Kim Jong-un of North Korea
North Korea sentences 24month-old baby to life imprisonment
Kim Jong-un regime in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea, has reportedly handed out a life prison sentence to a 24month-old child after his parents were found to be in possession of the Holy Bible.
According to the United States’ State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report, which made the disclosure, the two-year-old and his entire family were locked up for their religious beliefs.
Several other cases of North Koreans being killed for being Christian were also included in the report, including the firing squad execution of a woman and her grandchild in 2011.
The report also said other believers faced ‘pigeon torture,’ where they were suspended with their hands tied behind their backs, unable to sit or stand for days on end, as it also claimed that some were tortured with sleep deprivation including one woman in solitary confinement who was driven to suicide in 2020 after prison guards refused to let her sleep.
As many as 70,000 Christians have been imprisoned for their faith under the Kim Jong-un regime, of a possible population of 400,000.
The new publication said several North Korean Christians hid their faith from their children.
It cited the finding of one non-governmental organisation; Open Doors USA (ODUSA), which said: “A Christian is never safe. Children are encouraged to tell their teachers about any sign of faith in their parents’ home.”
Another group, the Korea Future, said children were taught in school about the ‘evil deeds’ of Christian missionaries, including ‘rape, blood-sucking, organ harvesting, murder, and espionage.’
The report said: “One defector told Korea Future the government published graphic novels in which Christians coerced children into churches and took them to the basement to draw their blood.”
And while most of the cases of religious persecution documented by North Korea Future targeted those practising shamanism, it was Christians who typically received the harshest punishments.
Officially, North Korea guarantees its people religious freedom in its constitution and the regime highlights the churches it has built in Pyongyang as proof. But the publication alleged that these churches operated only as ‘showpieces for foreigners.’
It cited the testimony of one defector, who said people could be arrested for lingering too long outside the churches and listening to music from within, or even consistently driving past them.
