The North Korea Human Rights Records Preservation House (Director: Yun Yeo-sang), affiliated with The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB; Board Chair - Park Jong-hun) published the “White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2015” (cover shown in photo) on September 10, publicizing cases of religious oppression of North Korean residents. Religious oppression in this instance means that the national authority systematically abuses or punishes individuals for believing in a certain religion or for possessing religious objects.
The NKDB’s integrated human rights database contains 1,165 reported incidents of punishment under the government’s system of religious oppression. The specific reasons for the oppression, in order of frequency, were: 595 for religious activities (51.1%), 277 for possession of religious objects (23.8%), 127 for spreading religion (10.9%), and 59 for contact with religious persons (5.0%). Religious objects included the Bible, cross shapes, and books, notebooks, or newspapers with religious contents.
Reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Click here for the original article in Korean
"White Paper on North Korea Human Rights 2015" Is Published
2015-09-14 15:49
