ICC Note:

On April 30, 2016, Pastor Han Chung-Ryeol from Changbai City, China, known for helping anyone who crossed into China from North Korea, was brutally murdered. The North Korean government had issued an order for Pastor Han to be kidnapped, brought to North Korea and interrogated two months before his death. Despite suspicion of the North Korean government’s involvement in committing this crime, this was the first time a North Korean agent came forward to confess involvement in Pastor Han’s murder.

08/01/2017 North Korea (Christian Daily) – A female agent from the security and intelligence body of North Korea has admitted involvement in the murder of a Christian pastor in Changbai City, China, in April 2016.

Pastor Han Chung-Ryeol was known to aid North Koreans defecting to China, according to Voice of the Martyrs. On April 30, 2016, he left his church at 2 p.m. and was found in the evening with multiple stab wounds in his stomach and his head hacked using an axe. The Christian charity also believes that North Koreans were responsible for the crime and that the suspects most likely went back to their home country after carrying out the attack.

On July 21, an insider in China told Daily NK that a defector came across a North Korean agent’s confession about her involvement in the murder of the pastor near the Sino-Korean border. She had reportedly smuggled scrap iron and herbs between North Korea and China and was blackmailed into becoming an informant in October 2015 when the Ministry of State Security found out.

The woman started following Pastor Han in mid-February 2016 and reported her findings to North Korea’s MSS. She was surprised to receive rewards for her efforts and was also shocked that he was assassinated and not kidnapped.

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