"One woman who left her Bible at home was arrested and dragged to a threshing ground, and was publicly executed by a firing squad. When asked, "Why was she executed?' they replied, "Because she kept a Bible.' Her head, heart, and legs were tied up and she was shot to death."
" *** escaped to China and brought back a Bible with her. It seems that she was hiding it at her home. Her husband leaves the home often so their home was known to have a lot of people going in and out, but after word spread about her Bible, they became ruined. *** was taken by officials and was beaten severely and tortured to the extent that her lower body became paralyzed. She returned home half dead. But even after she finally recovered from that ordeal, she was taken to a detention center in Hamheung and died there."
Though South Korea is able to have the luxury of having lit crosses atop church steeples at night, just an hour drive away from Seoul exists "the country with the least religious freedom,' in which people are tortured for the simple reason that they own a Bible, or for the "sin' of meeting with a pastor.
The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights recently released a publication called "2014 North Korea's Religious Freedom White Paper." The Database Center has been releasing such publications in which it has been revealing the truth of the lack of religious freedom in North Korea by listening to testimonies of and gathering information from North Korean refugees since 2008.
North Korean citizens did not even know what "religious freedom' meant. When asked, "Are you able to freely practice your religion in North Korea?" 9,141 people out of 9,174 (99.6%) answered "No." To the question, "Are there any family worship services or churches that are approved by the government outside of Pyongyang?" 9,179 people out of 9,289 (98.8%) answered "No." Even the 1.2% who answered "yes," said that they have never witnessed such churches in person before.
Out of 8,728 people who received punishment for practicing their religion, 2.9% said that they were sentenced to hard labor, which is considered the lowest form of punishment; 11.7% were sentenced to a detention center; and 55% were sent to political prisoner camps, the most severe punishment.
Of the religious persecution cases that had been gathered until July of 2014, most (50.6%) were persecuted for actively practicing their religion, 23.9% were persecuted for possessing religious materials, and 4.8% were persecuted for coming into contact with a religious person. 17.6% of those who endured religious persecution died, 22.9% have been confirmed to be alive, and 59.5% have yet to be confirmed of their location or whether they are still alive or dead.
116 (1.2%) participants said that they had been a part of secret religious activity. 110 of them had escaped from North Korea. The Database Center conjectured that "it seems secret religious activity has been ongoing as of 2001."
"Of the immigrants that came into South Korea as of 2009, those who had participated in secret religious activity had been continuously increasing, but in 2012, the trend had regressed to a decreasing pattern. Recently, the number of refugees from North Korea in and of itself has been decreasing," the Database Center said.
388 (4.2%) said that they have seen a Bible, and of those who escaped after 2011, around 7.9% said that they had seen a Bible.
