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North Korea’s Kim Jung-un Forces Citizens to Celebrate Grandmother’s Birthday in Place of Christ’s Birth

  • Veronica Neffinger

    Veronica Neffinger wrote her first poem at age seven and went on to study English in college, focusing on 18th century literature. When she is not listening to baseball games, enjoying the…

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  • Updated Dec 27, 2016

North Korea is cracking down on Christians and anything to do with Christianity in any way it can. North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, issued a mandate stating that North Koreans must celebrate the birthday of his grandmother in place of the birth of Christ.

ChristianToday.com reports that Kim Jong-un’s grandmother, Kim Jong-suk, was born on Christmas Eve in 1919. She was a Communist activist and the wife of North Korea’s first dictator, Kim Il-sung.

She died in 1949 under mysterious circumstances and has since been known as the “Sacred Mother of the Revolution.”

Kim Jong-un has mandated that North Koreans pay their respects to his grandmother by visiting her tomb.

This celebration of Kim Jong-suk is also to take place instead of a Christmas celebration which is forbidden in North Korea.

Even though Christmas decorations and activities are forbidden in the country, some businesses in Pyongyang, the capital, have erected Christmas trees, although they were not decorated in order to draw less attention.

North Korea is number one on Open Doors 2016 World Watch List of countries where Christian persecution is the worst.

It is estimated that 70,000 Christians are imprisoned in the country for religious or political reasons.

 

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Publication date: December 27, 2016