North Korea imprisoned 2 year-old for life after parents were caught with Bible

Kim Jong Un-led North Korean administration and its authorities have often features in global media for being stringent in their methods which also involves governing and determining almost every aspect of North korean subjects. It is no surprise that people of faith are condemned in North Korea. However, a recent US State Department report has revealed that people of various faith are granted death penalty in North Korea and their offspring are jailed for life. 

North Korea, according to the report, has jailed as many as 70,000 Christians. The State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2022 has found that among the thousands that have been jailed are people of various faiths. 

This also includes a child who was two years old when he was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment because his parents were found in possession of a Bible. 

Notably, North Korea officially maintains that they are an atheist state. Although its constitution guarantees free exercise of religion, provided that religious practice does not introduce foreign forces, harm the state, or harm the existing social order.

According to the report, the entire family, including a two-year-old, was sentenced to life in a political prison camp in 2009. 

Christians who have been imprisoned in these camps have described dire conditions and various forms of physical mistreatment. The report stated that the Ministry of State Security was responsible for 90% of documented human rights abuses against both Shamanic adherents and Christians.

The state department report noted that North Korean government persecutes individuals who engage in religious practices, possess religious items, have contact with religious persons, or share religious beliefs. 

Individuals who are persecuted may be arrested, detained, forced to work, tortured, denied a fair trial, deported, denied the right to life, or subjected to sexual violence.

A not for profit organisation Korea Future had in 2021 had documented abuse of religious freedom against women in the Kim Jong Un led country. The report, which interviewed 151 Christian women who were abused, found that the most common forms of abuse were arbitrary detention, torture, deportation, forced labor, and sexual violence.

Multiple people who had fled North Korea described textbooks that included sections on Christian missionaries. The textbooks listed a number of "evil deeds" that the missionaries were said to have committed, "including rape, blood-sucking, organ harvesting, murder, and espionage".

One defector told Korea Future that the government had also published graphic novels that depicted Christians luring children into churches and then taking them to the basement to draw their blood.

The United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations. In December, the United States joined other countries in cosponsoring a United Nations resolution that condemned North Korea's “long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread, and gross violations of human rights.”

The resolution also expressed "very serious concern" about abuses, including "in some instances summary executions of individuals exercising their freedom of opinion, expression, religion or belief."