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Exiles witness collusion between North Korea and China over persecution of Christians

January 6, 2021

Persecution of Christians in North Korea: the Korea Future Initiative report confirms that North Korea is arguably the most dangerous place on earth for Christians, and its report now reveals that another major persecutor of Christians, China, is aiding and abetting this persecution in North Korea.

The U.S. State Department has placed North Korea on its list of countries that violate religious freedom every year since 2001.

There is or was at least one Orthodox parish in North Korea, the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Pyongyang, but its present status is unclear. Please continue to beseech Almighty God for peace and security for the Orthodox Christians and all Christians of North Korea.

For more ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in North Korea, see here.

“Exiles witness collusion between North Korea and China over persecution of Christians,” Korea Future Initiative, January 5, 2021:

Collusion between the communist authorities in North Korea and neighbouring China over the arrest, punishment and forced repatriation of Christians has been described by exiles interviewed by the London-based campaign group, Korea Future Initiative (KFI).

Investigators documented the torture and abuse of North Koreans in China, which took place before they were deported back to their home country where they were tortured further and sent to brutal “re-education” camps for the “crime” of their Christian faith. The testimonies affirm rumours that the Chinese government cooperates with North Korean authorities to forcibly repatriate those who cross the border.

The KFI report describes an instance when a North Korean Christian was abducted in China by three Chinese men and a North Korean woman and driven to the Chinese border on the Amnok River (also known as Yalu River). The Christian was bundled into a boat by at least four waiting North Korean security agents and taken across the river to North Korea for interrogation.

In another case, the child of an interviewee was imprisoned in a North Korean political prison camp because their parent attended a church in China. The parent was later informed that their child had died at the camp.

Interrogators were also documented as using information sourced from informants in China. One Christian forcibly returned to North Korea was shown a map of the Chinese city they had lived in and asked by their interrogator, “Is there not a church not too far from where you lived?” In another case, a victim was interrogated for more than four months in a North Korea detention centre based on information submitted by China’s Ministry of Public Security in their deportation notes…