International Ministry Launches Campaign to Save North Korean Facing Execution for Christian Faith

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), an interdenominational ministry that's been launching helium-filled balloons with Christian messages into North Korea for years, is today launching a global campaign to free a North Korean man who is awaiting public execution for the crime of being a Christian.

Son Jong Nam is a former North Korean Army officer who through a life-changing series of events became an underground evangelist in North Korea. Son Jong Nam has been held in a North Korean death row jail cell and repeatedly tortured in the capital city of North Korea. The North Korean government is planning his public execution as an example to the North Korean people.

Todd Nettleton, director of media development for VOM, describes North Korea as "a one-man dictatorship with communist influence, one of the most repressive and isolated regimes in the world that denies every kind of human right to its citizens." He continued, "All religions have been harshly repressed in North Korea. Thousands of Christians have been murdered since the Korean War. In 1953, there were an estimated 300,000 Christians; however, the number is much lower today. Christians must practice their faith in deep secrecy and are in constant danger."

U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has joined VOM in the campaign to free Son Jon Nam. Brownback is, a noted supporter of human rights for North Korean refugees. Brownback sent letters last week in conjunction with Senators Baucus (D-Mont.), Durbin (D-Ill.), Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Vitter (R-La.), asking U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take actions to secure the release of the Christian prisoner.

In his letter to Secretary of State Rice and Secretary General Ban, Sen. Brownback wrote: "Future cooperation and engagement with North Korea will be far more challenging if its leaders continue to persecute their own people for religious views. The United States has made political and religious freedoms important elements in its diplomatic relations, and we are gravely concerned about abuses of such basic rights in North Korea."