A new report has exposed the atrocities done to North Korean Christians arrested for their faith, including forced abortions, the murder of newborn babies, and death by execution for possessing a Bible.
The London-based Korea Future Initiative published its latest report, “Persecuting Faith: Documenting religious freedom violations in North Korea,” which includes information from 117 interviews with those exiled from the isolated country.
The investigation documents 273 victims of religious freedom violations, ranging in age from just 3 years old to over 80 years old.
Though adherents of various religions are held in North Korea’s “reeducation” camps, the harshest punishments are reserved for Christians, the report found.
More than 200 Christians were identified as victims punished for crimes, including religious practice, religious activities in China, possessing religious items, contact with religious persons, attending a place of worship, and sharing religious beliefs.
The report documented the various methods of torture victims endured in North Korea’s prison camps, including strangulation, starvation, being forced to ingest polluted food, sleep deprivation, and excessive beating.
"Even though women were beaten less, I was hit in the face and my skin ruptured and I bled a lot. [Officers] told me to wipe the blood, so I cleaned it. I wept a lot when they hit me again. Blood and discharge ruptured during my next pre-trial examination. They hit me again because I wept."
In several cases, prisoners found with a Bible or religious pamphlets were executed by a firing squad, while others were locked in electrified cages and fed watery soup. Others were executed for smuggling Bible pages into the country from China for North Koreans to make prayer books.In one instance, a victim found in possession of a Bible was publicly executed in front of over 1,000 people. The victim was tied to a wooden stake and executed by an MPS firing squad.
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