North Korea Publicly Executes Christian Woman for Distributing Bible

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman last month for distributing the Bible, which is banned in the communist nation, South Korean activists said Friday.

I'm a Christian, so this outrages me. But personally, I think that it is outrageous for ANYONE to be executed for spreading a peaceful faith, whether no matter what it is. People in this country need something to live for man, and having a type of faith system makes it so much easier on their lives; whether or not that faith system is the one I believe in.

On Thursday, an annual report from a state-run South Korean think tank on human rights in the North said that public executions, though dropping in number in recent years, were still carried out for crimes ranging from murder to circulating foreign movies.

North Korea claims to guarantee freedom of religion for its 24 million people but in reality severely restricts religious observances. The cult of personality surrounding national founder Kim Il Sung and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, is a virtual state religion.

The government has authorized four state churches, one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox, but they cater to foreigners and ordinary North Koreans cannot attend. However, defectors and activists say more than 30,000 North Koreans are believed to practice Christianity secretly.

The U.S. State Department reported last year that "genuine religious freedom does not exist" in North Korea.

"North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime," Do Hee-youn, a leading activist, told reporters, claiming public executions, arrest and detention of North Koreans are prevalent.

Full article here: www.foxnews.com...

You had me till you said Christianity was a peaceful faith...
It is sad though.

Surely that's not true?
Why go after one poor woman when there is a much bigger target?

Seoul has one of the biggest Christian churches in the world
Yoido Full Gospel Church

Originally posted by tator3
You had me till you said Christianity was a peaceful faith...
It is sad though.

Your just looking for an argument with a statement like that. True followers of Christ are peaceful. And so are Buddhist. Anyone claiming anything else is misinformed or just telling lies due to fear and misunderstanding.

OK I bit...Now in regards to the OP

This is disturbing. It won't be long before believers will be hated by all the people of the earth. It has begun. Not surprising at all to me. God be with us.

Peaceful faith? do y'all need a history lesson or what?

Anyway, this is a good example that some people just don't have the ear to hear, and probably should be left alone.

Sometimes respecting a country as a sovereign nation means to not but into their religious (or in this case non religious) beliefs.

Ill have to go with North Korea here. They have laws against this sort of thing and this lady broke them. She got the punishment that N. Korea felt was justified by her actions.

We might feel they are extreme, just a tad, but when one is in a country that forbids such things it's probably a good idea to not do that.

Originally posted by whatukno
Peaceful faith?

do y'all need a history lesson or what?

Let me guess, you're going to bring up something the Catholics did?

Originally posted by whatukno
Anyway, this is a good example that some people just don't have the ear to hear, and probably should be left alone.

Sometimes respecting a country as a sovereign nation means to not but into their religious (or in this case non religious) beliefs.

Ill have to go with North Korea here. They have laws against this sort of thing and this lady broke them. She got the punishment that N. Korea felt was justified by her actions.

So then how do they let slide Pastor Yonggi Cho's Christian church with almost 1 million members...in Seoul.

reply to post by the siren

Let me guess, you're going to bring up something the Catholics did?

Or I could remind you of the Salem Witch Trials.

So then how do they let slide Pastor Yonggi Cho's Christian church with almost 1 million members...in Seoul.

Seoul is in SOUTH Korea. Not NORTH Korea. There is a Big Difference between the two... Never mind.

[edit on 7/25/2009 by whatukno]

Originally posted by whatukno

Or I could remind you of the Salem Witch Trials.

Being South African, my American history is not very good, but so far reading that link you posted, I haven't found any wrong doing on the part of the church. I'll continue reading.

Originally posted by whatukno
Seoul is in SOUTH Korea. Not NORTH Korea. There is a Big Difference between the two... Never mind.

My bad. The first line (the bold one) of the article says SEOUL, South Korea. This is what happens when one skim reads.

reply to post by the siren



The article says South Korea because the news is being broadcasted to us out of there, it can't come out of North Korea for obvious reasons.

reply to post by whatukno


Alright, I'm still reading, but so far I've found out that the minster was a Puritan.

Because the Puritans were under the influence of radicals critical of Zwingli in Zurich and Calvin in Geneva, they seldom cooperated with Presbyterians in England. Instead, many advocated for separation from all other Christians, in favor of gathered churches under autonomous Puritan control

Source : Wikipedia

Sounds like that particular denomination doesn't get along with most Christians

reply to post by the siren

My bad. The first line (the bold one) of the article says SEOUL, South Korea. This is what happens when one skim reads.

It's hard for journalists to get into North Korea in most cases. And a story like this is even harder to get out. North Korea is not a nice place to be. It's still classified as one of the most dangerous spots in the world. The DMZ is a hotbed of hostility between the North Koreans and the South. With UN and US troops stationed in the middle of it all.

Originally posted by whatukno
It's hard for journalists to get into North Korea in most cases. And a story like this is even harder to get out. North Korea is not a nice place to be. It's still classified as one of the most dangerous spots in the world. The DMZ is a hotbed of hostility between the North Koreans and the South. With UN and US troops stationed in the middle of it all.

Having been enlightened by you regarding the state of affairs in North Korea, I now think that woman was somewhat brave and somewhat foolish.

Regarding Salem Witch Trials...
According to wikipedia, not only were Protestants opposed to the Puritan belief that the church should be allowed to administer capital punishment, but there seems to be an ulterior motive apart from religion entirely...
It seems that most of the witches prosecuted were single (or recently widowed) and owned land.

According to the law of the time, upon the owner's death, title to the land would revert to the previous owner, or (if no previous owner could be determined) to the Church.[citation needed] This made witch-hunting an easy (if exceptionally cruel) method of regaining a profitable piece of arable land.

So it would seem that the real reason behind the witch trials could have been greed on the part of the Puritan church.
Considering the Bible says that love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10), the Puritans don't sound very Christian to me.

reply to post by the siren


But the puritans were christian, just another sect of Christianity. There are many sects in religions and so to streamline the process we tend to group them all together.

Like Islam is portrayed as one singular religion and all the Islamic extremists are thought of as alike but there are at least 4 sects in Islam that people for the most part aren't aware of.

* Ahmadiyya
* Shi'a
* Sufism
* Sunni

Originally posted by whatukno
reply to post by the siren

 

But the puritans were christian, just another sect of Christianity. There are many sects in religions and so to streamline the process we tend to group them all together.

Like Islam is portrayed as one singular religion and all the Islamic extremists are thought of as alike but there are at least 4 sects in Islam that people for the most part aren't aware of.

* Ahmadiyya
* Shi'a
* Sufism
* Sunni

You're right, I wasn't aware of the 4 sects.

But to be fair...as Christians we all use the same Bible, and judging from everything Christ did and said, he would not have condoned burning of witches. So even though puritans may say they are Christian, their actions are un-Christ-like.

Then of course, to play the devils advocate, most of us Christians are not Christ-like...but we do at least strive to not do anything blatantly against his will.

Guess it takes an atheist to ask you all to stay on topic.

This is tragic and has no place in the modern world.

Alas, the poor woman won't be forgotten.

Shame on N korea for executing a woman for her belief.

RIP