Bishop of Truro's Independent Review for the Foreign Secretary of FCO Support for Persecuted Chr

The closed state of DPRK acts ruthlessly towards Christians who are seen to act in contrast to the state's 'Juche Ideology' which refuses to tolerate any other belief or religious system.

'Juche' explains is the North Korean peoples' guiding rule in one philosophy that terms political independence, economic self-sufficiency, and self-reliance in defence. The origins of 'Juche' is a Korean language translation of the Stalinist concept of 'the people' as a homogenous, self-reliant unit. Self-reliant has become a 'state religion' and any superior alternative means a man of God symbolised in North Korea, with around 30,000-50,000 monuments to honour the Kim family.

North Korea's 'Songbun' social stratification system determines who gets access to food, education and health care based on people's position in one of 51 potential categories, which signify greater or lesser loyalty to the regime.

Those in lower categories, including Christians, are considered hostile to the state. Citizens of the DPRK live under heavy surveillance, with the state's National Security Agency co-ordinating efforts to 'uncover reactionary elements' and 'anti-government' forces. Christians are found within this category, along with spies and political dissidents. In fact, spying on behalf of the West is a common accusation made against Christians in DPRK.

DPRK's constitution states that citizens have freedom of religion as long as it does not attract foreign intervention or disrupt the state's social order. It is in light of this that the state ties Christian belief to the West and particularly the United States of America as a way of indicating that Christianity is a national security risk. In reality the right to freedom of religion or belief in DPRK is non-existent.

The risk involved in practising Christianity in DPRK means that it is almost entirely practised underground. A former security agent interviewed by Open Doors noted that he was trained to recognise religious activity and to organise fake 'secret' prayer meetings so as to identity Christians.

When Christians are discovered they experience intense interrogation which normally includes severe torture, imprisonment or even execution. Those who are imprisoned have reported horrific acts taking place while in custody such as violence, torture, subsistence food rations and forced labour resulting in high death rates.

Some have argued that the acts of egregious violence carried out against citizens within these prisons amount to crimes against humanity.