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Today it is estimated that around 13% of North Korea's population follows the religion. Very little is known about the religion's activities but it is the only religion favored by the government and is also seen as Korea's ethnic religion.
In December 2021, Korea Future published a report entitled Religious Women as Beacons of Resistance in North Korea. The report was based on 237 interviews with survivors, witnesses, and perpetrators of violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
The 2018 NKDB report noted the existence of state-sanctioned religious organizations in the country, such as the KCF, Korea Buddhist Union, Korean Catholic Council, Korea Chondoist Church Central Committee, Korea Orthodox Church Committee, and Korean Council of Religionists.
Religious freedom conditions in North Korea are among the worst in the world. The North Korean constitution nominally grants freedom of religious belief, but it also prohibits the use of religion for “drawing in foreign forces or for harming the State.”
"North Korea's ruling ideology, known as Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, forbids competing ideologies — including religious ones — and treats religion as an existential threat," it said.
In 2002 the DPRK reported to the UN Human Rights Committee there were 12,000 Protestants, 10,000 Buddhists, 800 Catholics, and 15,000 practitioners of Chondoism, a modern religious movement based on a 19th century Korean neo-Confucian movement.
This report presents evidence of serious human rights violations that have targeted individuals and communities in North Korea for their religion or belief. Our evidence is based on 456 documented cases of human rights violations involving 244 victims and 141 perpetrators.
It is widely regarded that religious freedom does not exist in North Korea. The country’s early state-building process involved a vigorous political struggle to achieve the ideal of a radically enlightened society without religion and superstitions, as in Soviet Russia and other revolutionary polities under the Soviet influence.
Freedom of Religion, Thought, and Conscience in North Korea. UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. USCIRF’S MISSION. To advance international freedom of religion or belief, by independently assessing and unflinchingly confronting threats to this fundamental right.
In 2020, for the 19th consecutive year, Open Doors USA ranked North Korea number one on its annual World Watch List report of countries where Christians experienced “extreme persecution.” NGOs and defectors said the government often applied a policy of arresting or otherwise punishing family members of Christians.