Don't Forget Thousands of Christians in North Korea Who Suffer Daily for Their Faith, Believers Urged
The leader of a Christian humanitarian organization is asking Christians worldwide not to forget the thousands of believers in North Korea who suffer daily for their faith.
Vernon Brewer, the founder and president of World Help, issued the appeal, which he said is of particular importance at "this time of great political intrigue surrounding North Korea."
In an op-ed piece for Fox News, Brewer said amid news of missile launches and the detention of American citizens in North Korea, "a whole narrative of persecution against Christians goes largely unreported in the media."
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This is true despite the fact that for 16 consecutive years, Open Doors has ranked North Korea as "the most oppressive place in the world for Christians."
Brewer saw for himself how Christians are suffering in North Korea when he visited the country in 2007.
He estimated that between 30,000 to 70,000 Christians are held in "kwanliso," or political labor camps in North Korea.
Brewer cited Christian Solidarity Worldwide's 2016 report on North Korea, which detailed how these captives, often sick and malnourished, are subjected to extreme violence and crude torture. They suffer beatings with electric rods and metal poles, and are even used as test subjects for medical experiments.
He said Christians are frequently sentenced to labor camps "simply for owning a Bible."
Brewer said he knows of "brave Christians who smuggle Bibles disguised as phone books into the country."
"They risk their lives so others may have the opportunity to read the forbidden words of Jesus in their own language," he said.
According to Open Doors USA, Christians enduring life in the totalitarian communist state are "forced to hide their faith completely from government authorities, neighbors and, often, even their own spouses and children."
North Koreans are made to worship the ruling Kim family, "and those who don't comply are arrested, imprisoned, tortured or killed."
The persecution watchdog estimates that there are some 300,000 Christians in North Korea, whose population is estimated at 25.4 million.
Despite the grave risks and severe religious restrictions in the country, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology in North Korea, has drawn dozens of U.S. citizens and Christian missionaries, The Christian Post earlier reported. Two professors from this university were recently arrested by authorities.
Kim Hak Song, the latest U.S. Christian imprisoned by the regime of dictator Kim Jong Un, was among other American citizens teaching at the university.
"I've committed to devoting my last drop of blood to this work," Reuters quoted him as saying in an online post.
