By Father Philippe Blot
Father Philippe Blot, who belongs to the
congregation of Paris priests committed to serve in foreign missions, has
visited North Korea on several occasions, taking considerable risks. He spoke
late last month at Notre Dame Cathedral, during the “Night of the Witnesses,”
an initiative of the French office of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Recently, I was able
to travel to North Korea and, despite the constant surveillance by the police,
I was able to verify the truth of various reports and hear numerous witness
stories from North Korean refugees.
First of all in the
hospitals: the situation is critical—no antibiotics, no dressings, not even any
soap. To give you just one example, instead of bottles of serum for the
transfusions, they use beer bottles filled with boiled sugar water!
I was able to visit
some schools. They illustrate the chronic malnutrition of the entire
population—with the exception of the apparatchiks of the regime of course! One
needs to know that a North Korean child, aged seven, measures on average 8
inches less and weighs 22 pounds less than a child in South Korea.
The refugees [I met in
South Korea] were unanimous in telling me that in North Korea, “you have to
bribe some member of the party or of the army in order to obtain basic
necessities.” Hence corruption is the order of the day.
I was surprised not to
see any handicapped people. The truth is that the North Korean regime, racist
and eugenicist, is obsessed with the notion of racial purity in which those
designated “abnormal” have no part. Consequently they are expelled from the
major cities.
North Korea is a
country so closed that no one can enter or move around without a visa— “including
God,” as the refugees add with a touch of black humor. The two principal
pillars of the repression are, on the one hand, total control over all the
movements of the population, and on the other, enforcing complete ignorance
about the outside world.
North Korean refugees
who have succeeded in escaping discover to their astonishment a reality that is
totally different from what they have been told ever since birth.
They describe all the
unbridled Marxist propaganda inflicted on the people in order to make them
zombies, submissive to the Communist Party. The dictator is presented as a
veritable “god,” an idea unfailingly promoted in every speech, in all the
teaching, all the information.
The Kim dynasty is the
object of a frenetic propaganda effort, with its 30,000 giant statues and
portraits in every town and village and it slogans inscribed on vast billboards
on every street and road.
North Koreans are
taught to spy on their neighbors and colleagues and denounce one another for
any failing in their duty towards the “Great Leader.” After the arrest of the
transgressor, the whole neighborhood and the family are rounded up in order to
criticize the transgressions of the supposed delinquent. Then he is either
deported, or everybody witnesses his execution.
Many thousands of
Christians are languishing in these deportation camps. Eyewitness reports and
the observations of Western satellites allow for an estimate the number of
persons detained in these veritable concentration camps—anywhere between
100,000 and 200,000 individuals.
The brutality of the
camp guards is the daily bread of these prisoners, who work 16 hours a day,
suffer atrocious torture, to say nothing of the public executions of those
deemed to have been recalcitrant.
Among these “political
prisoners” those who suffer the worst treatment are the Christians, since they
are regarded as spies, as “anti-revolutionaries of the first class.”
According to the
regime there are around 13,000 of them, but according to humanitarian organizations
there are 20,000 to 40,000. They are singled out for the cruelest treatments of
all—they are crucified, hanged from bridges or trees, drowned, or burnt alive.
Some forms of torture are too horrible for words.
The rulers of North
Korea have banished all forms of religion, particularly Christianity and
Buddhism—because, according to Marxism, religion is the “opium of the people.”
North Koreans do not know what a Bible is, nor consequently who God is.
A few years ago, with
great fanfare of propaganda, the government opened a Catholic church, a
Protestant temple, and an Orthodox church in the capital—but of course they are
nothing but mere showpieces!
Yet despite all this,
there is an underground Church in North Korea, which is subject to continued
persecution. North Korean refugees confirm that they have seen neighbors
arrested for praying, at home or in a secret place.
Some information does
manage to filter through; for example, two years ago, a pregnant woman aged 33
was arrested in possession of 20 Bibles. She was beaten severely, then hung by
her feet in public.
In May 2010, some 20
Christians were arrested; they were part of a clandestine Church. Three of them
were immediately put to death and the rest were deported.
It is thought that since
1995 at least 5,000 Christians have been executed, solely because they were
praying secretly or distributing Bibles.
Many North Koreans
have become Christians thanks to the presence of foreign missionaries on the
border. It is also known that some American and Canadian pastors of Korean
origin are currently imprisoned in the political prisoners’ camps for having
helped the refugees.
Refugees, when caught,
risk being forcibly repatriated—which means prison, torture, the camps and
death. If they are not repatriated, they risk falling into the hands of
criminal organizations which traffic in human organs.
Women and young girls
risk being kidnapped by gangs and sold to peasants or, still worse, to brothel
owners. A young Korean girl can be sold for $800-$1200.
And so, as a
missionary and as a Catholic priest, I am speaking here on behalf of all those
Koreans who for more than 60 years have been living the longest Way of the
Cross in human history.
I speak on behalf of
those who have had an eye torn out, or another organ—without anesthetics—so
that they can be transplanted into rich Chinese, Japanese or others! I am
speaking on behalf of all those North Koreans who are victims of the slave
traders!
The attempts by these
thousands of men, women and children to flee are a fact of major importance,
and we need to emphasize the political and diplomatic aspects of it.
Unfortunately, the
countries closest to North Korea, and also those further afield in Europe or
America, are demanding no more than a few changes, in the name of « human
rights », without actually challenging the status quo – seemingly for the
sake of « maintaining international relations », they tell us – in
reality to guarantee a « peace of compromise ». In effect they are
postponing indefinitely the liberation of North Korea, and hence also the
reunification of the country.
In conclusion,
calculating things on a strictly geopolitical basis, the 21 million North
Koreans risk having to wait a long time before seeing any radical improvement in
their lot… Barring an intervention of God, that is, something we pray for
ardently every day for this crucified people.
Merciful Lord Jesus,
I beg you to deliver
our North Korean brothers and sisters from the chains that have held them
captive now for over 70 years already.
Turn your loving gaze
upon this suffering people …
Teach peace to the
Korean nation, cut in half, north from south, by a fratricidal war. Help us to
contribute to reconciliation and do not let us be carried away by despair.
Good Shepherd, reunite
in your arms all our North Korean brothers and sisters,
one by one.
Envelop them in your
tender saving love.
May Our Lady of Fatima
bring down the wall of communism
and help them to
discover the freedom and joy of living as children of God.
With picture of
monument honoring founding of country's communist party (top); party propaganda
billboard (© ACN)
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the
Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports
the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.
ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul
II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work
in over 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including
providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church
buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since
the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed
worldwide.
For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org or call
718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard
Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.
www.churchinneed.org
