NoKo's Christian Persecution

Today, as millions of Americans mark the start of the season celebrating Christ's birth by the religious ritual of going to the mall, William F. Buckley remindes us how difficult this world can be for Christians. His examples come from North Korea:

The report tells, among many other accounts, of a woman in her 20s who was washing clothes in a river. A fellow washerwoman saw a small Bible fall out of her basket and reported her to the authorities. She was executed by firing squad.

That martyr got off lightly. Nine years ago in South Pyongan province, a unit of the North Korean army was assigned the job of widening a highway connecting Pyongyang to the nearest seaport. Demolition of a house standing in the way revealed, hidden between two bricks, a Bible and a list of 25 names: a Christian pastor, two assistant pastors, two elders and 20 parishioners. The 25 were all detained and, later that month, brought to the road construction site, where spectators had been arranged in neat rows. The parishioners were grouped off to one side while the pastor, the assistant pastors and the elders were bound hand and foot and made to lie down in front of a steamroller. As if following a script written in early Roman history, they were told they could escape death by denying their faith and pledging to serve Dear Leader Kim Jong II and Great Leader Kim Il Sung. They chose death.

Buckley's primary source is Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps.

Evil always gets its due; but North Korea's evil is so profoundly awful and has hurt so many (and could hurt so many more through its nuclear program) that the world really needs to stand up to Kim Il Jong and tell him, "That's enough!"

h/t RCP