N Korea's cruel denial of religious freedom

Every time it seems the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea is about to join the 'world community', the regime in Pyongyang reminds us of its criminal nature. A North Korean soldier recently shot and killed a South Korean tourist. Pyongyang naturally stonewalled Seoul's call for an investigation.

But most grotesque is what it does to its own people. North Koreans are starving again and Pyongyang is calling for food aid from abroad.

Aiding the regime in Pyongyang is more than a political problem. Defence Forum Foundation president Suzanne Scholte recently argued that 'North Koreans are by far the most persecuted people in the world'.

North Korean repression of religious liberty is particularly harsh. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has published a new report, 'A Prison Without Bars', based on interviews with refugees and former security personnel.

There was a thriving Christian community in northern Korea before the territory was occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of the second world war. However, explains the commission, 'independent religious practice is considered a direct political threat'.

The veritable collapse of North Korea's economy has only heightened the regime's fears. 'Contact in China with South Koreans or Korean-Americans, many of whom are associated with faith-based humanitarian relief efforts, is still deemed a more severely punishable political offence,' said the commission.

Indeed, it adds that 'religion is seen as the 'advance guard' of aggression' from America. It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that there is no religious freedom in North Korea.