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By KWANG-TAE KIM
The Associated Press
Friday, July 24, 2009; 4:50 AM 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.
Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the
United States and organizing dissidents. She was executed in the
northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16,
according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korea
groups. Ri's parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison
camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, the report
said, citing unidentified documents it says were obtained from North
Korea. It showed a copy of Ri's North Korean government-issued photo ID. It is virtually impossible to verify such reports about secretive North
Korea, where the government tightly controls the lives of its citizens
and does not allow dissent. 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. The Investigative Commission On Crime Against Humanity also alleged in
its report that in March, North Korean security agents arrested Seo Kum
Ok, 30, another Christian, in a city near Ryongchon and tortured her.
The agents alleged she was attempting to spy on a nuclear site and hand
over the evidence to South Korea and the U.S. The report said it remains unclear whether she survived. Her husband was
also arrested and their two children disappeared, it said. The commission said it was seeking to try to take North Korean leader
Kim to the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against
humanity. Activists claim that such atrocities - including murder, kidnap, rape,
extermination of individuals in prison camps - cannot take place in
North Korea without Kim's knowledge or direction as he wields absolute
power. "Let's file a suit against Kim Jong Il to the International Criminal
Court," the activists chanted.
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