North Korea Portrays Christians as Blood Sucking Monsters, Murderers and Spies to Deter Faith cbn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cbn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
North Korea Severely Punishes Religious Freedom
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International Religious Freedom Senior Official Dan Nadel speaks at a news conference to announce the annual International Religious Freedom Report at the State Department in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2021.
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The United States continues to be “deeply concerned about [North Korea’s] wide-ranging human rights abuses, including severe restrictions on religious freedom,” said Senior State Department Official Daniel Nadel.
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The United States continues to be “deeply concerned about [North Korea’s] wide-ranging human rights abuses, including severe restrictions on religious freedom,” said Senior State Department Official Daniel Nadel.
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SEOUL The cold light of winter shines down on a hillside temple in Seoul. It gleams on the billowing red, yellow and blue robes of shaman Jeong Soon-deok, as she twirls in circles. It glints off the ceremonial knives, bells and fans she waves through the air.
The man standing before her in simple white robes is her newest initiate. Jeong s aim is to throw open the doors of the spirit world so the gods of sun, moon and mountains and the spirits of ancestors and children may enter him.
An estimated 50,000 shamanic ceremonies are held each year in greater Seoul, according to Kim Dong-kyu, a scholar of religion at Sogang University. Some South Koreans see shamanism which predates Buddhism and Christianity as a vibrant cultural treasure, while others consider it a primitive embarrassment to their modern, cosmopolitan society. But its appeal endures in North Korea, too, where it is illegal.
The ‘Most Dangerous Country’ to Be a Christian: North Korea and Its War on Faith
The “hermit kingdom” of North Korea has willfully walled itself into isolation, making it difficult for other free societies to know what is happening inside the secretive state sitting on the east coast of communist China.
It is often through defectors that the world gets glimpses inside a country ruled by a totalitarian regime, including the harrowing accounts of its citizens and people of faith being persecuted.
The Central Committee [of the Korean Workers’ Party] say that Christianity is like opium or drugs and have harshly punished [Christians]. Now that Falun Gong is here, people are watching closely to see how the authorities will respond.
What Happened to Lim Ji-hyun, the North Korean Defector? marieclaire.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from marieclaire.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.