North Korean Dissident: Jihyun Park: -Churches are just «Show Churches»

Jihyun Park answering Jan-Aage Torp´s question (screenshot)

Sokeel Park and Jihyun Park at a recent think tank meeting in Civita (photo credits: Oslokirken)

In a meeting in the Civita think tank in Oslo recently, the North Korean dissident Jihyun Park answered candidly a question from Jan-Aage Torp about the religious freedom in the nation of her birth.

Jihyun Park, who has «no religion», lives in London, after fleeing from North Korea a couple of years ago, and was invited to the Civita thinktank in Oslo to speak about her experiences from North Korea. She was translated by Sokeel Park, who works for LINK.

Jihyun said: - There is no religious freedom whatsoever. From childhood, the population is subject to an intense ideological indoctrination. As a child, I was taught of the abuses of American missionaries in Korea in the former times. 

- Nowadays, some North Koreans come into contact with Christians in other countries, especially in China. If they return to North Korea, they are often severely persecuted, even executed, because they have been «contaminated». 

- Recently, I watched a tv documentary on BBC Panorama which presented a church in North Korea, just to convince the international community that there is religious freedom there. But that is simply «a show church». It does not represent a real church in any way or fashion, underscored the buddist Jihyun Park.

North Korea is «one of the worst countries in the world» for the persecution of Christians. With the exception of four official state-controlled churches in Pyongyang, Christians in North Korea face the risk of detention in the prison camps, severe torture and, in some cases, execution for practicing their religious beliefs. North Koreans suspected of having contact with South Korean or other foreign missionaries in China, and those caught in possession of a Bible, have been known to be executed, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.