{"id":10419,"date":"2011-12-19T15:20:20","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T20:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=10419"},"modified":"2011-12-19T21:15:34","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T02:15:34","slug":"did-atheist-n-koreas-leaders-really-say-theyll-pray-for-deceased-tyrant-kim-jong-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/12\/did-atheist-n-koreas-leaders-really-say-theyll-pray-for-deceased-tyrant-kim-jong-il","title":{"rendered":"Did atheist N. Korea’s leaders really say they’ll “pray” for deceased tyrant Kim Jong-il?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With thousands of Christians in North Korean labor camps for refusing to deny their faith, it is nothing short of puzzling that the officially atheist nation has ordered\u00a0its 24 million citizens to\u00a0spend three minutes on Dec. 29, 2011 praying for late dictator\u00a0Kim Jong-il.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An official portrait of the late Kim Jong-il<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kim, 69, died of an apparent heart attack over the weekend. His was a brutal reign with reports of entire families being executed for the possession of a Bible in their home.<\/p>\n

So, why would his successors call for three minutes of prayer at the end of his official mourning period?<\/p>\n

CLICK to read article<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With thousands of Christians in North Korean labor camps for refusing to deny their faith, it is nothing short of puzzling that the officially atheist nation has ordered\u00a0its 24 million citizens to\u00a0spend three minutes on Dec. 29, 2011 praying for late dictator\u00a0Kim Jong-il. Kim, 69, died of an apparent heart attack over the weekend. His…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[674,100,8],"tags":[1905,1906,1904,2263],"class_list":["post-10419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheist","category-commentary","category-news","tag-kim-jong-il","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-north-korea","tag-persecuted-christians"],"yoast_head":"\nDid atheist N. Korea's leaders really say they'll "pray" for deceased tyrant Kim Jong-il?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/12\/did-atheist-n-koreas-leaders-really-say-theyll-pray-for-deceased-tyrant-kim-jong-il\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did atheist N. Korea's leaders really say they'll "pray" for deceased tyrant Kim Jong-il?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With thousands of Christians in North Korean labor camps for refusing to deny their faith, it is nothing short of puzzling that the officially atheist nation has ordered\u00a0its 24 million citizens to\u00a0spend three minutes on Dec. 29, 2011 praying for late dictator\u00a0Kim Jong-il. 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