The ongoing suppression of Christian belief and practice in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, where the state treats independent religious observance, and Christian practice in particular, as a threat to the personality cult built around the ruling Kim family. Believers who worship outside the small number of state controlled churches shown to foreign visitors in Pyongyang risk arrest, interrogation and imprisonment in the political prison camp system, often extended to family members under the state's practice of collective punishment. Because the country is closed to independent investigation, the record rests on testimony from defectors and refugees rather than on-site verification, a limitation every outside body reporting on it, including the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, states plainly rather than papering over.
Facts
Open Questions
Death Toll AssessmentNo monitoring body publishes an aggregate death toll specific to Christians killed for their faith in North Korea. The United Nations Commission of Inquiry found the country's treatment of religious believers part of a wider pattern amounting to crimes against humanity, but the Commission itself and every other outside body reporting on North Korea state plainly that the country's total closure to independent investigation limits every figure to defector and refugee testimony rather than a verifiable count, and none of the organizations that track detentions and camp populations publish a running or aggregate killing figure broken out by religion. 1 The Commission of Inquiry's own findings state that the record on North Korea rests on defector and refugee testimony rather than on-site verification, a limitation the Commission names rather than papers over. No source consulted converts that limitation into a defensible death-toll figure, religion specific or otherwise. The Event
When It HappenedOngoing since the state's consolidation after the Korean War armistice of 1953, continuing into the present with no fixed end date. 1 Victim GroupChristians in North Korea who worship outside the handful of state controlled churches in Pyongyang, along with their family members, who face arrest, interrogation and imprisonment under the state's practice of collective punishment for a relative's religious activity. 1 Perpetrator RegimeThe government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under the ruling Kim family, whose state security apparatus treats independent religious practice as disloyalty to the personality cult built around the leadership and enforces its suppression through the country's political prison camp system. 1 Status
Official RecognitionRecognized as crimes against humanity 1 Recognition BasisThe United Nations Human Rights Council's 2014 Commission of Inquiry found that North Korea's near total denial of freedom of religion and belief forms part of a wider, established pattern of violations that amount to crimes against humanity under international law. No international tribunal has yet prosecuted a case on this finding, and North Korea itself rejects the Commission's findings and denies its investigators access to the country. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Korea, Regions This source names Korea directly: "in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, where the state treats independent religious observance, and Christian practice in particular, as a threat to the personality cult built around the..."
Conducted By
Named as the state conducting the persecution, per the International Religious Freedom Report's account of religious suppression under the North Korean government.
Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
What Is the Death Toll of the Persecution of Christians in North Korea?
The United Nations Commission of Inquiry and other outside monitors document the North Korean state's treatment of Christians in detail, arrests, detentions, camp imprisonment and collective punishment of family members, but the country's total closure to independent verification means no monitor has ever published a defensible aggregate count of deaths tied specifically to religious persecution, as distinct from the wider political prison camp population.
What would resolve this Independent access to North Korea's prison camp system, or a systematic accounting by a body with reliable access to defector testimony, that separates deaths attributable to religious persecution from the general political prisoner population, comparable to the disaggregated reporting already possible for detention and camp population estimates.
Human rights documentation, North Korean studies.United Nations Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
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