Protestants Households in North Korea after the Korean War : Discrimination, Repression and Resurgence

After the Korean War, and in particular the severe persecution of religion of 1958, religious communities of North Korea experienced a collapse in organization, having to subsist in the form of individual practice or small-scale gatherings among family and relatives. Some of these religious families were mobilized by the state as officially recognized organizations in 1970s and 1980s, and following the food crisis of 1995, religious participation became concentrated in the activity of so-called underground churches. Based on detailed analysis of North Korean defectors, this paper offers a critical perspective on those who see religious activities in the North as either purely motivated by a desire to obtain hard currency, or as mere propaganda for a foreign audience. Whilst one cannot deny that religion in the North is managed, mobilized and operates within bounds set by the North Korean state, it analyzes how the mobilization itself occurs and those who are mobilized through which we can better understand religion in the North today.