Kim Jong-un’s Freeing Christians Must Lead to an End to their Persecution

The President, his wife and vice president took the extraordinary step of welcoming home at 2:00 a.m. three American citizens held hostage by North Korea’s dictator. Their freeing is a welcome prelude to an upcoming meeting between Mr. Trump and that dictator, Kim Jong-un. Let’s hope it signals Kim’s readiness to make other concessions resulting in his country’s denuclearization.

Kim must also be pressed to stop his regime’s brutal oppression, particularly of those like the three hostages, who are Christians. Open Doors says followers of Christ in North Korea are the planet’s most heavily persecuted. They dare to believe in a God whose name is not Kim Jong-un.

A Trump administration that champions the world’s persecuted Christians must address the reality that a nation that treats its own people so brutally is unlikely to pose no threat to ours.