Religious Persecution in Hermit Kingdom

Fire of Liberty

I've been thinking for quite a bit lately about how weak folks like, Warren Christopher and Jimmy Carter look to the outside world when they advocate the almost religious devotion to soft-diplomacy when dealing with the likes of Iran and North Korea. Instead of taking the high ground and making a principled stand for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by calling for the elimination of these evil regimes, these "wise-men" of foreign policy favor a holding hands policy with some of the most vile dictators, which provides these dictators a longer leash on life thus allowing them to continue their acts of terror on the people who have the misfortune of being under the iron fist of the mullahs or Kim Jung Il. While Carter, Christopher and other devotees of diplomacy are getting apropos from the folks of the left and cold war-realists about their efforts to avoid conflict or continued "security," they seem to forget that the folks that they want to hold talks don't deserve the respect of nations like the US, what with their track record on human rights.

The most obvious violator of human rights that seems to be bailed out by these "princes of diplomacy" is the regime of Kim Jung Il which has made the condemnation, persecution, and murder of North Koreans who practice a religion other than the state mandated "Religion of Kim." Well the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has released a report titled "'Thank You, Father Kim Il Sung': Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in North Korea." If you want to truly understand the horrific nature of the Hermit Kingdom and its willingness to destroy a human life if for the cult-of-personality of Kim Jong Il, then this 128 page report is a good place to start. According to this article by Meghan Clyne at the New York Sun, the report provides the outside world with some examples of how the regime in North Korea is an incarnate of evil on earth. Here's one of the most startling examples of a regime that doesn't deserve to be recognized by this nation:

The study recounts, for example, how in November 1996 in North Korea's South Pyongan province, a unit of the North Korean army was tasked with widening a highway connecting Pyongyang to a nearby port city. While demolishing a vacant house, soldiers found in the basement, hidden between two bricks, a Bible and a list of 25 names. Among the list were individuals identified as a Christian pastor, two assistant pastors, two elders, and 20 parishioners who were identified by their occupations.

Hunted down at their workplaces by military police, the 25 Christians were rounded up and detained without any formal judicial procedure. Later that month, the parishioners and their clergy were brought to the road construction site, where spectators had been arranged in neat rows to observe the public execution of the pastor, assistant pastors, and elders. According to a report based on an eyewitness account, the five church leaders "were bound hand and foot and made to lie down in front of a steamroller," accused of subversion and of being Kiddokyo, or Protestant Christian, spies.

The 20 parishioners were detained near their clergy, and watched, along with the assembled audience, as the five Christian leaders were told they could escape death if they denied their faith and pledged to serve only Kim Jong Il and his father, the first dictator of communist Korea, Kim Il Sung. According to the eyewitness, the clergy remained silent.

For their steadfast belief, the Christians were executed. According to the report, "Some of the fellow parishioners assembled to watch the execution cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steamroller."

Maybe the folks that believe a hold dear to "peace at all costs" will take a double take on these regimes. Then again, Jimmy Carter did greet Kim Il Sung with open arms and even told the press that he had invited the former dictator to his church in Plains, GA. (He went even further by claiming that the father of the communist North Korea was a Christian, well even that seems to be a lie.) Put me in the regime change column.