No, it’s not Donald Trump. Or nuclear weapons. Turns out what the DPRK fears most is Christianity. Which is why the regime works so hard to eliminate all traces of the faith.
On July 18th, Vice President Pence spoke at the second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom (the largest religious liberty gathering in the world). His remarks about Christian persecution in various countries around the world included the country that’s been the worst offender for the last two decades – North Korea ~
As the U.N. Commission on Human Rights reported,
“The violation of human rights in the DPRK constitute crimes against humanity, the gravity, scale and nature of which has no parallel in the contemporary world.” […]
The North Korean regime formally demands that its officials act – in their words – “to wipe out the seed of Christian reactionaries.” Possession of a bible is a capital offense.
Five years ago, Maureen Callahan at the NY Post reported on life inside the surreal, cruel & sheltered North Korea. It’s unimaginably bleak ~
The nation has so little electricity that, in the ultimate metaphor, nighttime satellite imagery shows North Korea gone dark, the only country in the world not illuminated. Travelers are only allowed to move within a circumscribed part of Pyongyang and are chaperoned and surveilled by government officials. […]
In North Korea, a ballpoint pen is considered a luxury item. Men make it to their mid-20s without knowing that women menstruate, or what menstruation even is. The use of anesthesia for surgery is a fairly recent development. There is no sex education. You can marry for love, but only within your own social caste — determined by birth and generational loyalty to the regime.
The only gods permitted in North Korea are the country’s dear leaders ~
Religion is a threat to the state and is banned; instead, children are raised to worship the late Kim Il-sung, who was made “president for life” four years after his death, in 1998, by his son and successor, the late Kim Jong-il. There are 34,000 statues of Kim Il-sung in North Korea, and all wedding ceremonies must take place in front of one.
All citizens must hang government-provided portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in their homes, and once a month, the police come by to inspect them. All, too, must wear uniforms, and their future careers are based on caste and dictated by the government.
According to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (Southern Baptist Convention) ~
Torture is routine in North Korea, as is death at the hands of the regime.
Although there are three Protestant churches, one Catholic church, and one Russian Orthodox church in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang, they are little more than a state-sponsored façade.
The reality of religion in North Korea is best seen in Kim Jong-un’s demand for total allegiance to himself from the North Korean people. The North Korean constitution does not allow religious freedom because the constitution bars any religious ideology from posing a threat to the political status quo.
Despite these aggressive attempts to prevent any mention of God, it appears that – according to a formerly imprisoned pastor – North Korea is more afraid of Christians than nuclear weapons ~
Kenneth Bae,* a Korean-American pastor, who was held hostage in North Korea from 2012 to 2014, explained that when North Korean authorities arrested him and found out that he was a missionary, he was told that he was trying to overthrow the North Korean government. For years, Bae had been leading teams into North Korea so they could visit as tourists but pray and worship while in the land.
The North Koreans also told him that if one person came back and started an orphanage and 10 children became Christians, they will only multiply from there and present a threat to the nation.
“They said ‘we are not afraid of nuclear weapons … we are afraid of someone like you bringing religion into our country and use it against us and then everybody will turn to God and this will become God’s country and we will fall.“
Notice how communists are never particularly worried about Islam, secular Humanists, Rastafarians or Gaia worshipers? Because even the godless understand that only the gospel of Jesus Christ represents transformative Truth ~
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. ~ John 3:16
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*Pastor Kenneth Bae is the author of the 2016 memoir Not Forgotten: The True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea. Today he leads the Nehemiah One Million Prayer Petition Campaign, an effort to mobilize intercession for the North Korean people.
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Related:
North Korean woman imprisoned for faith shares how God sustained her amid horrific abuses
The difference between North and South Korea; a brief history lesson for ignorant progressives
Following Jesus, whatever the cost
Despite the DPRK menace, God is still in control
Escape from Hermit Kingdom Hell
