Pyongyang boasts of crushing underground churches, but defectors and rights groups say secret worship persists despite harsh crackdowns and severe punishments.
North Korea is continuing its crackdown on underground churches, with dissident media reporting that the authorities are “patting themselves on the back for bringing religion under control.”
The Seoul-based DailyNK news site reported on November 18 that its sources within North Korea say the regime is confident that it has “practically exterminated” underground churches and worship groups.
However, defectors and human rights activists told DW they are confident that small groups and individuals who remain secretly committed to their faith still exist in the North.
“They have been targeted by the regime and many people have been detained, but we know there are still strong Christians who are worshipping in small groups or as individuals,” said Song Young-Chae, a South Korean academic and activist with the Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea.
“There are defectors who have arrived in South Korea this year and they say it is still happening and other defectors who still have contacts there say the same thing,” Song told DW.
“We have our own contacts as well. I cannot provide you with more information as it would be dangerous for them, but we know they are still there.”
Pockets of religious resistance may be holding out, but there is little doubt they are being hunted and persecuted.
Article 68 of North Korea’s constitution guarantees the freedom of religious belief, although in reality the regime strictly controls all religious activities as it sees the church as a threat to its power.
Instead of religious teachings, children are taught from an early age to worship the three generations of the Kim family that have ruled the nation with an iron fist since the founding of the nation in 1948.
Christians have long been targeted due to the perception that they are linked to Western influences, with anyone caught with a Bible, praying or involved in any form of illicit worship, liable for severe punishment.
Anyone suspected of being a religious believer can also be identified as a member of the “hostile class,” which leads to discrimination in terms of work assignments, education opportunities, where people can live and other social punishments.
The crackdown on religion has intensified since the enactment in September 2021 of the Youth Education Guarantee Act, which puts religious activities on the list of actions that are completely banned for young people. In line with the new law, the Ministry of State Security is stepping up its repression.
“There is no separate department dedicated to cracking down on religion, but counterintelligence departments classify religious activity as an ‘anti-state crime’ and investigate it themselves,” the DailyNK report quoted a source in North Korea as saying.
“Provincial, city and county security agencies conduct autonomous crackdowns, and, in particular, there are intensive crackdowns in border regions, where outside information often enters.”
There is added scrutiny of people who have studied abroad, those who have been working in foreign countries or those who attempted to flee but were forcibly repatriated, the source said.
“If they are caught engaging in religious activity after they return home, they are immediately arrested,” with Protestants and Catholics sent to prison camps.
The claims chime with reports by charities such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide and government reports on human rights. In its 2025 annual report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom identified North Korea as “a country of particular concern.”
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Describing the North as “one of the worst religious freedom violators in the world in 2024,” the report said Pyongyang “treats religion as an existential threat to the country” with Christians viewed as “collaborators of imperialistic forces and enemies of the nation and the revolution.”
“Simply possessing a Bible, interacting with Christian missionaries, or engaging in worship can lead to severe punishment, including torture, forced labor, imprisonment, and execution,” it said, adding that as of 2024, three South Korean missionaries captured in the North are still being held after at least a decade behind bars.
“There is simply no freedom of religion in North Korea,” said Eunju Kim, who fled the North with her mother in the 1990s and is now a campaigner with the HanVoice refugee resettlement organization in Seoul.
“There is a church in Pyongyang, but it is only there so they can claim that people are free to practice religion when in truth anyone who does is punished,” she said. “The state sees religion as a political crime and there are serious punishments and, in the worst-case scenario, execution.”
But there are still some who choose to quietly defy the regime.
“They can ban religion, but they cannot stop people believing in Christ,” Kim said. “People who experienced the church and Christianity in China before being repatriated to North Korea may still keep their faith and belief in God and some of them will continue to worship.”
“They will do it silently, without letting anyone around them know because it is not safe,” she added.
“There will be small groups, but many will be people praying by themselves.”
Edited by: Keith Walker
