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| Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks on the release of the 2021 International Religious Freedom Report, at the State Department, June 2, in Washington. AP-Yonhap |
North Korea continued to seriously limit the religious freedom and other basic human rights of its people in 2021, the U.S. Department of State said Thursday.
In its 2021 country report on international religious freedom, the State Department said up to 70,000 North Koreans may be held prisoners for their religious beliefs.
"Since 2001, the DPRK has been designated as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom," the report said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The State Department designated the North a state violator of religious freedom last November for the 20th consecutive year. The country was one of only 10 nations to be designated a "country of particular concern" in 2020.
North Korea, almost without fail, has reacted angrily to U.S. reports on human rights and religious freedom each year, accusing them of being part of a U.S. attempt to topple the regime in Pyongyang.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said promoting religious freedom globally was a "vital foreign policy priority" for the U.S.
"We know that when the fundamental rights of each person to practice their faith or choose not to observe a faith is respected, people can make their fullest contributions to communities' successes. Entire societies are better off," the top U.S. diplomat said in a press conference on the release of the 2021 country report.
"When governments deny this right, it ignites tension, social division. It often leads to instability," he added.
Blinken also insisted the annual report seeks to promote freedom for all people.
"At its core, our work is about ensuring that all people have the freedom to pursue spiritual tradition that most adds meaning to their time on Earth," said Blinken, adding, "That's the progress that this report hopes to help create."
The department noted the annual report partly relies on information provided by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that may not be independently verified due to extremely limited access to countries, such as North Korea.
It added that access to North Korea has further narrowed since Pyongyang began enforcing an unprecedented border closure in 2020 as a precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic.
"COVID-19 restrictions in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea further limited people's rights to freedom of expression, including access to information, to freedom of association and of peaceful assembly, and to freedom of thought, conscience and religion," said the report, citing an earlier report from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The high commissioner's report also notes that Pyongyang was systematically attacking persons it considered a threat, including those who practice religion, imprisoning individuals without due process and subjecting them to "physical and mental suffering amounting to torture," according to the State Department.
Citing a report from Open Doors USA, a U.S.-based NGO, the department said the North is estimated to be holding "50,000 to 70,000 citizens in prison for being Christian."
"With regard to North Korea, we know that the government continues to execute, torture, arrest and abuse individuals that are engaged in religious activity," Rashad Hussain, ambassador at large for international religious freedom, later told a department daily press briefing.
"There are tens of thousands of political prisoners that are being held because of their religious beliefs, which are highlighted in our report," he added. "We are continuing to work with the international community to respond to what North Korea is doing as well."
The department noted the North has five state-controlled Christian churches in Pyongyang, but that access to those facilities for the sake of genuine religious activity, especially by regular people, is "heavily restricted."
The report said North Korean authorities even arrested those "whom they believed lingered too long outside those churches to listen to the music or consistently drove past them each week when services were held, on suspicion of being secret Christians," citing a 2019 report from South Korea's state-run Korea Institute for National Unification.
The department said the U.S. has raised and will continue to raise concerns over human rights conditions, including religious freedom in North Korea, despite having no diplomatic relations with the country.
"The U.S. government raised concerns about religious freedom in the country in other multilateral forums and in bilateral discussions with other governments, particularly those with diplomatic relations with the country," it said, noting the country also co-sponsored a resolution passed by the U.N. General Assembly in December condemning North Korea's "long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights."
"The United States made clear that addressing human rights, including religious freedom, would significantly improve prospects for closer ties between the two countries," it added. (Yonhap)
