Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea, has called for the execution of 33 people for reportedly working as accomplices to South Korean Baptist missionary Kim Jung-wook and planning to help him create 500 underground churches.
The North Korean tyrant has asserted himself by ruthlessly and brutally murdering all whom he deems a threat to his power. In August, Kim Jong-un executed by firing squad his ex-girlfriend/singer Hyon. She and eleven others in her orchestra were executed with machine guns while the families of the victims watched in horror. Also, Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of his own uncle, Jang Song Thaek, in December for allegedly being a “traitor to the nation for all ages, and a despicable political careerist and trickster, human scum and worse than a dog.”
Last October, Kim Jung-wook was arrested and placed in jail for his plan to set up underground churches. Supposedly having received help from South Korea’s intelligence agency, the missionary entered North Korea from China and was heading for Pyongyang.
Part of his plan was to distribute bibles, Christian instructional materials, and movies. Jung-wook supposedly said at the time of his arrest, “I was thinking of turning North Korea into a religious country, and destroying its present government and political system.” In a press conference held last week, he apologized for committing “anti-state” crimes with the hope of being released from the North Korean prison cell where he is being held.
Moreover, Kim Jung-wook stated at the press conference, “I received money from the intelligence services and followed instructions from them, and arranged North Koreans to act as their spies. And I also set up an underground church in China, in Dandong, and got the members to talk and write, for me to collect details about the reality of life in North Korea, and I provided this to the intelligence services.” A South Korean intelligence source denied that they assisted Kim in his journey to North Korea. Instead, they insisted that he was kidnapped by agents of the Pyongyang government in China.
Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary, is still being detained in North Korea for leading a Christian group tour of North Korea in 2012. The government of North Korea sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for trying to bring down the government of North Korea through Christian activities.