Page 7, 22nd December 1950
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20 priests killed in North Korea
A T least twenty Korean and German priests were 'assassinated between October 3 and 7 in the region of Pyongyang alone, according to reports reaching Fides, Rome's missionary news service.
They were among the thousands of prisoners taken by the Communists.
Vatican Radio on Monday last reported that latest figures from the Paris Missionary Society indicate that the total number of priests killed since hostilities began in July is as high as eighty.
Already, in May, 1949, the Korean Bishop Francis Hong and Frs. Louis Kim, Timothy Pak, Calixtus Hong and Athanasius Tchoi, had been arrested and imprisoned.
It is known that they remained in jail until March 18. 1950, but they have not been heard of since that date.
In June. 1950, other arrests were made and Frs. Sek. Se, Hong, Ri, Tjang and Tjo were imprisoned in Pyongyang. and on the following day Frs. Benedict Kim, Marcel Kim, Paul Kang, Anselm Ri and Paul Tjo Were also arrested.
MURDERED AT NIGHT
During the night of October 3-4 the prisoners were taken by lorry to
some undisclosed destination. The lorries returned empty within an hour and half. just about the time to make the round trip from Pyongyang to Yongsan or Ki Am. It is known that the Communists that night killed 2.500 prisoners at Yongsan, and it is also known that they killed 2,000 in the hills near Ki Am on October 6-7. In all likelihood the priests of Pyongyang were among the victims.
The Korean secular priests and the German and Korean Benedictines who worked under the direction of Bishop 13oniface Saner, 0.S.B.. in Harnbung. and the Bishop himself, were arrested in May. 1949.
This mass arrest included Bishop Sauer, 18 German and 5 Korean priests, 27 Cierman and 17 Korean Brothers, 9 Korean novices. and 46 Sisters of German, French and Korean nationality.
Fourteen were imprisoned in Pyongyang, where Bishop Sauer, Fr. Ruppert Klingseis (German) and Fr. Damasus Paik (Korean) died of hunger and privation.
By the beginning of last July there was not a single priest above the 38th Parallel, in that part of Korea which was under Communist control, who was able to exercise the religious ministry.
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