Students jailed for reading Bible

A Christian ministry working with persecuted members of the church worldwide is launching a campaign seeking to have North Korean students who were caught reading the Bible freed from jail.

Officials with the Voice of the Martyrs said the North Korean government should release immediately the 10 college students in Ham Kyung Book Do Chung.

They were investigated and arrested, either for reading a Bible or watching a DVD about the Bible, the ministry said today.

According to Free North Korea Broadcasting, Mr. Jung, a former vice-president of GumRung Co. of the Rodong Dang Labor Organization Department, reported the situation.

He escaped to the relative freedom of China to avoid arrest by the National Security Agency of North Korea, and carried information about the situation with him.

"In March 2006, 200 Life Bibles and several hundred CDs were purchased in China and secretly placed in flour bags before being smuggled into North Korea," he reported. "This huge Bible smuggling case was headed by GumRung Co. employees who were influenced by Christianity in China and underground Christians in Nasun City."

He continued, "All the leaders have been arrested and are being severely tortured. If I am caught, I will be sent to a prison camp for political criminals. I didn't want to die in prison camp, so I escaped," he said.

The Free North Korea Broadcasting report added that Jung reported most of the students attended ChungJin College.

"The students shared the Bible and video CD with their friends. They also distributed the Bibles and video CDs to the other college towns," he said.

North Korean insiders whose identities are secret to keep them from additional danger have reported that even though being a Christian in North Korea is a crime, and routinely punished with a sentence to a prison camp, such repression is not having full success.

"The church is growing," said a "Brother Simon," an inside source who has provided information to Open Doors USA.

Detailed information from inside North Korea is hard to obtain, but WND previously reported on the escape of a North Korean man from the bondage of that nation's dictatorship, who reported many North Koreans believe dictator Kim Jong-Il actually is a god.

The Christian, now living in South Korea, was identified only as Mr. Kim. He told Voice of the Martyrs that Kim Jong-Il, and his late father Kim Il Sung, both are portrayed as gods.

"All North Koreans really believe that Kim Il Sung is a god. He [hid] the bad things he had done, to preserve his godlike status to the people. I think 70 to 80 percent of what is said about Kim Il Sung is similar to the Bible," he told the ministry.

Anecdotal evidence about the nation's persecution is readily available. For example, Camp 22, the nation's largest concentration camp, can hold up to 50,000 men, women and children accused of political "crimes," while reports of atrocities such as the rampant murder of babies born to inmates are supported by witnesses.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports, "No one enjoys luxury goods more than paramount leader Kim Jong-Il, who boasts the country's finest wine cellar with space for 10,000 bottles. … His annual purchases of Hennessy cognac reportedly total to $700,000, while the average North Korean earns the rough estimate equivalent of $900 per year."

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