Johnny Patterson and Benedict Rogers 

On July 4, 2017, America's Independence Day, the North Korean regime sent a message which was designed to strike fear into the hearts of revelling Westerners. The launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, actively taunting America, is a sign that Pyongyang's cruel despot is one step closer to being a genuine nuclear threat.

Two weeks earlier, in Cincinnati, the student Otto Warmbier died in hospital. He had visited North Korea in January 2016 on a legal visa arranged by a Beijing-based travel agency. On departure he was detained, tried, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison for 'stealing' a political poster. Otto Warmbier was not seen again until his release last week in a comatose condition. He died on June 16.

These headlines provide glimpses into one of the world's most evil regimes, but they only scratch the surface of a far deeper problem. Moments when the brutality of the North Korean regime enter the Western public imagination remind us of the torrid conditions suffered daily by North Korean citizens.

Kim Jong-Un, the leader of the country, is a despot who stands accused of crimes against humanity and should be called before the International Criminal Court.

Gulags and concentration camps should have no place in the 21st century. Yet the North Korean regime has imprisoned between 100,000 and 200,000 political prisoners and consigned them to prison camps where they are subjected to slave labour and torture. Hundreds of testimonies of escapees tell of prisoners forced to scavenge for rats and snakes because prison rations are so poor.....

[Source: Christian Today)