A two-year-old boy was reportedly sentenced to life in a North Korean prison camp after a Bible was discovered in his parents’ home.
The US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report revealed this.
According to reports, the toddler and his entire family were imprisoned as a result of the discovery and their religious beliefs.
Similar cases of North Korean citizens being killed for practising their Christian faith were also highlighted in the report.
It also included the 2011 execution by firing squad of a woman and her grandchild.
Another pattern of punishments meted out to believers in the country, as indicated in the report, includes “pigeon torture”, where they were suspended with their hands tied behind their backs, unable to sit or stand for days on end.
A victim was quoted as saying, “It was the most painful of all tortures. It was so painful, I felt it was better to die.”
Some were also said to have been tortured with sleep deprivation, including one woman in solitary confinement who was driven to suicide in 2020 after prison guards refused to let her sleep.
No fewer than 70,000 Christians have been allegedly imprisoned for their faith under the Kim Jong-un regime, out of a possible population of 400,000.
The new publication said several North Korean Christians hid their faith from their children.