North Korea
POPULATION 22,224,195
JUCHE between 20.0 and 70.0 percent
CHEONDOGYO, BUDDHIST, PROTESTANT, ROMAN CATHOLIC, FOLK RELIGIONIST LESS THAN 0.2 percent
NONRELIGIOUS between 20.0 and 70.0 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Known officially as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea occupies the northern half of a peninsula that juts out of northeastern China toward southern Japan. Before North Korea was separated from South Korea in 1945, it was home to a vibrant and pluralistic religious culture. More than half of all the Christians on the Korean Peninsula lived in what is now North Korea. Cheondogyo, a religion founded in Korea in the nineteenth century, had more than twice as many believers in the northern half of the peninsula than in the south. Buddhism, on the other hand, was much stronger in the south. Nevertheless, there were at least 400 Buddhist temples and about 1,600 monks north of Seoul before 1945.
Though there are still a few Christians, Buddhists, and followers of Cheondogyo in North Korea, they are far outnumbered by believers in Juche, a political philosophy with religious overtones promoted by the Communist government of the north. The exact percentage of the North Korean population that believes in Juche is unclear.
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