Christian believers executed in North Korea

Christian believers executed in North Korea
Refusal to worship Kim Jong-il, being caught worshiping God brings harsh penalty
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Posted: January 21, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Michael Ireland
© 2007 Assist News Service

Reports about four Christians being executed for their faith in North Korea are circulating in the Christian media.

According to Mark Kelly of Baptist Press: "The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea is well-known as a country where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Because the government there keeps a tight lid on communication, however, only rarely does specific information leak out."

Quoting the World Bible Translation Center's Gary Bishop in a conversation with Mission Network News, Kelly reports that one man who worked as an evangelist was executed after being caught with two Korean New Testaments in his possession.

Bishop says North Korean Christians are becoming increasingly uneasy about possessing a Bible.

He said: "A man that's known to be an evangelist. He's probably not an evangelist to anyone other than his family members, but he was caught with two of our Korean New Testaments in his possession and he was executed for that."

Kelly writes that Bishop also told Mission Network News: "A woman and her grandmother were washing clothes when a New Testament fell out of the woman's clothing. Somebody reported it, and both she and her grandmother were quickly executed. And an army general who had become a believer was caught evangelizing men in his unit and was executed by a fellow officer."

Kelly says Bishop told MNN that despite the oppression – or perhaps because of it – God seems to be working.

Bishop said: "In response to a very, very oppressive government (and) human injustices, people are looking for an answer other than their own government. And, I believe that's awakening the resilience of believers in North Korea to say, 'We have another answer. There is another way to believe.'"

MNN reports that thousands of North Korean Christians have been killed for their faith. Many more are in work camps.

According to Bishop, there's no sign of the persecution easing any. "What you have is a leader who is proclaiming himself to be god. It's prescribed that they daily worship him. And, refusal to do that and being caught worshiping God just brings that kind of governmental response. And, as best we can tell, the tempo of that is not lessening."

Bishop says it's obvious what that increasing pressure on Christians is doing to Bible smuggling. "It becomes more and more difficult to get a person to risk their life to carry those in to North Korea." With rivers frozen, it's a prefect time to smuggle Bibles into the country.

While persecution continues, World Bible Translation Center has no intention of stopping the flow of Bibles into the country. "We do need to begin reprinting and get text ready as God enables people to take those in."
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