Right-wing pastor and religious-right activist E.W. Jackson said on his “The Awakening” radio program last week that he can see no discernible difference between American progressives and the totalitarian regime in North Korea.

Jackson has been reading “The Aquariums of Pyongyang,” the story of a man who spent a decade in North Korean prison camp, which inspired him to declare that he doesn’t “see any difference whatsoever in substance” between the North Korean regime and liberals in the U.S.

“They are interested in hurting people,” Jackson said. “We Christians are not interested in putting people in jail because they don’t agree with us. We’re not interested in destroying people’s lives because they don’t agree with us. We’re interested in praying for them and ultimately persuading them and trusting that God will touch their hearts and they’ll see the light. We know that God loves them and so do we.”

“The left doesn’t have any such Christian compunctions,” he continued. “They’d just as soon see us die and spit on us as they walk over us.”