The heinous practice of forced conversion has finally made national headlines outside The Republic of Korea. The Week - India's largest circulated English news magazine that distributes 200,000+ copies weekly - has published an article titled 'In bad faith: Korean woman dies during forces conversion', following the murder of 27-year-old Ms. Ji-In Gu.
The article clearly outlines the origin and growth of forced, or coercive, conversion in South Korea today and the events that led to Ms. Gu's death by 'pastors'. In spite of the blatant violation of Ms. Gu's human rights and her silent hand-written plea to the Korean president to bring these 'pastors' to justice after her initial kidnapping, the Korean government has not issued a single statement about her death. The reason? Politicians consider these pastors as "vote banks" and so maintain a hold on their political authority.
In order to ban this practice and to bring justice to Ms. Gu's murder and the 1200 people who have been kidnapped, confined or beaten for their religious beliefs in South Korea to date, we must continue to raise our voices.
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