North Korea denies persecuting Christians amid witness of escaped believers who survived
While numerous witnesses have emerged sharing their stories of survival from North Korean persecution, the official Democratic People's Republic of Korea has remained firm in its statement that there is no Christian persecution going on within its borders.
According to Worthy News, an editor questioned the alleged persecution of Christians in the country and Alejandro Cao, special delegate of North Korea's committee for cultural relations with foreign countries, has publicly denied that no Christians are being oppressed under Kim Jong-un's rule.
However, his denial could be far from reality as numerous reports have stated that an estimated 100,000 Christians are held captive in labor camps where they are reportedly being tortured and some have even been executed because of their faith.
CBN News has recently released the story of Kim Eun Jin, one of the survivors who escaped the Communist country's exercise of strict human rights violations.
Born in Pyongyang, North Korea, Kim said that she was raised in a world where children at a very young age were taught that there was no God. "Growing up, I was told by the authorities that there was no God in this world," she recalled. "We were ordered instead to worship Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the leaders of the country."
Despite the dangers of believing that there is a God, Kim and her family gathered in the back room of their small apartment and whispered whenever they prayed, sang songs, or read the Bible.
Kim also shared how her grandmother who had a Chinese Bible translated all the pages by hand into the Korean language on pieces of paper for her family to read. "We found strength in those pages," she said.
In 1994, Kim's father was arrested for operating a secret underground church, and Kim said she doubts that her father is alive today since she has been told that his father was moved to one of the labor camps in the country.
Come 2005, a Chinese pastor helped Kim and her family escape silently to China.
Kim is now living in Seoul, South Korea, where she is married to a Christian husband, Jeong Hyung Shin, and their baby boy.
North Korea has about 25 million people under harsh living conditions, and while several Christians have survived the terror, many are still imprisoned under a rule that believes in no God.