Dan Chung, co-founder of Crossing Borders, recently told American Family Radio that millions live under total state control in North Korea. He detailed the severe reality of life there, noting that the regime functions like a totalitarian cult in which religious freedom does not exist.
"There are no freedoms in North Korea," Chung asserted. "There is no freedom of speech. There is no freedom of movement. Even to go the next town over, you have to check in with the government office in your town and then check in with the town that you're going to."
"There is no freedom of thought," he continued. "There's actually a crime that's called wrong thinking, where you can be sent to a prison camp that is comparable to Nazi Germany's concentration camps."
The crime of "wrong thinking" is officially penalized as ideological deviation, treason or "anti-reactionary thought." The state enforces strict control over the minds, beliefs and cultural consumption of its citizens, actively punishing anyone suspected of harboring ideas that conflict with the regime's official Juche ideology or the deification of the Kim family, the dynasty that has ruled North Korea since its founding in 1948.
According to Open Doors, Christians caught worshiping Jesus face severe punishments, including immediate execution, imprisonment in brutal labor camps and collective punishment for their families.
The regime permits a few state-run churches in Pyongyang, primarily as political props for foreign visitors rather than genuine centers of independent religious growth. Chung explained that under this system of zero grace, the state acts as a false deity.
Christianity is treated as a major national security threat and categorized under hostile classes. Because of the risk of betrayal — even from young children conditioned by state propaganda — Christian parents often delay sharing their faith with their offspring until they are old enough to keep the secret.
But in the face of brutal persecution, Chung noted an extraordinary shift is happening underground.
"I think the most subversive thing that they can do is worship Jesus Christ," he said. "And that is actually happening en masse now."
Despite extreme persecution, The Voice of the Martyrs reports that the Christian Church is "exploding" in North Korea through a resilient underground network of secret evangelism, secret house churches and the distribution of Bibles.
Up to 600,000 Christians are believed to be practicing illegally, away from state surveillance.
