North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has reportedly ordered 33 Christians to be executed for contact with a missionary.
According to a monitored report on christianheadlines.com, the affected Christians were believed to be working alongside South Korean missionary, Kim Jung-wook, who was arrested last year. He and his ministry workers in North Korea have reportedly started about 500 underground churches, according to the Washington Times.
Another journal, The Daily Mail reported that Jong-un has charged the 33 persons with attempting to overthrow the government—the same accusation that lead to the execution of the North Korean leader’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, and all Mr. Jang’s relatives.
The missionary aides will be put to death in the cell of the State Security Department.
Going by the report of Christian Post, North Korea aired interviews with five of their countrymen at a press conference on Feb. 27 who claimed they met with Jung-wook and accepted money from him and other South Korean agents.
The journal stated that, North Korea is known for forcing prisoners to issue statements confessing to crimes, and some have challenged these interviews as an attempt to find out locations of underground churches.
North Korea is widely known for its human rights abuses and zero tolerance for religion. For the 12th consecutive year, World Watch List has ranked the Asian country as the number one country for Christian persecution.