The five, members of the same family, had gathered in a country house to read the Bible and pray. An informant alerted the police, who arrested them and sent them to labor camps, as has happened in similar cases in the past. Pyongyang claims to be an atheist country, but uses the term “Judas” to identify informers and traitors.
Seoul () – The North Korean authorities have arrested five Christians accused of having organized a clandestine prayer meeting. In a country where religions are prohibited, with a fierce communist-style dictatorship, only the cult of the Kim family -which has been in power for decades and is worshiped like gods- is allowed, and an accusation of this type implies sentencing to labor camps. These events occurred on April 30 in the village of Tongam, near Sunchin, in the province of Pyongan, which is located in the center of the country, but they only became known in the last few hours.
As reported by Radio Free Asia (RFA), the five belong to the same family and met on Sunday morning – as they used to do every weekend – in a country house to pray and deepen their reading of the Bible. However, an informant had denounced them and police officers arrested them.
“At the place where the meeting was taking place – says an anonymous source – the police seized dozens of Biblical pamphlets and arrested everyone present”. The five “were praying and reading the Bible among themselves,” the source continues, they had “gathered among relatives” and were calling on Jesus, and all of them “were arrested.” In similar events that occurred in the past, the arrested people were sent to re-education through labor camps, which are actually very harsh concentration camps.
Raids like this had already been carried out in the village of Tongam, especially in 2005 and even earlier, in 1997, during the dictatorship of Kim Jong-il, father of the current leader Kim Jong-un and successor to the founder, the ” eternal president” Kim Il-sung. On the other hand, this region has always had strong ties to Christianity and at one time there was a large church building that even survived the Japanese invasion in the early years of the last century that introduced Shintoism as the state religion.
North Korea is known for executing, torturing and physically mistreating people for their faith or religious activities and is one of 17 countries involved in “systematic, continuous and serious” violations of the cult practice, according to the 2023 report of the US Commission on Religious Liberty. Bibles and other religious materials are covertly smuggled across the Chinese border and distributed to underground Churches through a secret network. “The people arrested – the source concludes – despite the pressure they refused to renounce their faith.”
From North Korea also comes news of the widespread use of the word “Judas” to identify informers and traitors. In a country theoretically atheist and contrary to religions, the reference to the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, turning him over to the high priests, is curious. Proof of this is the story of a young woman who, in the most difficult moments of the Covid-19 pandemic, had confided in a friend that she wanted to flee to China when the borders were reopened. The young man reported her project to the authorities, who arrested and punished the young woman. The neighbors of the house and the inhabitants of the area began to call the traitor “modern Judas”.
A man from Pyongsong, in Pyongan province north of the capital, explains: “People who lack loyalty or backstab their friends are called ‘Judas’ and are looked down upon by everyone.” And even those who denounce “displacements or activities – he concludes – or even rude words, their colleagues also call them ‘Judas'”.
