sung made all North Koreans adhere to and believe to the point of brainwashing. The regime carries on with the teaching today, calling juche the “original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought” that Kim Il-sung left them, according to Wikipedia. “North Koreans are taught from childhood to give prayers of thanks to their father, Kim Il-sung, to say a perverted version of the Apostles creed to their great leader, and to study their ideology in thousands of centers across North Korea,” explains Scholte.
North Korean citizens are also force-fed the Ten Principles from a very young age. These principles are used to indoctrinate citizens with the thinking of the regime on a daily, hourly basis. They are a kind of 10 Commandments by which citizens “regularly evaluate themselves.” The principles speak of the Kim family and emphasize loyalty to them. One escapee recalls learning that Kim Il-sung “was sent from heaven, a leader of the people and leader of the world” while in school.
CSW makes a point of saying that despite the public face the regime shows the international community (one that claims to be upholding the religious freedom of its citizens), religious freedom is not a reality inside their borders. “The violations of freedom of religion or belief in North Korea are among the very worst in the world,” the report claims.
While reports like these are heartbreaking and shocking, it reminds us of the things Jesus told us would happen. “‘Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake… Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved’” (Matthew 10:17-18, 21-22).
So, as you pray for the Christians in North Korea, pray they will be able to endure until the end, that the Holy Spirit will comfort them in their trials and torture, and that they would know the peace of God. Ask God to bring down the idolatrous regime of the DPRK and bring his light and truth to this incredibly oppressed people.
Finally, we would also do well to examine ourselves and ask, “If I were faced with such persecution, would I be able to endure?”
After years of unprecedented censorship and secrecy on the part of DPRK’s leaders, CSW’s report gives us a glimpse into the torture and horrific murders of Christians in this closed nation—unfortunately, this report confirms some of our worst fears. Starting on page 10, the persecution of Christians are listed out.
The report explains that Christians try to keep their faith a secret—even attempting to keep it from their loved ones. However, the government is so suspicious of Christianity that they ruthlessly find believers out and punish anyone associated. “If discovered, [Christians] are subject to detention and then likely taken to political prison camps (kwanliso); crimes against them in these camps include extra-judicial killing, extermination, enslavement/forced labour, forcible transfer of population, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, persecution, enforced disappearance, rape and sexual violence, and other inhumane acts.”
As to how CSW obtained the information presented in the report, the group explains: “This report is entirely based on secondary sources. On-the-ground research inside North Korea is not possible, and access to recent North Korean escapees with firsthand accounts of violations of freedom of religion or belief has proved challenging.” The majority of their testimonies come from the few escapees who are able to relay the stories of atrocities happening inside the country.
So why are the leaders of DPRK so wary of Christianity, yet somewhat lenient toward other beliefs like Buddhism and Shamanism? According to CSW’s report, Christianity “is identified as a dangerous security threat and a tool of ‘foreign intervention.’ It is seen as a means of conducting espionage and gathering intelligence by South Korean and American intelligence agencies.”
But the government’s fear of foreign intervention isn’t the only reason Christianity is seen as suspect. There is also a leader-worship factor that smacks of the ancient leader-idol worship we are told about in the Old Testament. Suzanne Scholte, the chair of the North Korea Freedom Coalition and vice co-chair of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told the Christian Post, “Because the DPRK regime was set up so that North Koreans are raised to worship the Kims as their gods, there is nothing the regime fears more than the spread of Christianity.” Furthermore, “The knowledge of the one true God is the greatest threat to the regime.”
This leader-worship system was put in place by DPRK’s first leader, Kim Il-sung. “Kim [Il-sung] set himself up as a god, perverting the holy trinity with Kim Jong-il as the Christ and juche as the Holy Spirit,” Scholte explained. Juche is the political ideology Kim Il-sung made all North Koreans adhere to and believe to the point of brainwashing. The regime carries on with the teaching today, calling juche the “original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought” that Kim Il-sung left them, according to Wikipedia. “North Koreans are taught from childhood to give prayers of thanks to their father, Kim Il-sung, to say a perverted version of the Apostles creed to their great leader, and to study their ideology in thousands of centers across North Korea,” explains Scholte.
North Korean citizens are also force-fed the Ten Principles from a very young age. These principles are used to indoctrinate citizens with the thinking of the regime on a daily, hourly basis. They are a kind of 10 Commandments by which citizens “regularly evaluate themselves.” The principles speak of the Kim family and emphasize loyalty to them. One escapee recalls learning that Kim Il-sung “was sent from heaven, a leader of the people and leader of the world” while in school.
CSW makes a point of saying that despite the public face the regime shows the international community (one that claims to be upholding the religious freedom of its citizens), religious freedom is not a reality inside their borders. “The violations of freedom of religion or belief in North Korea are among the very worst in the world,” the report claims.
While reports like these are heartbreaking and shocking, it reminds us of the things Jesus told us would happen. “‘Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake… Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved’” (Matthew 10:17-18, 21-22).
So, as you pray for the Christians in North Korea, pray they will be able to endure until the end, that the Holy Spirit will comfort them in their trials and torture, and that they would know the peace of God. Ask God to bring down the idolatrous regime of the DPRK and bring his light and truth to this incredibly oppressed people.
Finally, we would also do well to examine ourselves and ask, “If I were faced with such persecution, would I be able to endure?”
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