Christian Persecution in North Korea

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NORTH KOREA

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NORTH KOREA

Christian persecution in North Korea makes it one of the hardest places in the world to practice the Christian faith. An official church called the Korean Christian Federation exists, but it is doubtful whether it is a genuine church. Instead, the Korean Christian Federation is probably maintained to provide the false impression of religious liberty.

The State is the primary persecutor of Christianity in North Korea because they divide the population into three groups. Christians are classified as “hostile” according to this system.

The “hostile” class is significantly disadvantaged in access to food, education and employment. Worse, this classification is historic. One is “hostile” if one’s grandparents once professed Christianity.

North Korea is terrifyingly organized around a cult with the characteristics of an extreme religion. Persecuted Christians in North Korea represent a threat to the worship monopoly of the regime. Despite this, Christians do exist, but only in extremely secret house churches. These small house churches are organized along family lines to preserve safety.

Some NGOs estimate that 50-70,000 Christians languish in North Korean labor camps. They report conditions comparable to Nazi death camps. Said one refugee, “If it is known you are a Christian, you are jailed. And you will never get out of jail unless you escape.”

However, estimates of 200,000+ Christians persist, even though rampant Christian persecution in North Korea. This is mainly due to the fact that in the late 1990s, more than a million North Koreans fled a famine into China. Many of these refugees converted to Christianity and returned to North Korea despite the danger. Then-leader Kim Jong II, warned them not to return if they had become “contaminated with foreign religion”.

Leadership:
Chairman Kim Jong-un
Government:
Single-party dictatorship
Population
26.2 M
Christian pop.
200 K+

“To be a Christian in North Korea is to be constantly on the verge of extinction. If the government finds out our beliefs, it is death or jail. Heaven is always tomorrow for us.”

A PERSECUTED CHRISTIAN WHO FLED TO SOUTH KOREA FROM THE NORTH

History of Christianity in North Korea

In 1784, a newly baptized intellectual named Yi Seung-hun returned from Beijing to the Korean peninsula. His founding of the first Catholic community marked the beginning of Christianity in the region.

Protestantism arrived in 1864 through a convert called Suh Sang-ryun. He smuggled a Korean translation of Luke’s Gospel back from Protestant missionaries in China. Two years later, a refusal to venerate ancestors saw a fierce persecution which killed 8000 believers in 1866.

Soon, however, Christianity was flourishing. Even though the Japanese occupied the country from 1905-1945, a revival broke out in 1907 in Pyongyang. After this, the city was known as “the Jerusalem of Asia.”

Hundreds of thousands converted, but many fled to the south during the Korean War. These converts brought their influence and revival with them into South Korea.

Meanwhile, the North fell to the Communists under Kim IL Sung in 1945. He launched one of the most severe persecutions of Christians in the 20th century. The 1950s saw extraordinary attempts to annihilate the faith. Teachers even enlisted their pupils to spy on their parents for signs of religious activity.

When Christians were exposed, they were almost always killed. This was in part to make sure there were no rivals to the bizarre worship cult around Kim IL Sung and his descendants. Each town has a vast statue of a member of the dynasty. The countryside is festooned with posters, children are taught to say grace to him for their meals, and claims continue to be made that the Kims have godlike powers.

Not for nothing have some labeled the world’s most Stalinist country, ironically, “the world’s most religious country.”
History of Christianity in North Korea

Christian persecution in North Korea makes it one of the hardest places in the world to practice the Christian faith. An official church called the Korean Christian Federation exists, but it is doubtful whether it is a genuine church. Instead, the Korean Christian Federation is probably maintained to provide the false impression of religious liberty.

The State is the primary persecutor of Christianity in North Korea because they divide the population into three groups. Christians are classified as “hostile” according to this system.

The “hostile” class is significantly disadvantaged in access to food, education and employment. Worse, this classification is historic. One is “hostile” if one’s grandparents once professed Christianity.

North Korea is terrifyingly organized around a cult with the characteristics of an extreme religion. Persecuted Christians in North Korea represent a threat to the worship monopoly of the regime. Despite this, Christians do exist, but only in extremely secret house churches. These small house churches are organized along family lines to preserve safety.

Some NGOs estimate that 50-70,000 Christians languish in North Korean labor camps. They report conditions comparable to Nazi death camps. Said one refugee, “If it is known you are a Christian, you are jailed. And you will never get out of jail unless you escape.”

However, estimates of 200,000+ Christians persist, even though rampant Christian persecution in North Korea. This is mainly due to the fact that in the late 1990s, more than a million North Koreans fled a famine into China. Many of these refugees converted to Christianity and returned to North Korea despite the danger. Then-leader Kim Jong II, warned them not to return if they had become “contaminated with foreign religion”.