WASHINGTON-Dr. Richard D. Land, Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Commissioner Nina Shea will participate in a press conference hosted by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), and Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) regarding China's complicity in human rights violations in multiple countries. The press conference will include the participation of Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and other Members of Congress, North Korean defectors, and a range of human rights organizations. A joint Congressional letter to People's Republic of China President Hu Jintao, which calls on China to stop its forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees, will also be presented.

Commission Vice Chair Land and Commissioner Shea will discuss the Commission's new report, A Prison Without Bars: Refugee and Defector Testimonies of Severe Violations of Freedom of Religion or Belief in North Korea, which offers evidence of the grave situation facing North Korean asylum seekers who have been forcibly repatriated from China back to North Korea. As Commission Chair Michael Cromartie noted during the April 15 release of the report, "repatriated North Koreans face severe persecution, including harsh interrogations, long-term imprisonment, and torture if they are found to have converted to Christianity or had contact with South Korean Christians or churches while in China." These crimes against repatriated asylum seekers are ongoing, despite China's insistence to the contrary. Conditions along the China-North Korea border are also uniquely hazardous for North Korean refugees, as North Korean security agents target refugees believed to have visited Chinese churches for food aid or other forms of immediate assistance.

The press conference will take place at Senate Russell Park, at the corner of Constitution and Delaware Aves NE, on Thursday, May 1st at 11 am.

• Apart from churches and temples in Pyongyang meant most to impress foreign tourists and guests, elements of Buddhism, Christianity, and traditional folk beliefs continue to exist in North Korea, in spite of the repression. Certain practices within Shamanism, such as fortune-telling, are widely practiced in defiance of government bans.
• Conditions along the China-North Korea border are uniquely hazardous for North Korean refugees, as security agents target refugees believed to have visited Chinese churches for food aid or other forms of immediate assistance.
• Refugees who admit under intense interrogation to having had contact with Christians while in China often receive particularly harsh punishments. As a result, many North Korean refugees must consciously avoid revealing any knowledge of Christianity or contact with China-based Christians.

• There is increased police activity aimed at halting religious activities in the border regions with China-including setting up of mock prayer meetings to entrap new converts in North Korea, and training security agents in Christian traditions and practices for the purposes of infiltration of churches in China.
• North Korean security agents overseeing the detention and often brutal interrogation of North Korean refugees classify their efforts as "counterintelligence work," as it is believed that South Korean missionary activities aimed towards North Korean refugees is a cover for conducting espionage.
• The North Korean dictatorship draws a distinction between recent converts who acquired religion while in China, and "old believers," whose families have been multi-generational religious devotees. New religious converts are targeted for especially stringent punishments.