Experts at a Brookings Institution panel argue North Korea’s ruling regime adapted elements of Christian culture to build a personality cult, while suppressing independent religious activity and reinforcing ideological control.
Newsroom (29/04/2026 Gaudium Press) At a recent policy forum in Washington, experts argued that North Korea’s ruling Kim family did not simply eradicate religion but instead absorbed elements of the country’s historic Christian culture to reinforce its political ideology and consolidate power.
The April 27 discussion, held at the Brookings Institution under the theme “Power, Religion and Ideology in North Korea,” brought together analysts including Jonathan Cheng, China Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, and Jung Pak, Distinguished Associate Fellow at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy, and Strategy at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The event was reported by Christian Daily Korea and is available online.
Cheng, whose new book “Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult” was published earlier this month, said the regime’s approach extended beyond suppressing Christianity after the establishment of the communist state. Instead, he argued, it selectively adapted religious structures and emotional frameworks to elevate Kim Il Sung and his successors into quasi-divine figures.
“Kim Il Sung grew up within the Christian culture of Pyongyang,” Cheng said, noting that the city was once known as the “Jerusalem of the East” due to its vibrant Christian community and role in the 1907 Korean revival movement. According to Cheng, Kim was exposed to church life early on, including participation in Sunday school and choir activities.
This background, Cheng suggested, informed the regime’s later development of a system that mirrors aspects of religious devotion while eliminating independent faith practices. “He hijacked the pure passion believers had for God and designed a false religious system that made people worship him as a ‘living god,’” Cheng said.
Despite constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, North Korea is widely accused by human rights organizations and advocacy groups of severely restricting religious activity outside tightly controlled state institutions. The country is consistently ranked among the most restrictive environments for Christians globally.
Pak emphasized how the regime reinforces ideological loyalty by reframing hardship as part of a broader narrative centered on devotion to the leadership. She pointed to the famine of the 1990s, known as the “Arduous March,” as a key example.
“North Korea transforms even the worst disasters … into a religious narrative of salvation claiming that ‘only the Supreme Leader can guide people to paradise,’” Pak said.
According to Pak, the government also shifts responsibility for suffering away from leadership failures and onto individuals, cultivating a sense of personal guilt tied to loyalty. “The regime makes residents blame themselves by attributing the cause of starvation not to the incompetence of the leadership but to each individual’s lack of loyalty,” she said. “It injects the false message that only Kim Jong Un is the sole savior.”
Panelists further examined why the North Korean government perceives religion as a direct threat. Pak argued that independent belief systems foster communities and loyalties beyond state control, undermining the regime’s claim to absolute authority.
“Religion allows people to share their hearts without state control and acknowledges the authority of an absolute God higher than the Supreme Leader,” she said.
Pak also urged policymakers to place greater emphasis on human rights in dealings with Pyongyang, describing the issue as a critical vulnerability for the regime. “We must restore human rights — the Achilles’ heel of the Kim Jong Un regime — as a central agenda item in North Korea policy,” she said.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Christian Daily
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