International Religious Freedom Report, 2006: Democratic People's Republic of Korea

摘要

The constitution provides for 'freedom of religious belief'; however, in practice the Government severely restricted religious freedom, including organized religious activity, except that which is supervised tightly by officially recognized groups linked to the Government. Genuine religious freedom does not exist. There was no change in the extremely poor level of respect for religious freedom during the period covered by this report. The regime continued to repress unauthorized religious groups. Recent defector, missionary, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) reports indicate that religious persons engaging in proselytizing in the country, those who have ties to overseas evangelical groups operating across the border in the People's Republic of China (China), and specifically, those repatriated from China and found to have been in contact with foreigners or missionaries outside the country, have been arrested and subjected to harsh penalties. Defectors continued to allege that they witnessed the arrests and execution of members of underground Christian churches by the regime in prior years. Due to the inaccessibility and inability to gain timely information, the continuation of this activity during the time period covered by this report remained difficult to verify. The Government allowed foreigners to attend government-sponsored religious services. No information was available on societal attitudes toward religious freedom. The U.S. government did not have diplomatic relations with the country. Since 2001 the Secretary has designated the country a 'Country of Particular Concern' (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act for particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The U.S. government raised its concerns about the deplorable state of human rights in the country with other countries and in multilateral fora. The Government does not allow representatives of foreign governments, journalists, or other invited guests freedom of movement that would enable them to fully assess human rights conditions or confirm reported abuses. This report is based on information from interviews, press reports, nongovernmental organization reports, missionary and refugee testimony obtained over the past decade, and supplemented where possible by information drawn from more recent reports from visitors to the country and representatives of nongovernmental organizations working on the Chinese border. Refugee testimony is often dated because of the time lapse between refugee departures from the country and contact with NGOs able to document human rights conditions. The report cites specific sources and time frames wherever possible, and reports are corroborated to the extent possible. While limited in detail, the information in this report is indicative of the situation with regard to religious freedom in the country in recent years.