This is just one of many "lovely" stories a recent U.S. Department of State report has to share out of North Korea and it's regimes' treatment of it's religious population.

The full report can be found here, but for the tl;dr version here are some of the notable things I've skimmed...

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/KOREA-DEM-REP-2021-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf

QuoteThe COI found the government almost
completely denied the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. In
many instances, the COI determined that the government committed violations of
human rights that constituted crimes against humanity. The government reportedly
continued to execute, torture, arrest, and physically abuse individuals engaged in
almost any religious activities.

Quote The

QuoteNGO Open Doors USA (ODUSA) estimated authorities held 50,000 to 70,000
citizens in prison for being Christian. For the 20th year in a row, it ranked the
country number one on its list of countries where Christians experienced "extreme
persecution" and said "eing discovered as a Christian is a death sentence in
North Korea." 

Quote According to the Religious Characteristics of States

QuoteDataset Project, in 2015 the population was 70.9 percent atheist, 11 percent
Buddhist, 1.7 percent followers of other religions, and 16.5 percent unknown. UN
estimates place the Christian population at between 200,000 and 400,000. 

Quote  The victims ranged in age from two to more than 80 years

Quoteold. Women and girls accounted for more than 70 percent of documented victims.
According to the report, the government charged individuals with engaging in
religious practices, conducting religious activities in China, possessing religious
items, having contact with religious persons, and sharing religious beliefs.
Individuals were subject to arrest, detention, forced labor, torture, denial of fair
trial, deportation, denial of right to life, and sexual violence.
In the report, several victims who were imprisoned for practicing Shamanism
described conditions in prison camps. One victim said, "[Officials] worked us
hard without feeding us properly... I suffered from malnutrition and was sure I
would not survive. I kept having diarrhea, even when I only drank water, and I
weighed just 35 kilograms [77 pounds]. Today I weigh 60 kilograms [132
pounds], so I was like a skeleton back then. I had to wear children's clothes, as
nothing else fit me." Others described or showed signs of being beaten, ingesting
contaminated food, being forced into uncomfortable positions for long periods of
time, and receiving verbal abuse.

Crazy how Marx went from, "Everyone should be free and equal, and it's honestly not that hard to achieve." in his youth to, "Actually, you are only free if I define and control you for your own good and the good of society, and it's perfectly acceptable to kill anyone who disagrees with what I believe 'freedom' means." ... and people in first world nations flock to his "angry old cunt" years.

Nah, cyberpunk writers need to sit down, stop writing, and start taking some notes - this is some true mind-f type dystopia.

If only the almighty all powerful god simply showed up and said no. Alas, the message went to the answering machine.....