Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, and the Absence of Due Process and Fair Trial Rights As someone who frequently visited fortune tellers, Park Na Jung regularly discussed the whereabouts and activities of various fortune tellers with her acquaintances. Through participating in such conversations, Park was able to gather reliable information on what types of punishments each fortune teller received following their arrest by law enforcement authorities. Park stated that she considered the types of divination methods that fortune tellers employed were relevant in determining what degree of criminal sentence they received in the event of arrest. Similarly, Nam Ki Seong, who practiced fortune telling and personally witnessed more than five cases of Shamanic adherents being arrested for their practice, told investigators “the more cases you accumulate from practicing as a fortune teller for many years will contribute to a re-education sentence. How many months of forced labor you receive depends on how many months you have practiced and on the relevant evidence. The longer you practice and the more clients you see, the harsher the punishment.” Song Na Jin, who was introduced to a variety of fortune tellers through her acquaintances within her neighborhood’s Women’s Union, also observed that fortune tellers who used divination literature for their practice received harsher punishments for their offense. This assessment was corroborated by Ryang Ki Deuk, a former legal professional in North Korea. While protesting what he thought was a flaw within the North Korean criminal justice system, he revealed that the law enforcement authority’s perception of a fortune teller’s ideological deviancy had played a part in determining the severity of the sentence a fortune teller received following her conviction. “I heard she got about five years. How severe a sentence one gets depends on individual cases, but they pay special attention to cases involving [a Shamanic book].” Due to the somewhat freer environment that exists in China regarding freedom of association and freedom of access to information, North Koreans who have crossed into China and are later forcibly repatriated by the Chinese government in violation of international law become targets for political screening. Before further criminal processing is handled by the Ministry of People’s Security, forcibly repatriated North Koreans are incarcerated in a holding center where the Ministry of State Security interrogates them on their activities while they were outside North Korea, including their potential encounters with religious persons or materials. 20 Among interviewees who had encountered a North Korean Christian directly, many reported these occasions occurred while they were transiting illegally in China or while incarcerated in a Ministry of State Security holding center after having been forcibly repatriated from China. In one case, an individual who was detained at a provincial holding center shared his cell with another person who was being interrogated under suspicion of religious association. After being interrogated for three months and not confessing, he was released to the Ministry of People’s Security and received a one-year forced labor camp sentence for another crime. Moreover, we documented credible accounts of the execution of Christian adherents who had practiced within the territory of North Korea, rather than in or through China. It is noteworthy that details from these incidents come from former security officials, reflecting the level of secrecy with which the state deals with incidents of Christianity that arise domestically. Among these cases, Kwon Eun Som and her grandchild were executed in July 2011 in Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province, with only a few security and law enforcement officials present to witness the event. The execution was by firing squad and took place outside Hajong-ri in Onsong County. It was overseen by Onsong Ministry of State Security branch personnel, acting on the authority of the North Hamgyong Ministry of State Security in Chongjin. Figure 5. Depiction of North Korean government-sanctioned execution of a woman and her grandchild convicted of practicing Christianity. Source: Kim Haeun, Korea Future, 2021, www.koreafuture.org Organized Persecution: Documenting Religious Freedom Violations in North Korea