North Korea - 2 y/o sentenced to Life in prison because his parents had a Bible

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North Korea sentenced Christian toddler to life in a prison camp;

regime praises Arab world

North Korea's town Kaesong is seen from the Dorasan Observatory in the Civilian Control area near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Paju, South Korea, on May 2, 2023. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

MAY 28, 2023 / 12:54 PM

By Adam Schrader

May 28 (UPI) -- North Korea once sentenced a toddler to life in a prison camp because the baby's family had been caught with a copy of the Bible, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department.

While the incident happened in 2009, it was highlighted in the State Department's Report on International Religious Freedom: Democratic People's Republic of Korea for 2022 published earlier this month.

"The entire family, including a two-year-old child, were given life sentences in political prison camps," the report reads.

The report, based on the accounts of defectors who fled the brutal regime between 2007 and 2020, also documented the tales of other Christians who have been imprisoned or have faced the death penalty under the reign of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un.

Open Doors USA, a non-governmental organization that documents the persecution of Christians worldwide, estimates that there are around 400,000 Christians in North Korea -- just 1.5% of the national population -- of which an estimated 70,000 are in "horrendous" prison camps.

The North Korean government also particularly targets Shamanism and Cheondoism, also known as Cheondogyo, a modern religious movement based on a 19th-century Korean neo-Confucian movement.

"The government ruled by the Kim family views Christians as the most dangerous political class of people, and the persecution is violent and intense," according to Open Doors.

"North Korean parents often hide their faith from their children. Churches of more than a few people are non-existent and most worship is done as secretly as possible."

The State Department said in its report that there are a small number of registered religious institutions that include churches but that they operate "under tight state control" and are mostly "showpieces" for foreigners visiting the exclusive country.

The punishments for religious practices largely fall under two provisions in the country's legal code, one which makes it illegal to possess or distribute media "that reflect decadent, carnal, or foul contents" and another that bans "superstitious activities in exchange for money and goods."

"There were reports the government continued to execute, torture, arrest, and physically abuse individuals engaged in almost any religious activities," the report reads.

The COVID-19 pandemic also exacerbated the problems faced by Christians and people of other faiths in North Korea, a dominantly atheist country, according to U.S. officials.

It's a communist country, which the reporter has managed to avoid writing in this entire report.

Border restrictions levied during the pandemic resulted in "further reductions in the flow of escapees" which has made it difficult for the world to grasp the extent of the problems within North Korea.

The State Department report cited another report from 2021 released by Korea Future, a non-profit organization whose mission is to investigate and document human rights violations in North Korea.

According to that report, women and girls made up more than 70% of victims of religious persecution in North Korea.

"[Officials] worked us hard without feeding us properly," one victim said.

"I suffered from malnutrition and was sure I would not survive. I kept having diarrhea, even when I only drank water, and I weighed just 35 kilograms [77 pounds]. Today I weigh 60 kilograms [132 pounds], so I was like a skeleton back then."

The report came as Jung Young-lim, a North Korean official, issued a statement praising the Arab League of Nations for considering "taking joint action to reject foreign interference in the region" which the regime believes shows the "catastrophic consequences" of the "U.S.-driven Arab Spring" in 2011.

While it may be news, or even considered 'fake news' that the USA was behind the Arab Spring initiative, there is certainly an element of truth to it.

The Pew Research Center estimated in 2011 that the population of Muslims in North Korea was just around 3,000. There is only one mosque in North Korea.

Raped Women in North Korea Prison Camps Executed

Some of the gruesome details below seem too horrible to be true.

North Korea is a godless country so spectacular evil is certainly possible.

However, as the USA gears up for a military assault on the paranoid country,

stories of horrific abuse of women and children are almost

certainly likely to increase. The USA needs a moral excuse!

By Elizabeth Shim  

North Korean women in political prison camps are frequent victims of sexual assault and secret executions, according to recent defector testimony. File Photo by How Hwee Young/EPA

UPI -- Women who are raped in North Korean prison camps are executed and prisoners are frequently stoned to death before their families, according to recent testimonies from defectors in South Korea.

The defectors, who provided their statements to South Korea's Unification Media Group, described in graphic detail the torment prisoners face every day while serving sentences for political crimes, South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo reported Tuesday.

Park Ju-yong, 29, a defector who grew up in a North Korean prison camp for more than two decades, said raped women who become pregnant are taken away and secretly killed by guards.

The women are usually victims of prison guards who frequently abuse their power and sexually assault the women who, in return for sexual favors, are given a lighter workload in the prison camps, Park said.

After giving birth, women are not only executed, their newborn babies are fed to guard dogs.

The guards are ultimately dismissed from the camps as punishment.

Park, who said he was born in "Concentration Camp 21," was transferred to Pukchang concentration camp a year after his birth.

Park was sentenced at a young age because an uncle was charged with a political crime.

The defector said he witnessed public executions where family members were required to stone a relative to death, according to the Donga.

Executions also involved "thousands of stones," or prison-wide involvement with prisoners returning to a line and engaging in repeated stoning.

Prisoners would be threatened with execution if they did not comply.

"People would throw their rocks hard. Each time the rock would hit the victim, their bodies would burst with blood," the defector said in his statement.

"Their flesh would fall off until you could see their bones, and they would die without execution by gun," he added.

Park also said North Korean society became "chaotic" after the death of founder Kim Il Sung.

During former leader Kim Jong Il's period of rule, executions escalated in the camp.

A second defector, Ahn Myeong-cheol, a former North Korean prison guard, confirmed camps have public and secret executions, and women are given "easier jobs" for sexual favors in prisons.

No Words in North Korea for 'Rape' or 'Sexual Harassment'

Not because it doesn't exist, but because
it is completely ignored

Multiple defectors say the absence of terminology exists

in a society where sexual offenses go unpunished

Young women in North Korea are helpless when it comes to sexually offensive behavior, according to defectors. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

By Elizabeth Shim

SEOUL, July 12 (UPI) -- There are no words to describe crimes such as rape and transgressions like sexual harassment in North Korea, according to defectors in the South.

New Focus International, a news service founded by a North Korean defector, interviewed resettled North Koreans who said they had "never heard of" terms like rape and sexual harassment until they arrived in the South.

The concepts don't really have a place in North Korea, according to the press report.

One defector identified by the surname Jang, originally from the North Korean border town of Musan, said North Korean security guards often tell women to "make do with their bodies" if they don't have money.

"They often joke that if women have nothing to give, they can at least give up their bodies," Jang told New Focus.

Security agents in North Korea who can wield power often call young women into their office to feel up their breasts.

Women are often helpless and cannot file complaints, Jang said.

"That is because accusing people in power of wrongdoing can undermine their own personal safety," the defector said.

Jang also witnessed a woman being sexually harassed by multiple North Korean soldiers in a privately operated bus.

When the woman raised her voice in protest, the soldiers started verbally attacking her and invited other soldiers to sexually humiliate her, Jang said.

Park Ok-kyung, a defector from the North Korean city of Hamhung, said she did not realize what sexual harassment was until she resettled in South Korea.

Park said when she first began her life in the South she was harassed sexually as she worked at a part-time job in a restaurant.

Two years later, she said she now could identify sexually offensive behavior.

North Korea declared gender equality in 1946 but defector testimonies show women are not being protected from abusive and violent behavior.

In March a female North Korean defector Kim Eun-mi testified that a group of North Korean soldiers recently gang-raped a North Korean woman crewmember on a train.