The US government on Tuesday released chilling interviews with North Korean refugees who witnessed bloody executions of religious believers, to highlight suppression of religious freedom in the hardline communist state.
Children as young as fourth graders were assembled to witness the punishment, according to the interviews contained in a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Another refugee related an incident in which two people were shot dead by the North Korean authorities because they were caught with bibles, according to the independent government agency that monitors freedom of religion abroad and gives recommendations to the US president.
PHOTO: AFP
One of the 40 North Korean refugees interviewed -- none of whom were named -- said "I saw an old man and his daughter executed because the daughter had dropped a Bible while washing clothes."
"Seven police [personnel] fired three shots each into the two victims, who had been tied to stakes a few meters from the `trial' area," the report quoted a refugee as saying.
"The force of the rifle shots, fired from 15m away, caused blood and brain matter to be blown out of their heads," according to the commission's account.
Another refugee said, "I witnessed the execution of a [Christian] pastor, two chon-do-sa [assistant pastors] and two elders [lay church officials who help lead the congregation]."
The five, accused of being "Protestant spies" and who refused to abandon their religious beliefs, were bound hand and foot and made to lie down before being crushed by a huge steam roller, the report said.
Some of their fellow parishioners assembled to watch the execution "cried, screamed out or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steam roller."
David Hawk, a human rights expert who prepared the report, said the accounts of the refugees, most of whom were in their early to mid-30s, were based on experiences before 2003.
North Korea was among eight countries blacklisted last week as violators of religious freedom by the US State Department, which is involved in multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons drive.
The US says North Korea should improve its human-rights record as part of any move by Washington to normalize ties with the Stalinist state.
In the report released on Tuesday, the North Korean refugees offered trenchant testimony on the role and character of the Kim Jong-il government and the extent to which it controls the thoughts and beliefs of the North Korean people.
"Having faith in God is an act of espionage," one of them said.
Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia who was among legislators at the report's launching in Congress, urged US President George W. Bush to protest China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees who allegedly faced severe punishment on their return home.
North Korea blew up sections of roads in its own territory that are part of links once used to connect the southern part of the peninsula with the north, in a show of defiance after it accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang. North Korea detonated bombs north of its eastern and western borders at around noon yesterday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. South Korea’s military later fired off warning shots within its border, said the JCS, which also confirmed there were no reports of damage in South Korea from the detonations. A video released by the South Korean
It is usually a serene two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan’s famously efficient bullet train, but on Saturday, the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror. Organizers of the adrenaline-filled trip, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the world’s first haunted house experience on a running Shinkansen. On board one chartered car of the Shinkansen, about 40 thrill-seekers were ready to brave an encounter with the living dead between Tokyo and the western metropolis of Osaka. The eerie experience was inspired by the hit 2016 South Korean action-horror movie Train to Busan, in which a father and
A member of chart-topping K-pop group NewJeans yesterday tearfully testified to South Korean lawmakers as part of an inquiry into workplace harassment, amid a boardroom drama over her super producer. In recent years, South Korea’s K-pop industry has become a global juggernaut powered by the success of groups like BTS, but domestically it is known for imposing strict standards and controls on fledgling stars. Rising K-pop idols are expected to adhere to their powerful agency’s behavior and appearance guidelines, with many stars describing receiving extreme backlash from fans over perceived mistakes in their personal lives, for example dating. Hanni, 20, who is
IRANIAN THREATS: Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami said that it would be a ‘mistake’ for Israel to attack Iran and if it did ‘we will strike you again painfully’ Israel yesterday bombed a Syrian coastal city, while the US conducted multiple strikes on targets in Yemen nearly a month into Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the so-called “axis of resistance” led by Iran, which on Oct. 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel. Israel has vowed to retaliate for the strike. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami yesterday said in a speech that Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets. “If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in