2-year-old among thousands jailed for 'being Christian' in North Korea, says US report

Those arrested are subjected to physical torture, forced labour and sexual violence, North Korean defectors say (Representative image)

North Korea has jailed up to 70,000 persons for ‘being Christians’ and a two-year-old is among those sentenced for life, the International Religious Freedom Report for 2022, released by the US State Department, has said.

The report, based on inputs received from non-governmental organisations and accounts shared by North Korean defectors, said those arrested have been subjected to physical torture, forced labour and sexual violence.

The US State Department, citing a document released by NGO Korea Future, said an "entire family, including a two-year-old child, was given life sentence" in 2009 after a Bible was found in their possession.

"The NGO Open Doors USA (ODUSA) estimated that authorities held 50,000 to 70,000 citizens in prison for being Christian. ODUSA stated that Christians experienced persecution that was 'violent and intense' and that 'life for Christians … is a constant cauldron of pressure; capture or death is only a mistake away'," the State Department's report added.

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While the North Korea’s constitution provides for freedom of religious belief, with the stipulation that religion "must not be used as a pretext for drawing in foreign forces or for harming the state", the country's authoritarian regime has persecuted those following a religion.

According to the Religious Characteristics of States Dataset Project, in 2015, 70.9 percent of the population was atheist, 11 percent Buddhist, 1.7 percent followed other religions and religious affiliations of 16.5 percent were unknown. United Nations' estimates place the number of Christians between 200,000 and 400,000, or approximately 1-2 percent of the population.

A small number of officially registered religious institutions, including churches, existed in the country, particularly in Pyongyang, although visitors reported that they operated under tight state control and functioned largely as showpieces for foreigners, the report said.

The ‘cult’ of Kim

Defectors claim that the state is pushing the ideology of "Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism", which involves an intense study of the "teachings" of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un, the report added.

Though the ideology makes no explicit claim that the leaders are gods, they are described as “extraordinary beings” capable of supernatural feats, it further said.

Another NGO, the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), released a white paper in October 2020 that listed 1,411 cases of religious persecution, including 126 killings and 94 disappearances.

NKDB also did a survey among 14,832 North Korean defectors who sought refuge in other countries and found 99.6 percent saying that religious activities were not tolerated in the country. Only 2 percent of interviewees said they had visited religious facilities.

The US and its several Western allies do not have diplomatic ties with North Korea. In December, Washington co-sponsored a resolution in the UN General Assembly that condemned Pyongyang’s “long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread, and gross violations of human rights”.