North Korea (MNN) ― A new U.S. government report hits North Korea on its denial of religious freedoms.
The report highlighted the vicious reprisal against Christians, as well as China's cooperation with the persecution of North Korean refugees. The report is titled A Prison Without Bars. It gives firsthand accounts of the religious freedom conditions inside the rogue state.
Christians who are caught face arrest, hard labor sentences, death and harsh reprisal against their immediate families.
Further, North Korean Christians who have fled across the border to China are still not safe. Refugees suspected of meeting with religious groups are often marked for harsh interrogation, torture and long detentions without trial after they are forced by China to return to North Korea.
Both governments are under pressure to change. But will a report like this be enough to change? Have six years of protests put enough pressure on either government to force them to respond?
Open Doors USA president, Carl Moeller says it's been a slow buildup. Now, "with the Olympics coming, and the world's focus being on China, all of this information is reaching a tipping point, perhaps. Our prayer is that world opinion will become awakened and people will rise up in prayer, but also be voices for those who have no voice in North Korea and the refugees from North Korea in China."
Open Doors USA, along with other members of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, are partnering during North Korea Freedom Week (NKFW) April 26-May 3. During that week the United States and other countries around the world will focus on the massive human rights abuses by the North Korean communist government headed by President Kim Jong Il. The North Korea Freedom Coalition is also urging China to stop the repatriation of North Korean refugees.
Pray fervently for the church in North Korea. "The reality is that the Gospel is being shared in North Korea. There's no question about that. It is the prayer of the North Koreans themselves that the Western church and the Western powers would be awakened to the reality of their suffering and would pray for them and would do whatever we can to speak out for them."
MNN will cover some of the highlights of the NKFW. Click here for other details.
