Human rights are repressed at every level in North Korea. Lack of the rule of law and arbitrary treatment create a culture of repression and fear. The practice of torture, violations of the right to life and physical integrity appear to be frequent and systematic. Actions or statements deemed to indicate a lack of total support for the regime, are harshly suppressed. Freedom of movement, assembly and association are strictly controlled and even freedom of thought is repressed.

Religious Liberty

Religious freedom is harshly repressed in North Korea. Following Christianity is viewed as an extremely serious crime. Kim Il Sung, the ‘Great Leader’, has been exalted and is revered as a god to be followed with unswerving obedience. Faith in a greater power is ruthlessly repressed and the word for God has been banned in North Korea.

Believers are not free to fellowship. Surveillance and informing is so widespread that meeting together would be fraught with danger. Even parents often do not allow their children to know of their faith, as teachers ask the children questions to make them unwittingly inform on their parents.

Severe Repression

Most North Koreans have never heard the gospel, met a Christian or seen a church or Bible. North Koreans are brought up to believe that Christians are deranged and often only know them by the term ‘crazy people’.

Persecution of Christians

Before the communist regime was installed, the north was a centre of revival and Pyongyang was known as the Jerusalem of the East. Most Christians fled to the South during the Korean War, or were martyred.

A few Christians have managed to hold on to their faith despite the horrific persecution. Many Christians have been publicly executed and others have been taken away to camps where they are subject to brutal treatment. They will never be allowed out of the camps, alive or dead and are worked to death in brutal conditions and terrible deprivation.

Christians suffer especially cruel treatment in these death camps as they are under ongoing pressure to renounce their faith. They are subject to frequent torture and abuse and are also forced to do the most gruelling and dangerous work, both by guards and fellow prisoners.

Execution

Even internment in prison is not the harshest punishment. Christians are also executed for their faith.

Eyewitnesses have seen Christians dragged out, unable to stand due to torture, denounced for their faith and shot dead. They are typically tied to a pole - although it is even reported that victims are attached to crucifixes - and then shot through the head, heart and stomach by three marksmen.

Execution has been particularly commonly referred to as the punishment for those North Koreans who return from China having had contact with Christians or with South Koreans.

The Plight of Those Leaving the Country

Due to the food shortages, North Koreans have been fleeing into China, where they are liable to fall into the hands of criminals. Women, especially, are terribly vulnerable and are often unwittingly sold to Chinese men, who frequently then keep them under lock and key and subject them to terrible sexual, physical and emotional abuse and then sell them on or rent them out to others. As China deems all North Koreans to be illegal immigrants, the women have nowhere to turn as they cannot appeal to the authorities. If they are caught they are liable to be attached to others with wire - which is passed through their wrists or noses - and sent back over the border. In North Korea they face horrific treatment. Some of those returned are executed, women found pregnant are often subject to forced abortion or their babies are even killed in front of them.

The alternative scenario for those escaping is that they are protected by missionaries. These individuals face a much better future. They are sheltered away from capture and are provided with food and clothes. Their lives are not easy as they still cannot live normally or provide for themselves, but they can live free from the violence and abuse they could otherwise expect to experience.

North Koreans consider China a free and prosperous country. In their first encounter with the outside world many realise that the forced indoctrination and worship of North Korean leaders is false. While in the care of the missionaries they are taught about God for the first time in their lives and have their first opportunity to open their hearts to the gospel.

The Cult of Kim Il Sung

Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s dead but current head of state and ‘Eternal President’, and his son Kim Jong Il, the ‘Dear Leader’ are the subject of worship and veneration unique to political leaders in the world today. Citizens are taught that all good things come from the leaders, who deserve unending loyalty and devotion. Due to the isolation, North Koreans genuinely believe this and worship them, bowing before the enormous statue of Kim Il Sung and memorising his speeches and texts. North Korean must have pictures of the two leaders in their homes and failure to keep them clean is viewed as a political crime. State propaganda accords the ‘Great Leader’ supernatural powers and control over nature.

North Korea has been devastated by famine in the last decade. Estimates suggest that the death rate runs into the millions.

Massive floods swept much of North Korea in 1994, aggravating the country's chronic food shortage caused by decades of inefficient collective farming.

Treaties

ICCPR-International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)

ICESCR-International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)

CEDAW-Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)

CRC-Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

Pray: That God will uphold North Korean Christians in their faith and give them the strength and boldness to continue to follow him faithfully, despite their suffering.

For the hundreds of Christians detained for their faith, that God will give them courage as they face their trials.

That state idolatry will end and religious freedom will be established.

For the missionaries and North Koreans in China.

Protest: CSW is initiating a major prayer focus for North Korea. If you would like to become better informed and to be involved in praying, please contact CSW for more information and prayer resources.