Rallies, Prayer Vigils Shining Light on North Korea's Cruelty and Persecution
by Chad Groening and Mary Rettig
April 28, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The co-sponsoring organizations of North Korea Freedom Week are exposing the public to the atrocities being committed upon that nation's population by its government. At the same time they are calling on Christians worldwide to pray for their brothers and sisters in Christ there who are suffering persecution and imprisonment for their faith. Several human-rights organizations are gathered in Washington, DC, to protest the horrific treatment of North Korean citizens by their own government. In addition, a number of prayer vigils are planned in front of Chinese consulates around the U.S. The activities are part of North Korea Freedom Week (April 22-30), which is being sponsored by Open Doors USA and the North Korea Freedom Coalition.
Jerry Dykstra, media relations coordinator for Open Doors, says North Korea continues to be one large concentration camp. "North Korea's been ranked number one on the Open Doors 'World Watch List' for the last four years," he says, explaining that the list ranks countries according to the degree of severity of persecution against Christians. "We know that between two and three million North Koreans have died over the past 10 years," he notes.
Dykstra points out that Christian activists are holding prayer vigils at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, as well as at the Chinese consulates in Houston and Los Angeles because of the communist regime's policy concerning North Korean refugees.
"Obviously, we're concerned about the role that China plays in all this," the ministry spokesman says. "The fact is that many North Koreans, including many Christians, are trying to flee into China -- to actually go to visit families or looking for freedom. The problem is they're being captured by the Chinese, put in prison camps, and then brought back into North Korea where they face certain death or a life of misery in political [prison] camps."
As part of the week-long observance focusing on North Korean repression, several escapees from that country testified before Congress to call attention to the brutality of the Pyongyang government. Emphasizing their stories, Open Doors president Carl Moeller says the goal of North Korea Freedom Week is to appeal for prayer and international pressure on the communist regime. Christians there, he says, face imprisonment, torture, and execution.
"Those that are religiously persecuted in North Korea suffer a great deal," says Moeller. "About 200,000 Christians are [currently] in labor camps." The treatment at those camps, says Open Doors' leader, is beyond imagination. "By labor camps I mean the worst kinds of human experimentation, privation, torture, and horrific conditions for everyone. It's virtually a death sentence to be even sent there."
The North Korea Freedom Coalition estimates that more than two million North Koreans have perished under the country's dictatorial regime since the mid-1990s due to starvation, torture, and execution in the large network of concentration camps.
Chad Groening and Mary Rettig, regular contributors to AgapePress, are reporters for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
