The Christian Purge in North Korea
When North Korea's in the news, there's always a tendency towards a certain amount of jocosity. Whether it's the erstwhile jumpsuits of Kim Jong-il or the compulsory crying that accompanied the dear leader's funeral, it's all too easy to make light of the absurdities that are the inevitable byproduct of a totalitarian cult of personality.
In a sense, that's fitting. Stripping the regime of any pretensions of seriousness is a worthwhile effort, even if the closed nature of North Korean society makes it near impossible for that message to penetrate to the country's besieged citizens.
It's important, however, to look past the statist theatrics from time to time and remember how deep the human suffering runs in the hermit kingdom. That would include swallowing hard facts like these, from a new piece by Robert Park in The Diplomat:
Before the rise of the Kim Il-sung, an estimated 25 percent to 30 percent of Pyongyang's population was Christian. Today, all traces of this once-flourishing religious community and culture have been obliterated. Recognizing the inherent threat posed by faith to totalitarian rule and the Kim cult of personality, the North Korean regime has since its inception committed genocide against religious believers and their families.
There are many indications of the specific intent to destroy religious groups in North Korea. Harsh punishment is meted out to repatriated North Korean refugees who have had contact with missionaries and churches in China. Refugees, after being forcibly returned, are tortured and interrogated to discern whether they had any contact with religious groups. Those that confess to, or are suspected of, having met with missionaries in China or converting to Christianity are either killed or banished to concentration camps for life along with their entire families, including children, to three generations. Open Doors estimates between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are imprisoned in North Korea's concentration camps today.
These Christian human rights organizations believe that North Korean Christians who haven’t been publicly executed or killed through beatings or starvation in the prison camps have even in some instances been used as guinea pigs in chemical and biological weapons experiments – an allegation which is by no means new.
As is always the case with regimes of this kind, we can be assured that the horrors we hear about now are only a fraction of what will come out when the dictatorship falls and the books are opened. Let's pray that day will come sooner rather than later.
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Dec '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Troy,
I can remember as an Undergraduate History Major, in about 1973, making my sophisticated justifications for Marxist States. My best one was the Feudalism trick. It went thus:
Really these backward third world societies are no more developed then Europe of about 1600. The historical period is called the High Middle Ages. The economic system is called Merchantilism. If you simply remove the Catholic Church and replace it with a Marxist Bolshevik Party you find that many government policies are the same. Obviously, it makes more sense for these third world countries to just convert over to Marxism because it's easier. An Enlightenment, Free Market, Capitalist, Democratic/Human Rights Society is just too much for them to handle.
I believed this fervently up until Graduate School. I am a Graduate School drop out. In 1977 I got a job (selling analytical instruments and process control) and went out and just made money. (cont.)
Edited on Feb 2 at 11:19amDec '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
(cont. from #1)
When the reports of the killing fields of Cambodia came in, people barely noticed. It hit me like a stone. I realized I had been wrong all along. This genocide, the worst in the whole century, was performed by farmers with farm implements. Under Pol Pot's new Marxist Theory these peasant farmers were being exploited by all the people in the cities and towns. Cambodia had seven million people. The farmers dragged all of the people from the towns and cities out into the countryside, three million people, and MURDERED THEM!!
I knew then that my sophisticated explanation about the middle ages was missing something. That something was the effect of a full Monotheistic Morality that would check the insane implulses for evil in a society. Without this check, a society could descend into the abyss of total evil and murder it's own population en masse. It took me another 30 years to master the full Deontological Ethics. It was only my hobby. Maybe Gd wanted me to.
I can tell you that anything is possible in North Korea. They are full blown Marxist Bolshevik monsters. We must pray for the safety of their targets.
May '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Appalling.
May '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Atheism by itself didn't cause the deaths of hundreds of millions of people in the last century. But to your point, it certainly proved inadequate to prevent radical ideologies from doing all that killing.
I chuckle when people blame Christianity for wars and deaths throughout history. All you have to do to respond is point out what happened when Christianity was removed or marginalized. Evil exists in any society, even Christian society; but the difference is how we counter that evil. If the salt is truly salty, it will preserve and protect society and the innocent.
Mar '11
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Korea had a vibrant Christian coomunity prior to the current regime. The great leader purged Jesus out of popular songs from the churches of the day and replaced it with his own name; they still sing them today.
The great Presbyterian missionary Jonathan Goforth worked with those people and wrote about his experiences.
So, after Iraq etc. should regime change be the policy?
Dec '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Chris Deleon
Atheism by itself didn't cause the deaths of hundreds of millions of people in the last century. But to your point, it certainly proved inadequate to prevent radical ideologies from doing all that killing.
I chuckle when people blame Christianity for wars and deaths throughout history. All you have to do to respond is point out what happened when Christianity was removed or marginalized. Evil exists in any society, even Christian society; but the difference is how we counter that evil. If the salt is truly salty, it will preserve and protect society and the innocent. · 1 hour ago
I will pray for them on Shabbos. It is not selfless to pray for others. Gd is more likely to answer your prayers if you pray for others.
Regards,
Jim
May '11
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
If the North Koreans were wiping out Muslims from their midst, think that would make the Main Stream news...?
Apr '11
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Nothing should surprise us that comes form North Korea. James is right, the North Korean Government is removed from any moral restraints. Few governments in the history of the world have ever achieved such a level of control devoid from any accountability. When their system collapses which we must all hope it does the world will be left to take care of millions of PTSD victims. I just hope that we are up to the task, because nothing could be more tragic then to fail to help them once their oppressors have been cast down.
I do not think we can hope to overthrow the Kims by force of arms unless we wish to risk the safety of South Korea. Though I could think of few wars more justified than one to topple the DPRK.
Jun '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Forcing regime change on this despicable and evil stain on humanity has been a failure of successive Presidential administrations. I realize that there are those, particularly amongst the Paulists, who would counsel against "American adventurism" and any moves by the "notorious" CIA to do anything but if there was ever a need for some innovative covert operations to emancipate the North Korean people then it would be most welcome and should have happened decades ago.
Jun '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
Chris Deleon
Atheism by itself didn't cause the deaths of hundreds of millions of people in the last century. But to your point, it certainly proved inadequate to prevent radical ideologies from doing all that killing.
I chuckle when people blame Christianity for wars and deaths throughout history. All you have to do to respond is point out what happened when Christianity was removed or marginalized. Evil exists in any society, even Christian society; but the difference is how we counter that evil. If the salt is truly salty, it will preserve and protect society and the innocent. · 9 hours ago
I think Hitchens made a pretty compelling argument that North Korea wasn't an atheist regime but a regime that has deified both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il building an entire divine mystique and mythology about them.
Jun '10
Re: The Christian Purge in North Korea
...and if Hitchens is correct, which I think he is, then what's really at issue is that Christianity (and any other religion) poses a threat to the divine claims of the ruling family. If Christianity is true then the Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il cannot be divine. And that is not tolerable. Christians in this context aren't simply enemies of the state, they are enemies of the divine Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il who rule over the country from a heavenly perch.
Edited on Feb 2 at 9:49pm