Execution in NKorea will further embolden believers

One News Now (Link) (August 10, 2009)

A ministry that assists the persecuted Church worldwide is trying to put pressure on North Korea's communist government, after a Christian was executed there for distributing the Bible.

Activists in South Korea reported recently that communist officials in North Korea publicly executed a 33-year-old mother of three. Ri Hyon Ok, according to The Associated Press, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the U.S. and organizing dissidents. Following her execution, Ri's parents, husband, and children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern section of the communist country.

Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International, says the execution signals a major change in the crackdown on religion in North Korea. He believes the house church movement will be strengthened by the senseless murder.

"There's a really opposite and equal reaction to this that means more Bibles will probably go in as a result of this. Christians will be evermore strengthened in their faith, as unbelievable as that sounds," he admits. "The more you persecute Christians, the more Christianity thrives."

According to Jacobson, communist officials believe Christianity poses a true threat to the North Korean regime.