Former North Korean Christian prisoner: “My bones were showing.”
Korea Future released a report on persecution in North Korea based on 237 interviews with survivors who escaped the country.
The report found that “Christianity claims fewer adherents, yet it is the most severely persecuted religious tradition within North Korea. Underground churches, consisting of small congregations, exist in North Korea, but are rare and subject to extreme levels of persecution.”
North Korean officials have tortured, starved, and killed many Christians. One survivor said, “I was extremely malnourished. My bones were showing. I kept praying in the cell because that was my only refuge. If I were to say anything about my religion, I would either have been executed . . . or transferred to a political prison camp for the remainder of my life.”
Hate crimes against European Christians skyrocketed
The Observatory on Intolerance Against Christians in Europe found hate crimes against Christians rose a whopping 70% last year.
Christians in Europe suffered 981 hate crimes in 2020, up from 578 in 2019.
Christians face discrimination from secular intolerance that seeks to eliminate Christianity from the public square, as well as from Islamic oppression that engages in more direct and even violent attacks.
The European countries where Christians faced the most discrimination are France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
