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Thank You Father Kim Il Sung THANK YOU FATHER KIM IL SUNG: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF SEVERE VIOLATIONS OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, CONSCIENCE, AND RELIGION IN NORTH KOREA U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom November 2005 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Commissioners Michael Cromartie Chair Felice D. Gaer Nina Shea Vice Chairs Preeta D. Bansal Dr. Khaled M. Abou El Fadl Archbishop Charles J. Chaput Dr. Richard Land Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou Bishop Ricardo Ramirez Amb. John V. Hanford, III, ex officio Joseph R. Crapa Executive Director North Korea Study Team David Hawk Author and Lead Researcher Jae Chun Won, Research Manager Byung Lo (Philo) Kim, Researcher United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Staff Dwight N. Bashir, Policy Analyst Robert Blitt, Legal Policy Analyst Patricia Carley, Associate Director for Policy Catherine Cosman, Senior Policy Analyst David Dettoni, Deputy Director for Outreach Deborah DuCre, Receptionist Scott Flipse, Senior Policy Analyst Mark Hetfield, Director of International Refugee Issues Carmelita Hines, Director of Administration Anne Johnson, Director of Communications Christy Klaassen, Director of Government Affairs Mindy Larmore, Policy Analyst Jacqueline A. Mitchell, Executive Assistant Tina Ramirez, Research Assistant Allison Salyer, Government Affairs Assistant Tad Stahnke, Deputy Director for Policy Stephen R. Snow, Senior Policy Analyst Eileen A. Sullivan, Deputy Director of Communications The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom expresses its deep gratitude to the former North Koreans now residing in South Korea who took the time to relay to the Commission their perspectives on the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and their experiences in North Korea prior to fleeing to China. The Commission also expresses its gratitude to religious adherents in South Korea, Europe, and North America from a variety of faiths—Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, and Chondokyo—and to faith-based humanitarian aid workers who informed the Commission about their observations on policy and practice in the DPRK today. Finally, thanks go also to the Korean graduate students at Handong International Law School and Ashin University for conducting the interviews with the former North Koreans. THANK YOU FATHER KIM IL SUNG: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF SEVERE VIOLATIONS OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, CONSCIENCE, AND RELIGION IN NORTH KOREA TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 1 Findings 7 PART I 1. Introduction 13 2. Official North Korean Government Declarations on Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion or Belief 19 3. The Experience and Perspectives of 40 Former North Koreans 23 4. Persecution: Eyewitness Accounts 43 PART II 5. Systems of Thought, Values, and Belief in Korea Prior to Kim Il Sung’s Accession to Power in the North 49 6. The Suppressions (1945 – 1960): Three Phases in the Government’s Complete Suppression of Religion in North Korea 63 7. The Replacement: Juche, Kimilsungism, and the Monolithic Ideology System 73 PART III 8. Contemporary State Policy and Practice in North Korea 81 PART IV 9. Conclusions and Recommendations: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 95 APPENDICES 1. International Norms and Standards on Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion or Belief (Selected) 101 2. Official North Korean Documents: 1) The 1998 Constitution of the DPRK (excerpts); 2) The Ten Great Principles on the Establishment of the Unitary Ideology System 113 3. Research Materials: 1) Methodology; 2) Bibliographies of Principal Authors 117 4. About the Commission 121 PREFACE U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom “Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung” is the first phrase North Korean parents are instructed to teach to their children. From cradle to grave, North Korean citizens are surrounded by the all-encompassing presence of the “Great Leader” and his son, the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il. The Kim dynasty is much more than an authoritarian government; it also holds itself out as the ultimate source of power, virtue, spiritual wisdom, and truth for the North Korean people. Heterodoxy and dissent are repressed, quickly and efficiently, with punishments meted out to successive generations of the dissident’s family. In this environment, it is hard to imagine any independent religious belief or practice surviving openly unless it serves the government’s larger purpose. Documentary evidence of human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) is scarce. Only recently are interviews with former North Koreans being undertaken in any systematic way. As a result of this new research, a horrific picture is emerging—one that has deep implications for policymakers, the international community, and human rights defenders. The study that follows was commissioned by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan U.S. government agency that monitors freedom of religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments, and that provides independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress. Forty former North Koreans were interviewed extensively regarding conditions of freedom of religion or belief in the DPRK. The study was conducted by David Hawk, veteran human rights expert and author of the important study The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps. The Commission also retained two respected academics, Jae Won Chun and Philo Kim, to manage the study's progress in South Korea. “Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung” reports on the forceful suppression of North Korea’s once vibrant religious and intellectual life, the establishment of a quasi-religious cult of personality centered on Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il, and the survival of very limited religious activity in North Korea. The former North Koreans offer trenchant testimony on the role and character of the Kim Jong Il government and the extent to which it controls the thoughts and beliefs of the North Korean people. The international community is growing accustomed to stories of government imposed excess and horror from North Korea. Kwang Chol Hwan’s memoir, Aquariums of Pyongyang, provides information on the extensive prison camps, the arbitrary detention of dissidents extending to three and four generations of their families, forced abortions, and people beaten down by constant suspicion, propaganda, and violence. The thick veil of secrecy that has shrouded the “hermit kingdom” is thus gradually being pulled back by the testimony of former North Koreans. Numerous witnesses have provided evidence of 1 a massive gulag system, drowning out those who objected that such claims were “exaggerated” or constituted “anti-North Korean propaganda.”1 Still, concrete evidence about life in North Korea remains difficult to obtain, particularly testimony about violations of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. This study allows the voices of former North Koreans to speak openly about conditions in North Korea. It also offers historical and comparative analysis to help define the nature and scope of religious freedom abuses over the past 50 years. From its inception, the brutal suppression of religious activity and rival systems of thought and belief was a systematic policy of the DPRK. In the early twentieth century, religious life flourished in North Korea. In fact, religious organizations provided the key organizational links in the fight against Japanese colonialism. Thus, it is not surprising that religious groups were viewed as one of the chief political competitors of Kim Il Sung’s Korean Workers Party. When Kim Il Sung came to power, religious adherents and their families were labeled as “counter-revolutionary elements” and targeted for repression. Recalling his policies to diminish the power of religion in North Korea, Kim Il Sung reportedly admitted that: We [could not] turn into a Communist society along with the religious people. Therefore, we purged the key leaders above the rank of deacons in Protestant or Catholic churches and the wicked among the rest were put on trial. The general religious people were…put into prison camps [and given a chance to reform]…. We learned later that those of religion can do away with their old habits only after they have been killed.2 After Kim Il Sung consolidated his hold on power, North Korean officials stratified society on the basis of family background and perceived loyalty to the state. Religious believers who remained in North Korea, as well as their descendents, were eventually classified on the lowest strata of this complex system of 51 social categories, receiving fewer privileges and opportunities than others in such areas as education and employment. An extensive report by Amnesty International in 2003 details evidence that persons in lower categories have, in some cases, been forcibly relocated to remote and desolate areas of the country and then systematically denied access to food aid and left to starve. Those in the lowest strata were deemed the “irredeemables” who gained the implacable hostility of the state and unyielding harassment of the security forces.3 Thus, it is not surprising that only a few interviewees report first-hand awareness of religious activity in Kim Il Sung’s DPRK. They may remember a few religious structures in Pyongyang and clandestine religious activity by a small remnant of believers—but
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