North Korea Still World’s Number One Persecutor of Christians

ICC Note: With 50,000 to 70,000 Christians believed to be locked away in horrific conditions at concentration camps around the country, North Korea remains indisputably the number one persecutor of Christians on earth today. Over the course of 2013 reports emerged of Christian missionaries killed traveling in and out of North Korea, of Christians executed in mass public executions, and of course of Kenneth Bae, the American missionary now detained for over a year. Around the world Christians must continue to pray for their brothers and sisters suffering so tremendously in the “Hermit Kingdom.”

1/8/2014 North Korea (Charisma) – For the 12th consecutive year. the hermit Communist country of North Korea remains the world’s most restrictive nation in which to practice Christianity, according to the Open Doors 2014 World Watch List (WWL).

However, a major trend the WWL tracked in 2013 was a marked increase in persecution for Christian communities in states that are commonly regarded as “failed.” A failed country is defined “as a weak state where social and political structures have collapsed to the point where government has little or no control.”

The top 10 countries where Christians faced the most pressure and violence in the 2013 reporting period of the 2014 WWL are North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen.

Overwhelmingly, the main engine driving persecution of Christians in 36 of the top 50 countries is Islamic extremism, with the most violent region being the states of the African Sahel belt (a semi-arid zone extending from Senegal on the Atlantic Ocean eastward to Sudan and the Red Sea), where a fifth of the world’s Christians meet one-seventh of the world’s Muslims in perilous proximity.

The WWL top 10 contains six failed states: Somalia (No. 2), Syria (No. 3), Iraq (No. 4), Afghanistan (No. 5), Pakistan (No. 8) and Yemen (No. 10). Another newly failed, war-torn state—the Central African Republic (CAR)—made the list for the first time at No. 16. Libya (No. 13) and Nigeria (No. 14) remain very high.

Each year the Open Doors WWL ranks the 50 worst countries in which to practice Christianity. This year the complete methodology of the Open Doors WWL is published for the first time. It was independently audited by the International Institute for Religious Freedom to help make the information gathering and calculation process more transparent.

Open Doors is an international ministry that has been supporting and strengthening persecuted Christians around the world for almost 60 years.

“The 2014 WWL is the most comprehensive study of the systematic persecution of Christians ever done. Often completely unaddressed in the West is the fact that Christians are the largest persecuted minority in the world,” says Open Doors USA President and CEO David Curry.

He continues, “Countries on the WWL, such as North Korea, Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East and North Africa are targeting Christians—imprisoning, punishing and even in some cases murdering people who choose to express privately or publicly their Christian faith. The 2014 WWL is a wake-up call to Americans to become more aware of these atrocities and restrictions on religious freedom.”

North Korea Remains Horrific Place for Christians

In no other country in the world are Christians so fiercely persecuted because of their faith than in North Korea. Like others in that country, Christians have to survive under one of the most oppressive regimes in contemporary times. They have to deal with corrupt officials, bad policies, natural disasters, diseases and hunger.

On top of that, they must hide their decision to follow Christ. Being caught with a Bible is grounds for execution or a lifelong political prison sentence. An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians live in concentration camps, prisons and prison-like circumstances under the regime of leader Kim Jong Un.

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