The North Korean Democracy Network, which includes North Korean pro-democracy activists and exiles, said in its Internet newspaper ‘The Daily NK’, that the NSA set up at least one fake church in the border area with China consisting "of its security agents"
It quoted an unidentified source, involved in underground church work, as saying that "Some security agents disguise themselves as defectors and deliberately approach those Korean churches operating in China."
With money and Bibles received from these churches for missionary work in North Korea, "the agents establish a fake church" in North Korea to find Christians and "hunt down domestic underground churches connected to the churches in China," the source added.
BIBLES "WASTEPAPER"
"The received Bibles are used as wastepaper and taken to paper processing plants while the received money goes to the National Security Agency," said the source, adding he had learned about the practice from an NSA informant. "The agent who told me about the agency said the paper from Bibles is good for cigarette rolling paper."
He said "security agents operating the fake underground church make a decent living thanks to money they receive from Christian organizations." The source urged churches in South Korea and elsewhere to "tightly manage their supporting activities for underground churches and Christians of the North" as "their activities might end up enriching the security agents and causing harm to underground Christians."
Missionary work is considered a felony in North Korea and active Christians are either sent to what rights activists describe as "a political concentration camp" or executed in public. It was difficult to verify the information independently, although several other advocacy groups including Open Doors and Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) have earlier expressed concerns about reports of a crackdown on Christians.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Open Doors reported earlier this year that at least one million North Koreans, many of them Christians, are believed to be held in North Korea’s concentration camps, more than previously thought.
One of those reportedly arrested was a Christian missionary identified only as Mr. Cho by North Korean exiles. He was detained in the Dongrim area of North Pyongan Province along with his mother and two younger siblings. The remaining three family members apparently trembled in fear and eventually took their life by jumping from the Dongrim Waterfall on October 12.
In published remarks a spokesman of US-based mission group Voice Of the Martyrs (VOM), Todd Nettleton, said that despite the dangers, Christians continue to worship in North Korea. To avoid arrest North Korean Christians "gather together for Bible study or worship, they have to be careful…They form a small group of three to four people and cloak the windows of their meeting place," he said.
INTERNATIONAL CONCERN
The United States State Department has designated North Korea as one of its ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ because of religious rights violations and Open Doors said that for
a fifth year in a row, North Korea heads its World Watch List of countries seen as "the worst violators of religious rights for Christians."
North Korean officials have denied wring doing and say the people of North Korea enthusiastically support the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il.
North Korea’s Stalinist system of carrying out Communism is based on "total devotion" of the individual to an ideology promoted by the late leader Kim Il Sung and his successor and son, Kim Jong Il. Christianity is seen as a threat, several Christian and other observers have said.
