The North Korean (DPRK) regime recently boasted that it had won the war against religion, even as a new human rights report shows that repression has only intensified since the pandemic. The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights surveyed 15,303 defectors and found that 99.6 percent said free religious practice is impossible inside the country. North Korea is officially an atheist state, though its constitution nominally guarantees freedom of religion as long as religious activity does not introduce foreign influence or threaten the state or social order.
In reality, nearly all respondents reported that religious activity is completely banned, with only a small number saying they had practiced their faith in secret before escaping. Researchers conclude that restrictions have grown even harsher in recent years, reinforcing North Korea’s status as one of the world’s most repressive countries for religious freedom.
Citizens cannot legally access social media, gospel content, or even basic communication with family abroad. The DPRK’s religious crackdown coincides with South Korea’s efforts to ease tensions by restricting cross-border materials such as Bibles and leaflets. Earlier this year, authorities arrested six Americans for attempting to send water bottles filled with Bibles and USB drives into North Korea.
Possessing foreign media or religious texts can lead to imprisonment, execution, or the punishment of entire families. Pyongyang recently claimed that underground churches and secret prayer groups have been “practically exterminated,” crediting this supposed success to intensified crackdowns that began after the 2021 Youth Education Guarantee Act. The law bans all religious activity for young people and empowers security agencies to classify worship as an anti-state crime.
Counterintelligence departments treat any form of Christian practice as hostile behavior, while provincial, city, and county security agencies conduct their own operations to hunt down suspected believers. Border regions face the harshest repression because they are exposed to outside information.
Christians have long been targeted because the Kim regime views religion as a direct threat to its power and as evidence of foreign influence. Anyone caught praying, possessing a Bible, or meeting for worship is labeled part of a hostile class and risks imprisonment, torture, or execution.
Protestants and Catholics are sent straight to political prison camps without reeducation, and entire families can be punished for three generations under the regime’s “total control zone” system. Returnees who encountered Christianity abroad are watched closely, and those who engage in religious activity after returning home are immediately arrested.
Authorities rely heavily on informants, keep all operations secret, and avoid public trials to prevent wider exposure to religious ideas. Christian communities must operate in complete secrecy because any independent religious activity is treated as an existential political threat. The state demands absolute loyalty to the Kim family and permits no competing beliefs. Religious minorities live under constant surveillance, face punishment and “re-education,” and receive no recognition outside of regime-approved ideology.
Only a tiny fraction of North Koreans have ever encountered genuine religious practice, and possession of items such as Bibles remains grounds for immediate arrest. Pyongyang maintains a few showcase churches to claim religious tolerance, but defectors say these exist solely for propaganda. The regime’s internal doctrine prioritizes the eradication of faith over ideological reform, treating religious belief as a fundamental threat to state control.
Despite the severe danger, small pockets of faith persist. Some North Koreans still pray alone or in tiny secret groups, maintaining belief quietly and in isolation because open worship is impossible. Quiet personal faith endures even as the regime insists it has brought religion under complete control.
According to a report by open Doors, North Korean youth now live under three competing pressures: state indoctrination, forbidden foreign culture, and a quiet search for meaning through superstition or hidden faith. Smuggled South Korean dramas and music, despite harsh penalties, continue to cross the border and give young people brief glimpses of freedom, planting the idea that life could be different.
The regime responds with strict punishment and tighter ideological control, forcing children to memorize slogans, report on one another, and participate in public self-criticism sessions that reinforce loyalty to the state.
Amid economic hardship and limited hope, many young people have turned to illegal superstitious practices such as shamanism and fortune-telling, seeking guidance the government cannot provide. Christian parents face an impossible dilemma. They cannot share their faith with young children because a single mistake could doom the entire family, yet silence leaves their children shaped by state propaganda and outside influences.
Underground believers warn that the future of the secret church depends on raising the next generation in faith, even if they must wait until their children are old enough to protect the family secret. North Korean Christians and field workers say they remain committed to discipling the young however they can, knowing that without a grounded next generation, the underground church may not survive.
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