Religious Persecution In North Korea

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THE RISE IN LEVELS OF PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

Christianity as a religion used to operate from a point of power or privilege during the European colonial era in most of the regions in the world. When the colonial era came to an end, the Christians became exposed or subject to persecution in much of the world. This becomes more evident when missionaries seek to win people to Christ. The adherents of other religions who are threatened by conversion will fight back. Moreau, Corwin and McGee (2005, 309) claim that religious persecution is on the rise, with little evidence that the trend will change anytime soon. It is estimated that between the first century and 1900 a total of twenty four million martyrs were killed whereas between 1900
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Persecution of Christians started as far back as 1910 when Japan invaded Korea. It has since spilled into the 21st century. North Korea has a population of 23.99 million people as reported by Mandryk (2010, 57). Only 1.5% are Christians and a further 1% of evangelised people. A total of 59.6% people are unevangelised. According to Open Doors, in the booklet, Pray for Asia 2014, North Korea is number one persecutor of Christians today and is the one with the largest number of unreligious people in Asia, 69% followed by China with 44%. In May 2010 a group of 23 Christians was discovered and three of them were publicly executed whereas the other twenty of them disappeared in the infamous camp Yodok. One of the camp survivors related how they worked so hard while in prison. Only 1% of the total population of 23.99 million are adherent Christians who live under fear of being discovered. In a situation like that it is difficult to find many missionaries who would like to risk their lives. Nevertheless, North Korea cannot stop the will of God for ever to fail the Great …show more content…
India has a population of 1.2 billion people, says the booklet Pray for Asia 2014. The population of Christians in the whole country is 6.3% and a further 2.2.% is evangelized. A total of 45% of the population is not evangelized says Mandryk (2010,57). The growth of the Christian church in India has been slow even though the constitution of the country provides full religious freedom of worship and witness. However, the rise of Hundutva extremism resulted in a hate campaign against Muslim and Christianity especially towards the end of the 20th century. The rise of the hate campaign against Christianity has since spilled into the 21st century. Even though Christianity contributed much to the country through the Catholic Church, Christianity as a whole is regarded as a foreign religion from the Western countries. The practice in India against Christianity is a replica of what happens in Nepal. However, Nepal becomes worse in that foreigners who are found practicing Christianity will straight away face