{"id":17823,"date":"2023-06-06T14:05:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T18:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=17823"},"modified":"2023-06-06T14:05:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T18:05:58","slug":"north-korean-toddler-receives-life-sentence-after-parents-discovered-with-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/06\/north-korean-toddler-receives-life-sentence-after-parents-discovered-with-bible","title":{"rendered":"North Korean Toddler Receives Life Sentence After Parents Discovered With Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

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North Korean officials sentenced a two-year-old and his entire family to live in a political prison. The finding comes from a <\/span>report<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on religious persecution in North Korea, where over 70,000 Christians and members of other faiths are currently imprisoned. Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, the United Nation\u2019s Secretary General, blasted the finding. \u201cThe right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion [in the DPRK] also continues to be denied, with no alternative belief systems tolerated by the authorities,\u201d he\u00a0<\/span>said.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The North Korean regime has kept tight control on any religious affiliations, with any churches or religious institutions kept in line by the regime. The COVID-19 pandemic has also made finding exact numbers extremely difficult. The arrest of the 2-year-old and his family over ownership of a Bible reportedly occurred in 2009, which means the 2-year-old could now be 16 years old and still living in a prison camp.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Open Doors ranks North Korea as the worst place to be a Christian. \u201cChristians have absolutely no freedom\u2026 It is almost impossible for believers to gather or meet to worship. Those who dare to meet must do so in utmost secrecy \u2014 and at enormous risk,\u201d the <\/span>group stated<\/span><\/a>. \u201cThe government ruled by the Kim family views Christians as the most dangerous political class of people, and the persecution is violent and intense. 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.\u201d The group estimates there are around 400,000 Christians in North Korea. According to the report, \u201cthe government continued to execute, torture, arrest, and physically abuse individuals engaged in almost any religious activities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The information for the report comes from North Korean defectors from 2007 to 2020. Detractors detailed horrific treatment, including starvation and sexual assault. 70% of victims of religious persecution were women and girls. According to one victim, \u201c[Officials] worked us hard without feeding us properly. 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.\u201d Prominent North Korean defector,\u00a0<\/span>Yeonmi Park<\/span><\/a>, has often spoken out about the atrocities committed against North Korean citizens by the regime. \u201cIn North Korea,\u201d she said, \u201cseeing dying people is like looking at a tree. That\u2019s how common it is. In North Korea, we don\u2019t even have a concept of love. The only love that North Korean people are allowed to know is the love for the dictator. \u2026 Until my father passed away, he never told me he loved me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korean officials sentenced a two-year-old and his entire family to live in a political prison. The finding comes from a report\u00a0on religious persecution in North Korea, where over 70,000 Christians and members of other faiths are currently imprisoned. Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, the United Nation\u2019s Secretary General, blasted the finding. \u201cThe right to freedom of thought,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":16947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNorth Korean Toddler Receives Life Sentence After Parents Discovered With Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A North Korean toddler is sentenced to prison after finding a Bible.\" \/>\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\/2023\/06\/north-korean-toddler-receives-life-sentence-after-parents-discovered-with-bible\" 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