January 7, 2010
For the eighth year in a row, North Korea again ranked number one on the Open Doors annual World Watch List (WWL). The ongoing crackdown on Christians in Iran bumped that country from the third on the list to second.
Following North Korea and Iran this year are Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mauritania, Laos and Uzbekistan.
In North Korea, every religious activity is recognized as an insurrection to the North Korean socialist principles. In 2009, the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Il targeted Christians all over the country. That resulted in arrests, torture and killings.
According to reports, North Korean leaders are desperately trying to control society in order to eradicate all Christian activities. There are an estimated 200,000 North Koreans in political prisons, including about 50,000 Christians.
"Christians are the target of fierce government action, and once caught, are not regarded as human. Last year we had evidence that some were used as guinea pigs to test chemical and biological weapons," said a veteran North Korean watcher, who can't be identified due to security reasons.
Obtaining firsthand information about North Korea comes at great risk, and often high cost. The country has virtually no contact with the outside world beyond limited, government-supervised interaction with foreign businessman, and retrieved defectors face years in notorious black prisons and concentration camps.
"North Korea's severity and intensity of persecution far outstrips any country that we are able to measure persecution in," said Carl Moeller, president and CEO of Open Doors USA.
"There are about 50,000 Christians in a forced labor camp. If a Christian is caught with a Bible, for example, not only that person, but his wife, their children and their parents would also be thrown into a labor camp as well. Most likely, they would never come out again. Being underfed, under clothed in the middle of the Korean winter and worked literally to death.
"Every Christian in the country lives in constant fear of being discovered," he added.
Despite the persecution, however, the church continues to grow in North Korea as it does in many of the other countries on the WWL.
"We estimate though that the church is growing in North Korea, that there is a continuing revival in underground and unregistered churches and this reality as not escaped the notice of the authorities. They are continuing to root out the underground churches in North Korea," Moeller said.
Like other countries on the WWL, North Korea shows two important trends for Christians, Moeller said.
"The first thing that the watch list tells us is that things are definitely getting worse around the world for Christians," he said. "Literally, hundreds of millions of Christians face—if not outright and intense persecution—they may face harassment, oppression or restriction. As the study indicates, 70 percent of the world lives in places without religious liberties. We are talking about billions of people who live in a place where freedom of conscience and freedom of belief is not a given."
Moeller continued, "The second thing that it tells us is that in the very places where persecution is the hottest and growing stronger almost daily, the church is also growing. It is growing numerically as well as in its depth and strength. We hear repeated stories of individuals coming to faith in Christ through miraculous means, but also through ordinary means of people boldly witnessing in their neighborhoods or apartment complexes."
Iran, now ranked at number two on the list, moves up one position this year. Iran was previously at the number three spot on the World Watch List for many years, behind Saudi Arabia.
The wave of arrests of Christians in Iran, which started in 2008 continued even stronger during 2009, resulting in the arrest of at least 85 Christians. It is suspected that the arrests are a way for the Iranian government to distract attention from internal problems, including the domestic turmoil after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reports indicated that most of those arrested were mistreated in prison and that the turmoil and rioting continued throughout 2009.
