A P r i s o n 

Without B a r s

Refugee and Defector Testimonies of Severe Violations of 

Freedom of Religion or Belief in North Korea

UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Update on Religious Freedom Conditions in North Korea

and New Interviews with Former North Korean Security Agents 

MARCH 2008

A P r i s o n 

Without B a r s

Refugee and Defector Testimonies of Severe Violations of 

Freedom of Religion or Belief in North Korea
United S tat e s Co m m i s s i o n o n 

Internationa l R eligious Freedom

Commissioners

Chair 

Michael Cromartie

Vice Chairs 

Preeta D. Bansal

Dr. Richard D. Land

Dr. Don Argue

Imam Talal Y. Eid

Felice D. Gaer

Leonard A. Leo

Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou

Nina Shea

John V. Hanford, III, ex officio, nonvoting member

North Korea Study Team

Jae Chun Won, J.D., Lead Researcher and Field Writer

Byoung Lo Ph. D (Philo) Kim, Research Manager
Un i t e d S tat e s C o m m i s s i o n o n 

In t e r nat i o na l R e l i g i o u s F r e e d o m 

Staff

Patricia Carley, Acting Deputy Director for Policy

David Dettoni, Deputy Director for Outreach

Judith Ingram, Director of Communications

Carmelita Hines, Director of Administration

Dwight Bashir, Senior Policy Analyst

Elizabeth Cassidy, International Legal Specialist

Catherine Cosman, Senior Policy Analyst

Deborah DuCre, Receptionist

Scott Flipse, Senior Policy Analyst

Kody Kness, Legislative Assistant

Bridget Kustin, Communications Specialist

Mindy Larmore, East Asia Researcher

Tiffany Lynch, Researcher

Jacqueline A. Mitchell, Executive Assistant

Danielle Simms, Assistant to the Deputy Director for Policy

Stephen R. Snow, Senior Policy Analyst

U.S. Commission on International 

Religious Freedom

In December 2005, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom published a report entitled Thank 

You Father Kim Il Sung: Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations 

of the Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in North 

Korea. That report, based on extensive interviews with 

North Korean refugees who fled through China to South 

Korea from 1999 – 2003, was the first of its kind to draw 

on testimony from refugees to provide a much needed 

window on religious freedom conditions inside North 

Korea and the consequences for refugees who are forced 

to return. The North Koreans interviewed for that report provided compelling eyewitness accounts of public 

executions of religious believers and the torture and imprisonment of refugees repatriated from China, particularly those suspected of having converted to Christianity 

or having had contact with South Korean missionaries or 

aid workers. 

In addition, the interviews provided information 

about the survival of both Christian and traditional religious practices, such as Shamanism, in North Korea despite over fifty years of intense repression. Before 1945, 

the Christian population in the northern regions of Korea 

was significant enough that the city of Pyongyang was 

termed the “Jerusalem of the East”; Chondokyo (the Religion of the Heavenly Way) and Buddhism also had many 

adherents. However, while religious life was flourishing 

in South Korea, Kim Il Sung was systemically eliminating 

virtually all public observance of religion, substituting 

the state’s own monolithic ideology in its place. What 

religious practice survived was either conducted clandestinely or under close supervision of the state. In the 

Commission’s report, refugees noted the existence of a 

Roman Catholic and two Protestant churches in Pyongyang, but testified that the state strictly controlled these 

venues and used them to gain international prestige and 

foreign currency. 

In place of North Korea’s once flourishing religious 

communities, the Kim family created and imposed a quasireligious personality cult to venerate Kim Il Sung. Thank You 

Father Kim Il Sung contains details about the rites, requirements, and rituals of this state ideology known as Juche or 

KimIlSungism. All North Koreans are required to attend 

weekly meetings and to keep pictures of the Kim family in 

their homes, and there are specific penalties for those who 

refuse to follow the required rituals. From those interviews it was learned that even the infamous “Yodok” prison 

camp has a special shrine where inmates, despite living in 

appalling conditions, are required to keep a special pair 

of socks for entry. KimIlSungism is not merely a method of 

social control, but the ideological basis of the Kim family’s 

political legitimacy. Independent religious practice is considered a direct political threat. 

Thank You Father Kim Il Sung presented valuable information about religious freedom conditions in North 

Korea for the widest possible audience of policymakers, 

diplomats, journalists, religious leaders, and researchers 

on religious freedom and related human rights in North 

Korea. The findings from that report were conveyed to 

senior U.S. Administration officials, Members of Congress, relevant UN agencies including the UN Special 

Rapporteur on North Korea, and a variety of think tanks 

in Washington, New York, Rome, and Seoul. That report 

has been translated into Korean and is available on the 

Commission’s Web site, http://www.uscirf.gov/countries/

region/east_asia/northkorea/NKwitnesses.pdf. 

Updating and Expanding Upon Thank You 

Father Kim Il Sung

The Commission asked a team of researchers to conduct 

additional interviews with North Korean refugees. The 

Preface
team interviewed 32 refugees who fled to China from 

2003 – 2007 and six former North Korean security 

agents who defected to South Korea during the past eight 

years. The purpose of these supplementary interviews 

was to determine if religious freedom conditions had 

changed, if repressive government policies uncovered 

in the first report remained in force, and if repatriated 

refugees continue to face harsh treatment at the border.1

 

These new refugee interviews are the basis of this report 

entitled A Prison Without Bars.

Targeting Christianity as a Security Threat

Interviews with former North Korean Security Agents 

provided unusual and valuable insight into police tactics aimed at curtailing clandestine religious activities. 

The Commission’s research team interviewed former 

National Security Agency (NSA, or bowibu) and Public 

Security Agency (PSA, or anjeobu) officers, whose testimony confirms that refugees are routinely subjected 

to extensive interrogation about their religious contacts 

and affiliations once they are repatriated from China. 

Their statements also acknowledge that there continues 

to be torture and ill-treatment of repatriated refugees, 

particularly those who confessed to having contact with 

South Korean humanitarian organizations or who were 

suspected of being religious believers. 

The former North Korean security agents testify to 

increased police activity aimed at halting religious activities in the border regions with China. The agents told of 

infiltrating Korean-Chinese churches in China, posing as 

“pastors,” or setting up mock prayer meetings to gather 

information and entrap new converts in North Korea. 

The former agents believed the advance of “new” Protestantism to be an ideological competitor to the “one and 

only ideology—KimIlSungism.” They also were instructed 

to consider the spread of Protestantism as a specific 

security threat and to assume that “South Korean and 

American intelligence agencies” were behind its growth. 

1

 Researchers were also asked to 1) interview a more geographically diverse 

sample of refugees to confirm previous findings; 2) ask additional questions 

about the practice of Buddhism in North Korea; and 3) seek more information 

about conditions for refugees repatriated from China. 

The accounts presented by the former security agents 

suggests that the repression and ill-treatment of anyone 

suspected of conducting clandestine religious activity in 

North Korea is an officially approved policy, and thus, 

likely to continue, particularly as cross-border contact 

with China increases. 

The Plight of Forcibly Repatriated Refugees 

Recent refugee testimony provides further evidence that 

North Koreans face a well-founded fear of persecution 

if repatriated from China and therefore require protection as refugees under the international 1951 Convention 

Relating to the Status of Refugees. The forcible repatriation of refugees from China remains an issue of special 

concern, particularly because those repatriated are 

singled out for harsher punishment if they are suspected 

of having had close and ongoing contact with South Koreans or religious groups. Refugee interviews confirm 

that repatriated North Koreans are interrogated repeatedly about their religious affiliations and associations in 

China. If it is discovered that they have either converted 

to Christianity while in China or had contact with South 

Koreans—both of which are considered to be political 

offenses—they reportedly suffer harsh interrogation, torture and ill-treatment, prolonged detention without trial, 

and imprisonment. 

Policy towards North Korean refugees repatriated to 

China against their will clearly requires more urgent attention. North Korean refugees continue to testify to the 

sexual trafficking and other forms of exploitation they 

are subject to in China. Moreover, as documented by the 

Commission’s two reports, refugees forcibly repatriated 

from China face some form of persecution in North Korea, including long-term imprisonment, torture, or possibly execution if found to have converted to Christianity 

or had ongoing contact with South Korean churches. 

The international community can make a difference in 

preventing such abuse through concerted action to press 

China to stop repatriating North Korean refugees and 

provide increased protection for them as required by the 

Convention Relating to the Status of 
Refugees and its 1967 Protocols, to which China is a 

party. Such action should begin immediately as China 

prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. 

New and Surviving Religious Practices: 

Buddhism, Christianity, Shamanism

The recent interviews indicate that despite decades 

of repression, anti-religious propaganda, and the 

promulgation of KimIlSungism, remnants of Buddhism, 

Christianity, and traditional folk beliefs such as Shamanism persist in North Korea. For example, there was 

substantial eyewitness testimony that Buddhist temples 

are preserved as “heritage” sites by so-called “monks” 

paid by the Korean Workers’ Party. However, despite 

the reported existence of Buddhist religious venues, 

only two refugees interviewed for this report witnessed 

any religious practice occurring there—and what they 

witnessed was conducted secretly. As with Christianity, 

Korea’s rich Buddhist history has been thoroughly repressed, reduced largely to clandestine worship at what 

are largely religious tourist attractions. 

Refugees interviewed for this report provide additional details about clandestine Protestant activity, including information on surviving religious practices and 

“new” religious activity fueled by cross-border contacts 

with ethnic Korean churches in China. The refugees testified to the existence of, and their participation in, secret 

meetings and missionary activity occurring in the border 

regions. Although there is not enough data from these 

interviews to determine the size and scope of clandestine 

Protestant activity, it is nevertheless clearly perceived by 

the regime as a threat to North Korean security.

The persistence—and even popularity—of Shamanistic practice, particularly by exorcists and fortunetellers, continues to be a key finding of the Commission’s research. Most refugees interviewed had visited, 

or knew of a family member who had visited, a fortuneteller. Despite ongoing bans on these practices, they are 

apparently tolerated in rural areas—and indeed, practitioners are even frequented by high ranking officials and 

military officers. 

Continued Strength of KimIlSungism

In interviews conducted for this report, refugees continued to testify to the strength and scope of KimIlSungism. 

Absolute reverence for the Kim family continues to be 

indoctrinated into every North Korean through schools, 

media, and the workplace. Enthusiastic veneration can 

advance careers and ensure access to daily necessities, 

while disinterest, “complaints,” or “wrong thoughts” can, 

in some cases, lead to the imprisonment of up to three 

generations of one’s family in the notorious political prison labor camps (kwanliso). The penalties for challenging 

KimIlSungism are well known, but new refugee testimony 

also provided some new information about individual 

private rebellions, lax enforcement of some rituals, and 

dissatisfaction with the personality cult’s requirements.

Conclusion

Clearly, religious freedom and other human rights conditions in North Korea remain among the world’s most 

repressive, as the testimony of interviewees confirms. 

There continues to be a pressing need on the international level for further, more effective action that addresses 

the ongoing repression of religious freedom and other 

human rights in North Korea and the problems of North 

Korean refugees in China. Refugees and religious adherents are particularly vulnerable, whether living in North 

Korea or the border regions in China. The international 

community’s understandable focus on nuclear security 

should not diminish diplomatic efforts to also address human security in North Korea. 

The findings of this report are pertinent to both bilateral diplomacy and multilateral negotiations on these 

issues. Moreover, the eyewitness testimony provided in 

this and the Commission’s earlier report contributes to 

ongoing deliberations about whether North Korea’s harsh 

treatment of repatriated refugees and others for so-called 

“political offenses” may constitute such severe violations 

of international human rights treaties that, together with 

the political destabilization of the region and neighboring 

countries, North Korea’s systematic human rights abuses 
constitute a threat to the peace that requires urgent 

action by the U.N. Security Council.2 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious 

Freedom has worked actively since its inception to draw 

the world’s attention to the ways that the internationally 

guaranteed right to freedom of thought, conscience, 

religion or belief is consistently and severely violated 

by the North Korean government. This is carried out 

through the Kim Jong Il regime’s unyielding dominance 

over virtually every aspect of life, aided by the state-imposed veneration of the Kim family and enforced through 

an extensive government network of control that intrudes upon virtually every aspect of life in North Korea. 

For this reason, the Commission has recommended and 

continues to recommend that North Korea be designated 

by the U.S. Department of State as a “country of particularly concern,” or CPC, for the government’s systematic 

and egregious religious freedom abuses under the 1998 

International Religious Freedom Act. 

The Commission has devoted considerable resources 

to helping voices that are heard all too rarely—the voices 

of North Koreans—to reach policymakers far beyond 

the DPRK’s borders. The reality of life for the people 

of North Korea can perhaps best be summarized by the 

words of one former government official, “The only reason the North Korean system...still exists is because of 

the strict surveillance system... North Korea is a prison 

without bars.”

2

 For example, see Vaclav Havel, et al, Failure to Protect: A Call for the UN Security 

Council to Act in North Korea, DLA Piper, 2006; David Hawk, Concentrations of 

Inhumanity: An Analysis of the Phenomenon of Repression Associated With North Korea’s 

Kwan-li-so Political Penal Labor Camps, Freedom House, 2007; and Christian Solidarity 

Worldwide: North Korea: a Case to Answer, a Call to Act, March 2007.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CHAPTER 2 Testimony on the State of Freedom of Religion or Belief in North Korea. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

CHAPTER 3 Religious Life in North Korea: Continued Repression, Clandestine Existence, 

and the Growth of Shamanism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

CHAPTER 4 Eyewitness Accounts of the Persecution of Members of Religious Groups and 

Repatriated Refugees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

CHAPTER 5 The Policies and Practices of Repression: Testimonies of Former Security Agency Officials. . . .33

APPENDICES Appendix 1: Methodology for and Information on the North Korean Refugee 

 Interviews and Researcher Biographies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Appendix 2: Researcher Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Appendix 3: About the Commission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
A satellite image of the Kwanliso Number 18 Bukchang prisoner camp in North Korea (AP Images)
1

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 1

APrison Without Bars: Refugee and Defector Testimonies 

of Severe Violations of Freedom of Religion or Belief 

in North Korea continues the efforts of the U.S. 

Commission on International Religious Freedom to measure and report on the enormous gulf between North 

Korea’s claims to the UN Human Rights Committee that 

freedom of religion or belief is respected in that country 

and the realities on the ground as experienced in the daily lives of the Korean people. A Prison Without Bars follows 

up the publication in November 2005 of the Commission’s first report describing religious freedom conditions 

in North Korea, entitled Thank You Father Kim Il Sung: Eyewitness Accounts of Violations of Freedoms of Thought, Conscience 

and Belief in North Korea. 

Thank You Father Kim Il Sung was based on some 40 

interviews conducted in 2004 – 2005 with former North 

Koreans who fled the Democratic People’s Republic of 

Korea (DPRK) to reside in the Republic of Korea (ROK) 

or South Korea. Additional interviews were conducted with 

South Korean, European, and North American religious 

adherents who had visited North Korea and were familiar 

with the religious organizations existing in Pyongyang at the 

turn of the millennium.3

The interviewees were asked a series of questions 

about their awareness, if any, of religious practice in 

North Korea. They were then asked questions about 

3

 None of the original North Korean interviewees were natives of Pyongyang, 

and few had ever visited the DPRK’s capital city, as it is largely restricted to 

North Korean political elites. Thus, none of the North Korean interviewees 

knew of the three (now four) churches that operate in Pyongyang (and only 

in Pyongyang).

freedom of thought, conscience, and religion in the 

DPRK as they knew and experienced it. They were also 

questioned about the pervasive state-sponsored ideology 

system,4

 termed variously “Juche thought” or “KimIlSungism,” that in the late 1960s and 1970s was substituted for 

virtually all other systems of thought or belief, such as 

Buddhism, Confucianism, or Christianity, that had existed on the Korean peninsula prior to the Korean War 

(1950-1953). 

Thank You Father Kim Il Sung (the title is taken from 

an invocation that North Korean youngsters are taught to 

make before a meal) analyzes the responses and experiences of the former North Koreans. With the exception 

of a revival of fortune-telling and divination, a remnant of 

the primordial pan-Asian religion of Shamanism or spirit 

worship, the North Korean interviewees encountered 

no practice of religion or freedom of belief. In fact, they 

thought all religion was strictly prohibited, and several had 

witnessed extreme persecution of prohibited or unauthorized religious practice, including the public execution of 

religious believers. In addition, all interviewees provided 

detailed information on the mandatory veneration of the 

late Great Leader, General Kim Il Sung, which is carried 

out to such an extent that Juche Sasang (Juche thought) has 

clearly become virtually a religious cult in which Kim Il 

Sung, described as the savior and messiah of the Korean 

people, has acquired miraculous and semi-divine status.

Thank You Father Kim Il Sung described the stages in 

which all other religions and belief systems were sup4 The North Koreans call this Yuil Sasang Chegye, which is translated as 

“the one and only ideology system,” or the “monolithic ideology system.”

Introduction

By David Hawk

Author and Lead Researcher, Thank You Father Kim Il Sung
2

pressed following the Korean War. It also examined the 

extremely circumscribed and controlled revival of the 

“religious federations” system in the 1970s, including 

the contemporary policies and practices that the DPRK 

government cites when formally and officially claiming 

that North Koreans enjoy the right to freedom of religion or belief.

In 2007, a second round of approximately 40 interviews was conducted, in part to obtain additional information and also to determine if data gathered in 2004 and 

2005 could be used as a base-line in uncovering whether 

there had been any modifications in North Korean policies 

and practices regarding religious freedom. In particular, 

supplementary information was sought on contemporary 

Buddhism in North Korea (which, prior to the Choson 

dynasty, had been the official Korean state religion for hundreds of years). Additional information was also sought on 

the practice of Juche among the North Korean people and 

the policies of the regime in propagating Juche, as well as 

on the reemergence of unauthorized belief systems and/

or religious or semi-religious practices. There was also an 

attempt to determine whether there had been any changes 

in the treatment of North Koreans who are forcibly repatriated from China, as previous interviews had clearly 

established that North Koreans who met South Koreans or 

were introduced to Protestant Christianity while in China 

were punished severely when forcibly repatriated to the 

DPRK.5

 Lastly, while Thank You Father Kim Il Sung had an 

interview with one former North Korean police official 

previously involved in the persecution of North Korean 

religious believers,6

 additional interviews were sought with 

former North Korean police and other security officials 

who had defected to South Korea in order to obtain added 

insight into official policies and practices toward religious 

freedom in the DPRK. 

The present report, Prison Without Bars: Refugee and 

Defector Testimonies of Severe Violations of Freedom of Religion 

5

 Such introductions occur in two ways. Many North Koreans go to KoreanChinese churches upon arrival in China in search of food or other assistance. 

Secondly, many North Korean border-crossers in China are assisted by South 

Korean missionaries or the representatives of faith-based South Korean nongovernmental organizations (Christian and Buddhist) who go to the ChinaNorth Korea border precisely to help the North Koreans fleeing to China in 

search of food, employment, or political asylum.

6

 See Thank You Father, p. 52.

or Belief in North Korea, contains an assessment of these 

additional interviews.

Highlights from the Second Round of Interviews

From among this second group, more interviewees 

were able to attest to the survival of Buddhist temples, 

although these temples are almost entirely bereft of 

Buddhist religious activity and maintained largely as 

cultural or architectural heritage sites. Some interviewees referred to “monks” (sometimes using a common 

North Korean pejorative slang for “monks” who, in 

most East Asian countries, are referred to honorifically) 

who gave lectures at the temples, but more interviewees referred to the personnel at the temple heritage 

sites as “caretakers.” Some cited seeing Buddhist-style 

prayer offerings taking place at these temples, but furtively, when it was thought that no one was looking. 

More interviewees confirmed the widespread reemergence of the Shamanistic remnant practice of divination or fortune-telling that, while not legal, reemerged 

during the famine crisis. Virtually everyone interviewed 

in both sets of interviews reported that fortune-tellers 

operated semi-openly almost everywhere outside of 

Pyongyang. Indeed, many reported that they or their 

family members visited fortune tellers, as did North 

Korean officials and police.

Several interviewees noted that Buddhist practice, as 

limited as it is, and Shamanistic fortune-telling, as widespread as it is, are both regarded as superstitions that do 

not threaten or rival KimIlSungism as an ideological system. 

Protestant Christianity, on the other hand, because of its 

historical connection to “American imperialism” and present-day connection to Koreans from south of the 38th parallel, is seen as a direct ideological challenge to the Kim family ideology inasmuch as, in the recent words of an historian 

of Korea, “Kim Il Sung had virtually become a deity.”7

Variations Over Time: Evolution Perhaps, 

But Little or No Basic Improvement

One of the aims in conducting a second round of interviews was to use the first round as a base-line to 

7

 Charles Armstrong, The Koreas, Routledge, New York, 2007, p. 82.
3

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 1

determine if there had been changes or improvements 

in the situation over time, particularly in the treatment of repatriated North Koreans who had encountered religion or religious adherents while in China.8

 

However, the data drawn from the second round of 

interviews, though showing a slight evolution in the 

situation, when reviewed together with other recent 

interviews and interview data, does not suggest any 

significant progress toward the protection of religious 

freedom in North Korea.

In 1999, the DPRK regime reportedly recognized 

that thousands of its citizens had gone to China in search 

of food during the mid-1990s famine crisis which the 

North Koreans called, in their fashion, “the arduous 

march.” These “food-seeking border-crossers” were 

distinguished from the North Korean “traitors” who 

were seeking to defect to South Korea. Punishment for 

those crossing the border in search of food, though the 

act is technically illegal, was limited to several months 

at hard labor in the rodongdanryeondae mobile labor brigades. However, contact in China with South Koreans or 

Korean-Americans, many of whom are associated with 

faith-based humanitarian relief efforts, is still deemed a 

more severely punishable political offense. North Korean 

security agents reportedly regularly employ torture and 

coercive interrogation techniques, including beatings 

and prolonged stress positions, in order to induce the 

repatriated North Koreans to admit to such meetings. 

Most of the interviewees for this present report believed 

that many who confessed under duress to meeting South 

Koreans or adopting a religious belief system from such 

contact were punished more severely. Nine of the former 

North Koreans interviewed for this report claim that following repatriation, their punishment was more severe 

on account of admitting during interrogation that they 

had contact with Christian believers while in China.9

8

 Improvement is not impossible. Interviews in 2007 with North Korean 

women refugees in China who had previously been imprisoned along with 

pregnant women before again fleeing the DPRK report that as far as they 

were aware, the previous practices of forced abortion and infanticide among 

women who became pregnant in China prior to forced repatriation to North 

Korea has been drastically curbed. For comparison, see David Hawk, Hidden 

Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps, U.S. Committee for Human Rights in 

North Korea, Washington DC 2004, pp. 56-69, and Norma Kang Mucio, Forced 

Labour in North Korean Prison Camps, Anti-Slavery Society, London, 2007, p. 17. 9

 See Chapter 3 below.

 Changes in the repressive conditions along the China-North Korea border, as described by the interviewees, 

have occurred in two areas. According to former North 

Korean police agents interviewed for this report, unlike 

in the past, the border agents now recognize that many 

of those crossing the border in search of food will go to 

Chinese-Korean churches for help immediately upon arrival in China. These former police agents did not believe 

that people were more harshly treated merely for having 

gone to a Korean-Chinese church for food or shelter. 

Second, the repatriated North Koreans themselves report 

that regardless of this purported development, many 

have learned not to admit to this contact with religion in 

China, denying, even under duress, having met any South 

Korean missionaries or aid workers, as such a confession 

does risk much more severe punishment, including the 

interviewees believed, potential execution or being sent 

to the kwanliso, political penal labor camps.

Other recent interviews conducted in 2006 and 

2007 among North Koreans in China who had recently 

fled the DPRK present corresponding views. For example, Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviewed 16 

previously imprisoned North Koreans who fled to 

China between July and December 2006. Following 

the 2004 South Korean airlift to Seoul of more than 

400 North Korean refugees who had become stranded 

in Vietnam, and the passage several days later of the 

North Korea Human Rights Act in the United States in 

late 2004, HRW concluded that the DPRK increased 

Protestant Christianity...because of its 

historical connection to “American imperialism” 

and present-day connection to Koreans 

from south of the 38th parallel, is seen as a 

direct ideological challenge to the Kim 

family ideology inasmuch as, in the recent 

words of an historian of Korea, “Kim Il 

Sung had virtually become a deity.”
4

the severity of punishment for all border-crossers 

into China.10

In January 2007, the Anti-Slavery Society conducted 

30 interviews with former North Koreans—all but five 

of whom were interviewed in China—who had also been 

previously forcibly repatriated from China and punished 

upon return to the DPRK. Their report also notes that in 

1999, North Korean officials began to make a “clear distinction between those simply going to China for survival 

purposes and those who were more politically motivated 

(e.g. in contact with South Koreans or Christians, or 

caught en route to South Korea. In general, the former 

were sent to a labor training camp (nodong danryundae) 

or a re-education camp (kyohwaso), while the latter were 

incarcerated in a political prison camp (kwanliso).11

These interviews conducted by the Anti-Slavery Society confirm the finding of the interviews for the present 

report that the repatriated refugees have learned to avoid 

mentioning contact with religion while in China. “Many 

interviewees had some degree of contact with a church in 

China (because the church is active in assisting undocumented North Koreans), but most denied this during the 

interrogation process.”12 Further, these interviews verify 

that many North Koreans had learned to deny any such 

contact and that if the prisoners consistently denied this to 

the very end of their interrogation, they could avoid further punishment. 

For this second Commission report, virtually all of the 

North Korean refugees interviewed testify that between 

2003 and 2006, they continued to be pressed during interrogation for details about attending church, meeting missionaries, watching South Korean television, and meeting 

South Koreans. Regrettably, recent data confirms that the 

10 According to HRW’s findings, “Those [North Koreans] arrested [in China] 

between 2000 and late 2004 were either released after questioning or served a 

few months at labor re-education facilities, unless they were found to have had 

contact with South Koreans, missionaries, or aid workers. Such contact was a 

factor that would result in worse punishment....” Those interviewees, coming 

from eight different locations in North Korea, stated that DPRK authorities 

announced that all repatriated border-crossers would be imprisoned. 

Significantly, HRW found that “The principle of heavier punishment for those 

who have had contact with missionaries or converted to Christianity while in 

China appears to have been retained under the new policy.” North Korea: Harsher 

Policies Against Border-Crossers, Human Rights Watch, March 2007, pp 4 and 7. 11 Norma Kang Mucio, Forced Labor in North Korean Prison Camps, Anti-Slavery 

Society, London, 2007, pp. 3-4.

12 Ibid, p. 11.

North Korean regime’s policy of penalizing North Koreans 

for coming into contact with religious institutions or persons, or for meeting with South Koreans, continues.

DPRK Police Testimony: Breaking Up South 

Korean Spy Rings

In addition to interviews with some 30 North 

Korean refugees now residing in South Korea, a number of 

interviews were conducted with former North Korean 

police and other security officials who had defected to 

South Korea. The former North Korean police agents 

provided valuable insight into the way in which religious 

freedom is actively repressed in the DPRK. Three former 

bowibu State Security Agency police13 interviewed separately for this report specified that the interrogationdetention facilities along the North Korea-China border 

where North Koreans forcibly repatriated from China are 

held and brutally interrogated are run by the counterintelligence department of bowibu. What the former agents 

describe themselves to be doing is conducting counterintelligence work. Their claim is that the State Security 

Agency’s concern is spy networks run by the South Korean 

intelligence agency along the China-North Korea border, 

using South Korean Christian missionaries and would-be 

North Korean Christian converts as a cover for espionage. 

Thus, the repatriated North Koreans who are thought 

to have met South Koreans or attended Korean-Chinese 

churches are initially interviewed by regular police agents 

from anjeonbu14and then turned over to bowibu or secret 

police for more coercive interrogations. This latter effort 

is designed to uncover and “neutralize” the South Korean 

13 Kukgabowibu is the formal name of North Korea’s powerful political police, 

generally referred to by North Koreans as bowibu. It is usually translated in 

South Korea as the National Security Agency (NSA). For American audiences, 

State Security Agency would be a better translation, as this police agency is 

more akin to the FBI and intelligence and counter-intelligence operations of 

the CIA than to the National Security Council (the foreign policy coordination 

unit within the White House), or the National Security Agency (the satellite 

reconnaissance and radio/telephone intercept agency). In North Korea, the 

bowibu runs the infamous political prison camps as well as the detention/

interrogation facilities thought the country.

14 Anjeonbu is the name commonly used by North Koreans for the regular 

criminal police. It is a colloquial shorthand for Sahoeanjeonbu, the Social Safety 

Agency, the formal name of which was changed in 1998 to Inminboanseong, the 

People’s Safety Agency. North Koreans have retained the short 

hand abbreviations bowibu for the political police and anjeonbu for the 

regular police.
5

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 1

intelligence networks believed to be operating along the 

border with China. 

Two of the bowibu agents interviewed for this report 

were themselves from the counter-intelligence department. The third former bowibu agent worked for the 

intelligence department of the State Security Agency, 

whose task was to run North Korean spy rings into South 

Korea. One former agent stated that the South Korean 

spy operations along the Chinese border dated back to 

the Chun Doo Hwan presidency, 1980 – 1988. Another 

noted that the bowibu counter-intelligence agents themselves posed as Christian converts in order to penetrate 

the prayer or Bible study meetings run in China by South 

Korean missionary aid workers. Another claimed that 

they were not against religion per se, but were actually 

trying to catch the spies pretending to be religious converts. Also mentioned was the attempt to catch North 

Koreans in China who were not in search of food or employment but were there to make the connections necessary to defect to South Korea, something that is considered a traitorous action against the North Korean state.

However, it is equally clear from the testimony of 

the former North Korean agents that spying for South 

Korea is conflated with “cultural aggression” by “American imperialism” through the infiltration into North 

Korea of “poisonous ideology” with the aim of “liquidating socialism.” In explaining the North Korean view, the 

former police agents explicitly cited the long-standing 

government attack on Protestant Christianity, detailed in 

Thank You Father Kim Il Sung, which points to one of the 

earliest attempts to break open the “hermit kingdom” 

in 1866 by the ill-fated American ship, the USS General 

Sherman, as suspect because it had a missionary Bible 

Society agent as one of the passengers.15 The government 

also refers to other, subsequent attempts by Protestant 

Christian missionaries to “poison the minds”16 and “steal 

the body parts”17 of Korean people. Explaining the North 

Korean police viewpoint, a former State Security agent 

explained that currently, the United States had one-half 

of the [Korean] peninsula, and was using religion to get 

the other half. Religion is seen as the “advance guard” 

of aggression, said another interviewee, the purpose of 

which is to “liquidate socialism.”

Several other comments by the former security 

agents regarding violations of religious freedom along the 

Korean-Chinese border are worthy of note.

• Mention was made of the practice of secret executions of religious believers, but none claimed to have 

personally witnessed such executions. Thus, unlike 

the public executions of religious believers described 

in Thank You Father Kim Il Sung, it is not possible to 

provide details of these executions. Secret executions 

are, by their nature, unconfirmable unless it is the 

executioners themselves or their closest police associates who provide the direct evidence.

• The former police agents contend that North Koreans 

in China are being paid by South Korean missionaries 

to carry Bibles back into North Korea on their return, 

and that the North Koreans take the money and the 

Bibles but discard the latter shortly after they cross the 

border into North Korea. This might well account for 

the stories of North Koreans who, when arrested by 

the North Korean police for possession of Bibles, claim, 

apparently successfully, that they just found the books 

15 See chapters six and seven of Thank You Father Kim Il Sung. The DPRK 

government officially contends that the execution of the sailors and passengers 

of the USS General Sherman by Korean patriots led by Kim Il Sung’s greatgrandfather was, as the first great defeat of American imperialism, the turning 

point of modern Korean history.

16 The missionaries introduced practical education in the Korean language to 

the sons and daughters of Korean common people, whereas in the Choson 

dynasty, formal education was restricted to the sons of the aristocracy, who 

studied classic Confucian texts in the Chinese language.

17 A reference to rumors spread among the population after the introduction 

into Korea of modern surgery by medical missionaries.

Regrettably, recent data provides little 

evidence to conclude that the North Korean 

regime’s policy of penalizing North 

Koreans for coming into contact with 

religious institutions or persons, or for 

meeting with South Koreans, has lessened 

in any meaningful way.
6

along the road and picked them up not knowing what 

they were. Previously the punishment for being found 

in possession of religious literature was, by most 

accounts, much more certain and severe.

• One former police agent said that while it was possible to speak of “underground believers” in North 

Korea, referring to North Koreans who carried their 

newfound belief system back with them when they returned to North Korea, it was still much too dangerous 

for there to be “underground churches,” where North 

Koreans (other than immediate family members) meet 

and worship together.

• Another former police agent testified that the regime 

drew a distinction between the family members of 

“old believers,” or the children or grandchildren of 

Koreans who acquired a new belief system at the end 

of the nineteenth or beginning of the twentieth century, and those more recent believers who acquired 

their new belief system from contacts in China. This is 

entirely consistent with, and confirms the testimony 

of, the former North Korean citizens and others interviewed for Thank You Father Kim Il Sung.18

Conclusion: Severe Religious Freedom Violations

The first Commission report, Thank You Father Kim Il 

Sung, detailed the significant limitations on religious 

practice applied to those religious adherents—and their 

family members—who acquired their religious belief 

prior to the establishment of the DPRK. Also detailed 

18 See Thank You Father, pp. 86-95, for a description of the contemporary DPRK 

religious federation arrangements for the children and grandchildren of “old 

religious believers.”

in that report, and confirmed by the current round of 

interviews summarized in Prison Without Bars, are the 

more serious religious freedom and other human rights 

violations committed by DRPK authorities against those 

North Koreans who have acquired a religious belief system more recently, often while residing in China. These 

are severe violations based on religious belief or practice.

There is no basis in international human rights treaties 

for treating one group of religious adherents differently 

from another, merely on the basis of when they acquired 

their religious beliefs. 

North Koreans who meet South Koreans in China or 

who adopt a belief system while in China can be identified by North Korean security agencies as a group or 

collectivity on national, political, or religious grounds. It 

is clear from the testimony of both sets of interviewees 

that North Koreans suspected of such attributes are, 

upon repatriation, deprived of their liberty, interrogated, 

often under torture or cruel, inhumane, and degrading circumstances, and subjected to forced labor in the 

danryoendae mobile labor brigades, jibkyolso provincial 

detention facilities, or kyohwaso penitentiaries. Those sent 

to the revolutionizing zones of the kwanliso political penal 

labor colonies are additionally subjected to “enforced 

disappearances.” Moreover, after the repatriated North 

Koreans are released from prison or labor camps for having met South Koreans in China, many of those North 

Koreans fear that they are forever “marked” and, as a 

result, will continue to face surveillance, discrimination, 

and persecution. This leads many from among this group 

to attempt to flee again across the border to China, 

this time not in search of food or employment, but as 

bona fide refugees—persons who have fled their country 

of origin out of a well-founded fear of persecution.

Clearly, all of these actions on the part of the 

DPRK government amount to severe violations of international human rights standards. Persecuting and 

punishing North Koreans for meeting South Koreans or 

Korean-Americans while in China, or penalizing North 

Koreans for adopting a different belief system while in 

China, is not consistent with the DPRK government’s 

legal obligations as a State Party to the International 

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international human rights treaties. These obligations include 

There is no basis in international 

human rights treaties for treating one 

group of religious adherents differently 

from another, merely on the basis of when 

they acquired their religious beliefs. 
7

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 1

respect for citizens’ right to life, their right to liberty 

and personal security, their right not to be held in slavery or compelled to perform forced labor, their right 

not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or 

degrading treatment or punishment, their right not to 

be arbitrarily arrested or detained and the right of those 

detained to be treated humanely and with dignity. Nor 

is such repression consistent with the people-to-people 

exchanges explicitly outlined in the 1991 Basic Agreement between North and South Korea,19 or the current 

inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation process. 

Such clear human rights abuses, including violations of 

the right to freedom of religion or belief as described 

in Thank You Father and A Prison Without Bars, should be 

placed squarely on the agenda of future bilateral and 

multilateral discussions with North Korean leaders.

19 The 1991 Basic Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-Aggression, Exchanges 

and Cooperation.
The Tower of Juche Idea, opposite Kim Il Sung 

Square in Pyongyang 
9

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 2

I. The State of Religious Freedom

Over the past three years, the Commission has compiled 75 interviews with North Korean refugees. Those 

who fled North Korea after 2003 confirmed what was 

learned from those interviewed for the Commission’s 

earlier study, Thank You Father Kim Il Sung: that freedom 

of religion or belief does not exist in North Korea. The 

testimony from the additional interviews strongly defies 

claims made by North Korean officials that this internationally guaranteed freedom is in fact protected in practice in their country. 

Consistent with the findings of the earlier study, 

refugees continue to cite three mutually reinforcing reasons for the lack of religious freedom in North Korea. 

First, anti-religious propaganda is ubiquitous and reinforced through the educational system, mass media, and 

the workplace. Second, it is widely known that there are 

severe penalties meted out against those discovered practicing banned religions. Many interviewees testified that 

they had heard about or witnessed severe persecution of 

persons caught engaging in religious activity. Third, all 

understood that veneration of the Kim family, or KimIlSungism, was the official state ideology, and the only belief 

system allowed to exist in North Korea. Those interviewed continued to provide rich detail about the scope 

and practices of KimIlSungism.

20 

20 For a larger description of KimIlSungism as a quasi-religious cult of 

personality venerating the “Great Leader” Kim Il Sung and the “Dear Leader” 

Kim Jong Il, see the description in Thank You Father Kim Il Sung: Eyewitness 

Accounts of Severe Violations of the Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in 

North Korea, pp. 38-42.

Overall, one of the most significant factors impacting 

the responses of refugees was whether they had spent any 

time in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.21 Those 

living in Pyongyang are considered to be among North 

Korea’s elite and are often the country’s most educated. 

Among those interviewed who had been to Pyongyang, 

several knew of the existence of Christian, Buddhist, 

or Chondokyo religious venues in the capital, but all 

contended that they were not for the North Korean 

people but were showplaces for foreigners and not “real 

churches like those in China and South Korea.” None of 

the interviewees who knew about the churches had ever 

visited or attended services there.

 Among those who had lived or were educated in 

Pyongyang, there was knowledge that North Korean legal 

codes contained rights protections, but all believed that 

they were included for international consumption, and 

did not reflect domestic practice.22 Several recounted 

how they had been taught by university professors or superiors that such provisions existed to create the appearance of compliance with international norms, but were 

not something they would expect the government to 

follow. As one individual recounted, “we...learned in college about [legal] statutes regarding freedom of religion. 

[However] the professors told us that it was only to show 

outsiders and that we should not believe in any religions.” 

21 Internal travel in North Korea is restricted, and residence in the capital 

Pyongyang is reserved for political elites and privileged workers.

22 Articles 67 and 68 of the DPRK Constitution confer rights to “freedom of 

speech, freedom of assembly, demonstration and association, and freedom of 

religious belief.”

Testimony on the State of Freedom of 

Religion or Belief in North Korea
10

Specific Responses on the Overall State of 

Religious Freedom in North Korea

Interviewee 1: “Even though North Korean law guarantees freedom, it’s only a slogan. People in North Korea 

are not familiar with the concept of religion, even though 

Kim Il Sung University has a religion department. God is 

interpreted according to Communist standards.”

Interviewee 3: “Religion? Not at all. You cannot say a 

word about it [or] three generations of your family can 

be killed. People who lived before the Korean War knew 

[about religion.] But religion was eradicated. We can 

only serve one person in North Korea [Kim Jong Il].” 

Interviewee 5: “The constitution of North Korea...

mentions freedom of belief or freedom of religion a lot. 

Generally, [the charter of] any organization indicates that 

a person can have right[s]. It’s quite different in reality. If 

you say the word ‘religion’ you could face consequences.”

Interviewee 9: “Although there is freedom of religion 

[guaranteed by law], in reality, it is considered as a threat 

to the system, a hotbed of security problems, and opium 

[of the people].” 

Interviewee 16: “If one says [anything about religion], 

one immediately gets jailed or killed. There is no freedom 

of speech. In North Korea, if someone says ‘Kim Jong Il 

is a [bad person],’ he or she gets arrested instantly.” 

Interviewee 20: “One cannot even say the word ‘religion.’ North Korea does have Christians and Catholics. 

They have buildings but they are all fake. These groups exist to falsely show the world that North Korea has freedom 

of religion. But [the government] does not allow religion 

or [independent] religious organizations because it is worried about the possibility that Kim Jong Il’s regime would 

be in danger [because] religion erodes society.” 

Interviewee 23: “Worshipping God or [contact with 

foreign religious groups or leaders] would make one a 

political criminal. Christianity is not allowed...some 

people go to fortune-tellers. The Christian church is the 

last thing that the North Korean government would 

permit. The government believes that the Christian 

church is an anti-national organization.” 

Interviewee 24: “There is no freedom of belief or religion. In North Korea we are educated and taught since 

childhood [that] you can never believe in religion. Even if 

we go to China on business, it is unforgivable to attend a 

church. [We are taught] that if one is involved in religion, 

one cannot survive. If you don’t [believe] in Kim Il Sung 

and Kim Jong Il, you are an unacceptable person. If you 

are caught, then you are imprisoned.”

Interviewee 27: “The constitution guarantees the freedom of religion, assembly and so on. In reality, there 

is no freedom of religion at all. Not even 0.1 percent. 

For example, recently, many North Korean refugees 

have Bibles with them when they are repatriated. If they 

are caught carrying a Bible they are punished. In North 

Korea, you can get away with murder if you have good 

connections. However, if you get caught carrying a Bible, 

there is no way to save your life.”

Interviewee 31: “I heard stories from my mom and dad 

about religion in North Korea. We also learned in college 

about [North Korean legal] statutes regarding freedom 

of religion. [However] the professors told us that it was 

only to show outsiders and that we should not believe 

in religions.” 

II. Awareness of or Participation in 

Religious Activities 

In its 2002 response to the UN’s questions regarding religious activities inside the DPRK, North Korea claimed 

that there were 37,000 individuals practicing some form 

of Buddhism, Chondokyo, Catholicism, or Protestantism 

in the DPRK. Churches and temples have been built in 

Pyongyang and the government states that 512 “house 

churches” exist in the country. Refugees were asked if 

they had ever witnessed or encountered any religious 

activity, religious leader, or religious literature in the cities and towns where they grew up or worked. If the interviewee indicated that (s)he had some experience with 

religion, (s)he was asked to explain how that knowledge 

came about. 

As in previous interviews, most North Korean refugees responded that they had little exposure to religious 

activity, places of worship, religious leaders, or religious 
11

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 2

literature before seeking asylum in China. Most of what 

they knew about religion came from negative images in the 

mass media or anti-religious propaganda learned in school, 

or from witnessing or hearing about the arrest or execution of believers. 

Some of those interviewed had visited Buddhist religious venues in the form of preserved temple buildings 

or seen Christian churches in Pyongyang. However, they 

uniformly described these venues as either “heritage” sites 

where no religious worship occurred, or as structures 

for “foreigners” to show that North Korea had “religious 

freedom.” None of those interviewed had visited a Christian church or Protestant “house church.” 

Those refugees who had encountered Christian or 

Buddhist religious literature knew that it was banned 

and considered dangerous. Several of those interviewed 

told stories of grandparents or parents hiding a Bible or 

other religious literature. Many refugees discussed the 

wide availability of Shamanistic books on exorcism that 

were said to be available for purchase on the black market. However, the consequences of owning such material 

were well-known, and if the religious material was associated with Protestant Christianity, punishment could include execution and the imprisonment of “three generations” of the owner’s family. Several of those interviewed, 

including former security agency officers, believed that 

U.S. or South Korean intelligence agencies distributed 

Bibles as part of their plot to destabilize North Korea. 

Recent interviews confirm that religious freedom 

conditions have not improved much overall in North Korea. However, there are four important insights gained 

from the post-2003 refugees about religious activity in 

the DPRK. First, the latest interviews provide more geographically diverse testimony about religious repression, 

whereas previous interviews conducted by the Commission were, generally, with refugees from North Hamgyeong Province only. From these more recent, diverse 

interviews, it is possible to affirm that the policies used 

to repress religious freedom are uniform throughout the 

DPRK. Second, there is ample testimony that awareness 

of ongoing religious activity stems from cross-border contact with China—including the importation of religious 

literature, videos, and documentaries, as well as the activities of missionaries. Refugees recount stories of religious 

or shamanistic literature being available at the border and 

the existence of some clandestine religious activity in the 

border regions or rural areas. Third, similar to what was 

learned from the previous set of refugees, there is telling testimony from the second group about the existence 

of Buddhist temples and shrines, preserved as “cultural 

heritage sites,” in many provinces of the DPRK. Fourth, 

there continues to be evidence that illegal or clandestine 

religious activity—mostly the Shamanistic practice of 

divination and Protestant Christianity—has grown in the 

past decade, particularly since the famine of the 1990s (see 

Chapter 3 for more detailed information). 

Specific Responses on the Awareness of 

or Participation in Religious Activity

Interviewee 1: “I have never seen any Buddhist temples, 

Christian churches, or Chondokyo temples in Wonsan, 

South Gangwon Province. My mother was the chief of 

our neighborhood [political] unit...so I did hear from her 

about one old [Christian] lady.”

Interviewee 2: “I never saw any Buddhist temples, 

Christian churches, or Chondokyo temples in Cheongjin. However, I saw the Bongsu and Chilgol churches in 

Pyongyang. When the church was under construction, I 

saw two old people kneel down at the construction site, 

praying ‘Thank you God. Finally, we can have a church 

in North Korea.’ At that time, they were not taken right 

away because foreigners were recording the scene. But 

nobody knows what happened to them later.”

Interview 3: “There are no Buddhist temples, Christian 

churches, or Chondokyo temples in Gyeongseong, North 

Hamgyeong province. My grandmother used to keep 

[a Bible.] If you hide [religious books] well during the 

“In North Korea, you can get away with 

murder if you have good connections. 

However, if you get caught carrying a Bible, 

there is no way to save your life.” 
12

house searches, you won’t be in trouble. If not, nobody 

can tell where you will be taken away at night.” 

Interviewee 4: “In Pyongyang there is Bongsu Church, 

the Korean Chondokyo Young Friends Party and a building for worship as well. If you go to Bohyeon temple at 

Mt. Myohyang, you can see Buddhist monks. They are 

North Koreans with their heads shaved. They get married, take care of the temple, and give [tours] of the 

temple as a cultural heritage. They do not speak about the 

spread of Confucianism and Buddhism in Korea.”

Interviewee 7: “We had a Buddhist temple in our village. We hike [there] when we go to temple. I was a lower 

ranked officer of the women’s union. We [hold] meetings whenever we need to give the government’s or the 

Party’s policy. We [were taught] not to believe in God or 

pray. In one town people prayed in a garage. [These] believers got reported....an 80-year old lady was arrested.” 

Interviewee 9: “It is unimaginable, no one can even say 

a word about churches or temples in Hambeung, South 

Hamgyeong Province. Those who believe in God [are 

thought to] invade other countries. I was taught that the 

U.S. penetrated culture first by sending missionaries. 

Evidence of this is exhibited in a museum in Simcheon, 

South Hamgyeong Province.” 

Interviewee 10: “I have never seen any religious buildings in Hoeryeong Daedeock, North Hamgyeong Province or Sariwon, South Hawaghae Province. There was a 

44-year-old man who lived in Secheon, Hoeryeong who 

had lived in China for two years. He became a believer 

there...and [later] he was said to preach salvation by 

Jesus. He escaped to China after being reported [to the 

authorities.] I thought he was crazy...possessed by the 

devil...and was going out of his mind.”

Interviewee 11: “There is a Buddhist temple in Doheung, South Hamgyeong Province. I have never seen any 

religious building except [that] temple.” 

Interviewee 12: “There is nothing like religious buildings in Hamheung, South Hamgyeong Province.”

Interviewee 14: “In Bakcheon, North Pyeongan 

Province, there was an old site of a church. Part of it 

remained...but it is [now] a house. There is Bongsu 

Church in Pyongyang and many Buddhist heritage 

[temples]. There are monks. They can’t practice, but 

have temples at Mt. Myohyang. I had a Buddhist scripture written in Chinese characters, which is called 

Myeongdang gyeong (Buddhist scriptures). I got it from 

someone who visited from China. There were fortune 

and marital harmony books...traded in secret...some 

were very expensive...”

Interviewee 16: “There are churches and Buddhist 

temples in Pyongyang...built only for...foreigners to attend. When foreigners visit Pyongyang they would go to 

churches and temples to pray and bow. I never heard of 

religious books until I came to China.”

Interviewee 17: “In Musan, North Hamgyeong Province, there are many temples as scenic spots. I have not 

met any monks. I learned about Christmas holidays and 

about [Buddhism] from South Korean films and foreign 

movies [on video]. A friend of mine who lived near the 

Tumen River [owned] a Bible. I read a little because it 

was interesting...and asked my friend [about it]. He told 

me not to read the book. I [did not] report my friend [to 

the authorities].” 

Interviewee 20: “There was an old Buddhist temple in 

Hoeryeong, North Hamgyeoung Province. There were 

no monks or worship there, but it was preserved as a 

national treasure. I have traveled to many places in North 

Korea...temples are located elsewhere but again, they 

are nothing more than historical remains.”

Interviewee 22: “There are no churches or Chondokyo 

temples in Gilju, North Hamgyeoung Province, but there 

is a Buddhist temple. Gaebo temple at Mt. Chilbo. North 

Korea has many temples. There are no monks, but there 

are people called gwalliwon (caretakers) at the temple.” 

Interviewee 24: “I have never witnessed any religious 

activity in Yeonan, South Hwanghae Province. When I was 

in Zhangbai, China on business, I heard about Bibles being smuggled into Hyesan, Yanggang Province. And when 

I went to China in 2004, I confirmed that Bibles were 

circulating among North Koreans in China.”
13

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 2

Interviewee 26: “There are no churches or temples in 

Bukcheong, South Hamgyeong Province. If you take a 

bus 60ri (24km) there is Mt. Daedeok. It is really famous and there are lots of historical sites. I visited the 

Kim Il Sung [Anti-Japanese Struggle Museum] and saw 

Buddhist temples.” 

III. The Propagation and Practice 

of KimIlSungism

All North Korean refugees interviewed by the Commission confirmed, through detailed accounts, the quasi-religious cult of personality surrounding the Great Leader 

Kim Il Sung and the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. They 

provided consistent testimony to the way this cult of 

personality dominates their daily lives and the penalties 

associated with questioning or challenging its mandatory 

rites and requirements. 

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kim Il Sung constructed an “official ideology” called Juche or Kim Il Sung 

Revolutionary Thought (Kimilsung Hyukmyeong Sasang). 

Kim’s aim was to fill the spiritual and intellectual void 

created by the repression of existing religious practice 

and to promote himself as a leading revolutionary thinker 

among communist and non-aligned nations. Juche ideology 

emerged as a largely secular theory of socialist revolution 

and social construction. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, 

the Juche philosophy was transformed into a highly elaborate and structured belief system based on the semi-deification of Kim Il Sung and his family. Kim Jong Il himself 

coined the term “KimIlSungism” and is responsible for many 

of its requirements and rituals.23 By the time he assumed 

power in the early-1990s, Kim Jong Il himself was added 

to the pantheon of revered revolutionary heroes. 

As described in the Commission’s previous study, 

KimIlSungism has developed into an elaborate system of 

belief and social control that begins when children learn to 

say “Thank you Father Kim Il Sung” as they learn to talk, 

and continues with ongoing, mandatory adult education 

classes held in the workplace or in shrine-like buildings 

called “Kim Il Sung Revolutionary Idea Institutes,” “Study 

23 For a broader description of the transition from the secular Marxist theory 

of Juche to the quasi-religious cult of personality called KimIlSungism, see 

Thank You Father Kim Il Sung, pp. 78-85.

Halls,” or “Research Rooms.” There are reportedly such 

venues in every locality, and often these institutes are 

the most prominent and best maintained buildings.24 In 

addition to weekly meetings, interviewees spoke of additional “Self-Criticism Meetings” and study sessions held 

by students, workers, and women. In some areas, North 

Koreans are expected to attend three meetings per week 

for study and veneration of the Kim family. 

The recent refugee interviews provide more expansive information about the propagation, requirements, 

scope, and strength of KimIlSungism. Refugees testified 

to the requirement of hanging portraits of the Kim family (including, in some cases, Kim Jong Il’s mother Kim 

Jeong Suk) in every home, office, school, public venue, 

and “deepest tunnel.” Some also discussed the fashion requirement of wearing pins and badges bearing the image 

of Kim Il Sung at all times. 

One interesting piece of information provided by 

refugees was the fact of the existence of local committees 

organized to enforce the requirement that North Koreans hang and maintain the Kim family portraits (called

chosanghwa jeongseongsaeop). These committees are tasked 

with conducting spot inspections and handing out fines 

to families or businesses whose portraits are not properly maintained. Blatant disregard for the portraiture 

requirement could lead to imprisonment. According to 

some accounts, however, rigid enforcement of this policy 

varies. Said one interviewee, “every day, every family [is 

supposed] to stand before the portraits dressed in nice 

clothes and keep the pictures clean. We don’t do that anymore because there has been no inspection since 2001. 

Now they make announcements before inspections to tell 

us to clean the pictures.” 

Recent interviewees suggest that faith in KimIlSungism

was shaken by the famine of the 1990s. Every North Korean interviewed attested to the strength and persistence of 

the “official ideology”; however, several interviewees indicated that few people voluntarily take part in study sessions 

and others offer testimony to instances of private dissent 

and disinterest, public complaints, lax enforcement, and 

even disregard for the requirements of KimIlSungism.

24 The testimony of the scope and requirements of KimIlSungism are similar to 

those provided by previously interviewed refugees. See Thank You Father Kim Il 

Sung, pp. 38-42.
14

The new interviews provide some interesting evidence that better connected or wealthier North Koreans can ignore or “pass” on some of the requirements 

of weekly attendance at “mutual criticism meetings.”25 

Many interviewees pointed out the paradox of thanking 

the Kim family for their sustenance when sustenance was 

so hard to come by. One refugee who served on a committee that organized weekly study sessions claimed that 

in her province, “eight out of 10 people had complaints” 

about the requirements of KimIlSungism “when there 

wasn’t anything to eat.” 

Several refugees, including former soldiers and intelligence officers, claimed that support for KimIlSungism

varied geographically. According to one interviewee, “there 

is a remarkable contrast.....between the border and inland 

areas. The border area is ruled by capitalism and the inland 

area is ruled by socialism. Inland people still believe Kim 

Jong Il is the best.” Another refugee claimed that “people 

living in North Hamgyeong Province, along the border 

with China...know the gap in living standards between 

North Korea and China....the only people who believe in 

[KimIlSungism] live in Pyongyang.” 

Despite this testimony, there is not enough firsthand evidence to substantiate the contention that the 

institutions supporting KimIlSungism are crumbling. The 

25 Interviewees described “mutual criticism meetings” as sessions which they 

were required to attend, along with others in a given village, work place, or 

other social unit, where all were encouraged publicly to admit their failures to 

fulfill the state’s or the Party’s expectations. 

overwhelming picture emerging from refugee testimony 

is that of a political ideology that remains potent not 

least through its ability to endow strict devotees with 

social privileges, while identifying malcontents with ease, 

and punishing them if necessary. As one refugee stated, 

“North Koreans still believe in Kim Jong Il. They didn’t 

betray Kim Jong Il [when they defected], but ran away 

because they were hungry.”

Specific Reponses on the Practice of KimIlSungism 

Interviewee 1: “We call it the Kim Il Sung Institute of 

Revolutionary Ideas. Attendance is mandatory. If you 

go to the Institute, the history of Kim Il Sung’s life is 

displayed on the wall with his pictures. They use chapters and verses like the Christian Bible. History books 

about Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jeong-suk are 

available. Along with a portrait on the wall, there are 

slogans on the right and left sides of the wall and educational materials explaining the main achievements of 

the Kim Il Sung family. One teacher and a section leader (student president) are supposed to lead the meeting. 

They lead the meeting, check the date and attendance, 

and explain the materials. I used to be a section leader. 

We [used to] burn our own clothes that we were wearing [in order to keep meeting because there were not 

enough candles.]”

Interviewee 2: “I used to go to the Kim Il Sung Revolutionary Institute once a week and had the ‘Revolutionary Ideas’ class every day. Attendance....is mandatory. 

Meetings like these are everywhere in small groups or 

organizations. We often spend some [of our own] money 

for that....we decorate rooms with red-colored wallpaper and pictures. We hang the Kim family portraits all the 

time, which is mandatory; it doesn’t matter whether the 

place is a shabby house....or inside a tunnel. When I was 

young, I used to wear my best dress and bow my head in 

prayer before the portraits on occasions such as national 

holidays. Even though nobody is watching you, your family members force you to do that. It’s like your religion. 

When people jump into a burning house or a flooding 

coal mine to save the portrait of Kim Il Sung, they shout 

a slogan, ‘For the Great General Kim Il Sung.’ When people experience miraculous happenings....they come first 

Many interviewees pointed out the paradox of 

thanking the Kim family for their sustenance 

when sustenance was so hard to come by. 

One refugee who served on a committee that 

organized weekly study sessions claimed that in 

her province, “eight out of 10 people had complaints” about the requirements of KimIlSungism

“when there wasn’t anything to eat.” 
15

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 2

in a race or don’t get hurt from a fall, we....say ‘thank 

the General Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.’” 

Interviewee 4: “It’s the Kim Il Sung Institute of Revolutionary History or the Revolutionary History Institute. If 

you are absent...[there are] political consequences. At every district and village [we have] ‘Chosanghwa Jeongseongsaeop’ (the policy to check whether Kim family portraits 

are well taken care of). North Koreans are evaluated by 

Chosanghwa Jeongseongsaeop. Who takes care of the portraits hung in the office first? Who presents a flower basket in front of the statue [of Kim Il Sung] on New Year’s 

Day? Who can show respect for chosanghwijang (Badge of 

Kim Il Sung) by wearing it on the chest all the time?”

Interviewee 5: “Kim Il Sung Institute of Revolutionary 

History is everywhere in middle schools, universities, 

and villages. It’s mandatory....[you go] or your ideology 

will be questioned. However, nobody will go there voluntarily. We don’t do it at home though. It’s ridiculous.” 

Interviewee 6: “We call it the Kim Il Sung Institute of 

the Revolutionary Idea, which is located in the best place 

[in every village]. Also, there is the Kim Jeong Suk and 

Kim Il Sung Sajeokgwan (history hall). It is compulsory to 

attend at the given time. From birth North Koreans are 

educated to think that they owe Kim Il Sung...their lives 

and existence. They have donated rabbits or pigs and rice 

to the army [though they have little food themselves]. 

By doing so, the person can win the commendation and 

honors and receive kind treatment. Above all, the person 

might be able to join the Party.”

Interviewee 7: “There is the Kim Il Sung Institute of 

the Revolutionary Idea. It is compulsory to attend at 

your given time, and every Wednesday from 8 to 12 

p.m. North Koreans go there to study the [life story] and 

virtues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. If a person does 

not attend, then the person will be criticized at the ‘SelfCriticism Meeting.’ The [Institutes] are often the best 

buildings in North Korea and there is electricity. Even 

the managers who clean the place are treated very well. 

To show loyalty and respect, those who go there should 

be neatly attired. North Koreans still believe in Kim Jong 

Il. They didn’t betray Kim Jong Il, but ran away because 

they were hungry.”

Interviewee 8: “There is a Kim Il Sung Institute of the 

Revolutionary Idea [where I lived]. Anyone who goes there 

should be neatly attired. People are educated on what Kim 

Il Sung did in his childhood. Also, those who are classified 

according to workplace or school raise azaleas and bring 

the azaleas in front of the statue of Kim Il Sung on his 

birthday and New Year’s Day. One is not allowed to think 

about the reason why people have to obey.”

Interviewee 9: “There is the Kim Il Sung Institute of 

the Revolutionary Idea. It is compulsory to attend. 

There is no one who goes there voluntarily. It looks 

like a religious place of worship, where there are pictures hanging detailing the Kim family’s ancestry, their 

revolutionary exploits, and there are dorokpan (notes 

under the pictures). In any building where people are 

gathered, the pictures of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il 

must be hung, otherwise the person will be classified 

with a different ideology [and lose certain privileges or 

status]. Everyone wears the Kim Il Sung badge on their 

chest. Otherwise, the person is a political offender. 

Even saying a word about the difficulties of [practicing 

KimIlSungism] can make the person a political offender. 

To show loyalty, North Koreans participate in study 

meetings, Repentance (self criticism) Meetings, and 

lectures as well as various other meetings. Otherwise, 

the person has to write and present a self-criticism, 

and he (or she) is supposed to be criticized by others 

[in the group].”

Interviewee 10: “Hanging pictures of Kim Il Sung and 

Kim Jong Il on the wall is an obligation. The purpose 

of hanging the pictures is to worship Kim Il Sung and 

Kim Jong Il. There is a ritual done before the pictures. 

[We] worship Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader who saved 

us from death and emancipated us from slavery. If a fire 

breaks out, people would show their loyalty by running into the fire to save the portraits. Anyone who gets 

burned doing this would win commendation.” 

Interviewee 11: “The Kim Il Sung Institute of the Revolutionary Idea—every village has one. I go there out 

of obligation. If you don’t attend, you are considered 

to have deviated from the right ideology. [Not attending] was unimaginable before 1997, but because of the 
16

difficult living conditions now, those who are well-off do 

not receive criticism. They just pass.” 

Interviewee 12: “Living conditions are harsh and studying Juche doesn’t give you rice or anything. The children of 

officials study in order to enter the university because it 

will exempt them from labor. Workers like us go to study 

because we are told to. We can’t go to college. We have 

lectures every six months and take tests. In factories, we 

were told to read several books and quote them during 

‘Self-Criticism Meetings.’ If not insane, who would read 

these books? We just extract one sentence from the book 

and tell the story as if we have read the whole book. No 

one sits and studies and reads. People who are determined 

to enter the Party contribute pigs or whatever they can 

raise. Some people contribute money that they worked so 

hard to earn and when the officials say, ‘Since our nation 

is in difficulty, people of the nation should support,’ some 

give all of their property. If some say, ‘I myself can hardly 

survive and how can I pay?, then people go around and 

forcefully take 100 won or at least 50 won if you are really 

poor. Some people demand loyalty, some demand flattery 

of the organization.” 

Interviewee 14: “We don’t go there voluntarily. We are 

dragged. We don’t want to go because we study and sing 

the same thing. Every day, every family [is supposed] to 

stand before the [Kim family portraits] dressed in nice 

clothes and keep the pictures clean. We don’t do that anymore because there has been no inspection since 2000. 

Now they make announcements before inspections to tell 

us to clean the pictures. When I was a child, I was taught 

that [he was] a ‘god of the sun’ so I thought he really was a 

sun. Now, even students think about how to make money. 

They are not interested in Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.” 

Interviewee 15: “Everybody’s busy surviving, but we 

attended the Self Criticism meetings because we had to. 

However, there were some complaints. People follow 

outwardly, but eight out of 10 people have complaints. If 

a person openly complains, then that person disappears 

the next day. Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are god. They 

are deified and they should be considered as an ultimate. 

You have to stand up and say everything’s good even 

though you have nothing to eat. When there’s a fire in the 

house, we are told to take the pictures out first rather 

than other property.”

Interviewee 16: “We are forced to study KimIlSungism and Juche in school. Even after we graduated from 

school, they kept forcing us to study at work by making 

us attend study sessions at the Kim Il Sung Institute. 

[Hanging the portraits] is mandatory even if we don’t 

want to. If we hang our family picture, they order us 

to take it down and we can’t hang anything bigger than 

Kim Jong Il’s portrait. When there is an event, people 

say “thank you, General Kim Jong Il,” but at home, 

saying thanks before a meal is rare.” 

Interviewee 17: “[Before] people went to a place like 

the ‘Kim Il Sung Institute of the Revolutionary Idea and 

History’ both voluntarily and for mandatory reasons. 

However, people don’t really go voluntarily anymore 

because their life is very difficult nowadays. People are 

forced to go. If they don’t go, they are accused of political 

offenses. It is the same as declaring that one will not 

follow Kim Il Sung.”

Interviewee 18: “Once a week, either on Wednesdays 

or Saturdays, there is a seminar-type lecture done by the 

military and the [Party] organization. In the military...

they take attendance and check how many times you 

were absent. Because not following means death, you 

have no choice but to follow. Suppose the Kim Il Sung 

and Kim Jong Il Research Center in the military catches 

fire. You must first take care of the portraits and remove 

them. It is regarded as loyalty, to save Kim-related paintings and books first in case of emergency and then save 

the guhonamu (a tree with the words of Kim Il Sung written on it, usually such phrases as ‘Defeat Japan and liberate the nation,’ etc.).”

Interviewee 19: “There is a Kim Il Sung Research Institute located in every town. There are portraits and we 

were forced to go there once a week. Perhaps, because 

life is so difficult, people, only in their homes, sometimes talk about things like how North Korea’s politics 

are wrong. In the past, [people] used to bow before the 

portraits when they received the gifts. Today, they do not 

bow because life is difficult.”
17

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 2

Interviewee 20: “There is a place called ‘Juche Research 

Institute’ in every district. You must attend once every 

week and if you are absent, the organization that you 

are in criticizes you. If you are absent three times, you 

are called by the KWP Central Committee and will be 

criticized there [and put] on their watch list. And if you 

make a wrong statement in addition to that, you will be 

instantly arrested. [North Koreans] might not like it in 

their minds but [they] cannot express it.” 

Interviewee 21: “We go there out of obligation. Even 

managing to survive is difficult in North Korea. So who 

would want to go there voluntarily? It’s all mandatory. 

I went there once a week. Attendance is checked. At 

workplaces, the study is held on every Saturday. The 

study [schedule] is strictly kept despite the extreme 

food shortages.”

Interviewee 27: “Ninety-nine percent of people go 

there out of duty. People are fed up with that. Who 

would want to go there voluntarily? Generally we go 

there once or twice a week. People in an elite class like 

me make countless visits. For example, when prominent 

individuals such as...Hwang Jang-yeop or Kim Mancheol sought asylum in South Korea, the consequences 

for us came right away. [The government said] ‘Intellectuals are the source of the problems. The government educates them, but they betray the nation.’ For three to four 

weeks, we [elites] have to write combative and critical 

reports intensively in the Institutes and cannot go home.”

Interviewee 30: “In school, students learn about revolutionary history and the childhoods of Kim Il Sung and 

Kim Jong Il and they continue studying them for about 

three times a week after graduation. There is a lecture 

session on Tuesday. On Friday, [people] go to the Kim Il 

Sung Institute of the Revolutionary Idea and History and 

study things like how to follow Kim Jeong-suk and also 

memorize things like a New Year’s greeting. On Saturday, 

we have a Life-Reflect meeting. Young people do it at the 

Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League and we (workers) do 

it at the company. There are different places for farmers 

and members of the Party and others.”

“

You have to stand up and say everything’s 

good even though you have nothing to 

eat. When there’s a fire in the house, we 

are told to take the [Kim family] pictures 

out first rather than other property.”
The Arirang Mass Games, Pyongyang
19

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 3

As reported in the Commission’s previous study, 

any religious activity held outside of the official 

religious venues in Pyongyang and the approximately 500 “house churches” listed as functioning by the 

government remains illegal, a consequence of the strict 

repression of religion that began in the 1950s.26 Nevertheless, there continues to be notable evidence of “remnant” forms of Buddhism, Christianity, and religious folk 

practices, such as fortune-telling and exorcism, that are 

practiced privately. 

In general, the recent interviews describe the continued repression of religious life in North Korea. There 

is testimony about what seems to be a network of quasifunctioning Buddhist temples preserved as “cultural 

heritage sites”; otherwise, public religious practice, apart 

from that controlled by the state, remains circumscribed 

and largely prohibited. The collapse of the economy and 

the famine of the 1990s led to a substantial revival of the 

practice of Shamanistic divination, particularly in rural 

areas. Additionally, in the border regions with China 

there is evidence of clandestine Protestant activity that 

is actively combated and repressed by the regime, which 

views the existence of such activity as an ideological and 

security threat. However, the full extent of this activity 

cannot be ascertained. 

26 South Korean academics and aid workers who were allowed to visit a “house 

church” in Pyongyang said they doubt that all of the meeting points listed by 

the government actually function as working religious venues.

I. Buddhism in North Korea 

Initial interviews for the first edition of Thank You Father 

Kim Il Sung conveyed little information about Buddhism 

or evidence of its suppression or continued existence in 

North Korea. The DPRK claims that there are approximately 15,000 Buddhists in the country, but few researchers can confirm if or how Buddhism survives in the DPRK. 

Through this second set of interviews, additional information was sought about the existence of Buddhism in North 

Korea. The findings hold several points of interest and raise 

a number of important questions for future research. 

A Buddhist presence continues to survive in North 

Korea. There is ample eyewitness testimony that quasifunctioning Buddhist shrines and temples are maintained 

as cultural heritage sites by caretakers (gwalliwon) who do 

not perform any religious functions. There is some testimony to the role of government-employed “monks” who 

give lectures, lead tours, and meet foreign dignitaries. 

Unlike Christian churches, most of which were destroyed 

over the past 50 years, refugees spoke of the preservation 

of Buddhist temples, including the government’s refurbishing of an existing site at Anbul, South Hamgyeong 

Province, in 2000. 

While a Buddhist material culture survives above 

ground, the refugees interviewed for this project did not 

provide much evidence of “underground” Buddhist activity. Several offered testimonies that indicate some level 

of this kind of informal Buddhist practice. One refugee 

claimed to see families worshipping and offering food at 

the Anbul Temple restoration project in 2000 or 2001 in 

Geumya, South Hamgyeong Province. Thus, although the 

Religious Life in North Korea: 

Continued Repression, Clandestine 

Existence, and the Growth of Shamanism
20

evidence is scarce, it does raise the possibility of the survival of Buddhist practice in North Korea. 

Specific Responses on the Existence of Buddhist 

Life and Practice

Interviewee 1: “We have Buddhist temples and monks 

who usually have long hair and get married [contrary to 

the ordinary image of a Buddhist monk with a shaved 

head]. For example, Mt. Geumgang and Mt. Myohyang 

each have temples. University students would take a field 

trip to Mt. Myohyang. Priests at Bohyeon Temple were 

called “Jung” [which is a vulgarized term for the Buddhist 

monk]. My uncle and his wife were believers of Buddhism. They saved one room as a worshipping place.”

Interviewee 2: “There is a temple called Bohyeon 

Temple in Mt. Myohyang. My friend’s father is the chief 

monk of Bohyeon Temple. Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung’s 

villa is also located in Mt. Myohyang. The temple was restored. The chief monk has taken many pictures with Kim 

Jong Il and Kim Jong Il adored him. The chief monk was, 

of course, a member of the Party. He grew his hair and 

wore a suit, but when foreign visitors came, he received 

the guests. He has studied much on Buddhism, but his 

ideology was KimIlSungism, not Buddhism. Monks and 

temples are all for propaganda purposes only.”

Interviewee 3: “Access to temples is limited. There are 

Buddhist monks in Pyongyang though they are just nominal ones prepared for diplomatic business. I saw Bibles. 

There are some. As far as I know, there were Bibles and 

Buddhist scriptures that were being circulated among 

people until the early ’60s. They were completely destroyed by the government.”

Interviewee 4: “If you go to the Bohyeon Temple, you 

can see Buddhist monks. They are North Korean with 

their heads shaved. They get married, take care of the 

temple, and give explanations about the temple as a cultural legacy, rather than spreading the history of Confucianism and Buddhism in Korea. People go there like on 

a field trip. A monk from Myohyang might have studied 

folk beliefs at the ‘Ancient Folk Beliefs Study Department’ (Kim Il Sung University) instead of Buddhism. 

I’ve heard of Buddhist scriptures and the Bible. I’ve never 

seen them but heard that they are displayed at Bohyeon 

Temple and Bongsu Church respectively. The North Korean government invites many foreigners from European 

countries, Russia, China, and so on at its own expense on 

the occasion of the ‘April Spring Art Festival’ (April 15, 

Kim Jong Il’s Birthday). During this event, the Catholic 

priest’s dress was so exotic that it caught my eye.”

Interviewee 7: “I have been to a temple in North Korea. 

The monks’ heads were not shaven and the monks were 

lecturers. They introduced the temple and gave a lecture. 

Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung visited a Buddhist temple.” 

Interviewee 11: “There are no monks, only guardians. It 

is impossible to find monks with shaved heads. There was 

renovation work for Anbul Temple in Doheung, Geumya 

South Hamgyeong Province in 2000 or 2001 because the 

building had begun to tilt as time passed. One electrician, 

a temporary manager, went there to do a wiring job. 

He was in charge of the electricity and when he came 

back after he had finished the work, he told me that an 

old man had come there with his son and performed a 

religious service in front of an image of Buddha with the 

things he brought. He was a very brave man. We ignored 

this incident rather than reporting it to the police. He 

said that there were many people who were afraid to 

come inside; therefore, he performed the religious service outside the temple area. The food was well served. 

During the three-month stay, we were served quality 

food several times. People have only heard about such 

stories, but no one has ever seen this. The government 

manages the temple because they consider it a cultural 

heritage site. There are Buddhist statues here and there, 

but not all of them are managed by the government. 

Only the ones inside the temples are managed.”

Interviewee 15: “Religion is for [diplomatic reasons] 

for upper-class people, [put on] by the Workers’ Party 

Central Committee to communicate with people from 

outside, including Buddhists or people from South Korea 

who visit.” 

Interviewee 16: “When foreigners visit Pyongyang, they 

go to temples that were built perfunctorily and pray and 

bow. They are for foreigners only. North Korean people can 

never go to churches or temples for worship. I haven’t met 
21

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 3

any Buddhists. What used to be temples, they are now just 

memorial halls and historic sites. They don’t exist now.”

Interviewee 20: “A friend of mine encountered Buddhism in China and when he came back to North Korea, 

he kept begging me to go to temple with him. So I asked 

him what a monk was. He said the monks are good people who speak good words and harm no one. He didn’t 

practice religion in North Korea.” 

Interviewee 22: “North Korea has many temples like 

South Korea. There are no monks but there are people 

called gwalliwon (caretakers) in the temple. I never saw 

any monk at Gaesim Temple in Mt. Chilbo nearby [my 

place]. But I’ve heard about the Bible and the Buddhist 

scriptures. I thought these were books that contained unreliable stuff. I’ve never seen the contents.” 

Interviewee 24: “I knew Buddha’s birthday through common knowledge. [I’ve seen] Buddhism in films. Monks appear in classic movies. However, they are always criticized 

in the movie. Religion is a frequent subject in movies. [I] 

learned about Christmas or Buddha’s birthday in school. 

However, they don’t tell us how these days became such 

a day and what they mean. It only appears in one line that 

Christmas is the 25th of December and Buddha’s birthday 

is a certain date. We have no [understanding of] the concepts because they don’t explain further in detail.”

Interviewee 30: “I have seen a Buddhist book once 

at a temple. It had a strap with Chinese letters and months 

written on it. There are temples but people are not allowed to believe in them. There are books at the temple. 

I’ve seen that at the temple that was located at Mt. Chilbo.”

Interviewee 31: “I have heard from my school teacher 

about the history of Buddhism and Confucianism and the 

teacher said that they were used to maintain the power 

of the monarchy. I have met a Buddhist woman in the 

embassy. She met a Buddhist when she came to China and 

became a Buddhist. Most people meet Christians and go 

to church so this was a particular case. I have seen only 

one such person.”

Interviewee 32: “At the university, [we] learn that there 

are the religions of Jesus [Christianity], which is the biggest kind, Buddhism, Islam, and Confucianism. There are 

no official courses on religion. However, it is taught as part 

of a philosophy course. Because people don’t know about 

religion at all, it is just taught for common knowledge.”

II. The Existence of Clandestine Protestant 

Activity: An Inconclusive Picture

It remains difficult to corroborate assertions of the 

existence of a substantial clandestine Protestant movement in North Korea reportedly fueled by missionaries 

operating along the North Korea-China border. Only 

five refugees interviewed for this study testified to attending clandestine Protestant meetings in North Korea 

and two more recalled meeting missionaries who had 

come from China to evangelize. When asked about the 

existence of an underground movement, most refugees 

said they had never encountered unauthorized, unofficial, or underground religious practice of any sort, 

and then recounted stories of arrests and executions of 

individuals who had engaged in banned religious activities. Former North Korean police officials interviewed 

for this report claimed that the bulk of clandestine religious activity they encountered consisted of gatherings 

of families or relatives trying to maintain “old religious 

traditions,” referring to religious affiliations that predate the establishment of the DPRK.

Though refugees cannot confirm the size or scope 

of clandestine religious activity, they can confirm its 

existence. There was more eyewitness evidence of this 

gleaned from the recent interviews than from those used 

in the previous study. One refugee told of learning about 

and participating in Protestant prayer meetings in North 

Hamgyeong Province. Another recounted attending a 

prayer meeting with other refugees repatriated with him 

from China. Yet another told a story of meeting and praying at the home of a border guard whom she had met 

during her interrogation. 

Ironically, another indicator of the existence of clandestine Protestant religious activity came from the testimony of former security agents tasked with curtailing it. 

There is testimony of police operations to set up a “false 

underground church” to attract repatriated refugees who 

had converted in China and also to infiltrate religious 

groups in China. In addition, security agents told of 
22

interrogations used at the border to determine whether 

repatriated refugees had close and ongoing contact with 

South Korean or other foreign religious groups in China. 

Interviews support the belief that, despite severe repression and the constant fear of discovery, some measure 

of clandestine Protestant religious activity takes place in 

North Korea, both among families seeking to maintain 

old traditions and among new converts who encounter 

Protestantism while in China. 

Specific Responses on Clandestine Religious Activity

Interviewee 5: “In 2003, an underground church called 

‘Yuseon’ was uncovered. Ten to 14 people were said to be 

the church members. I had one friend who prayed at a secret church. Church members got together once a week 

for prayer. In around 1999 or 2000, one lady went to 

China to earn some money and returned to North Korea 

carrying two Bibles with her. She was arrested and sent 

to the National Security Agency (NSA). Then, her whole 

family disappeared.”

Interviewee 7: “North Koreans pray for healing to God 

rather than Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il. My mother-inlaw was also one of them.” 

Interview 8: “My younger sister/brother heard from 

my mother in 2004. There was a popcorn shop in which 

a daughter was told the Gospel in China, and then she 

preached the Gospel to the poor as well as her parents. 

She also gave out popcorn while preaching. There was 

Ms. Cho who told the Gospel, and prayed in secret, but 

it was found out. At that time, I also believed in God. I 

cried out for God because I was caught on the way to 

South Korea. My heart was palpitating with fear of death 

while I was being interrogated in Onseong by the NSA.”

Interviewee 13: “I know many people who pray. There 

is no organization. When I traveled to the rural area as an 

oriental doctor, I went to my friend’s house in Hamheung 

to treat someone and my friend showed me a Bible (in 

2004). It was a book with a red cover. [My friend said] 

‘Everything will be all right if you believe in God.’ That 

friend was a teacher in an elementary school. I didn’t 

read it thoroughly. [My friend told me,] when something 

goes wrong, ‘I pray to God. [You] believe in Kim Il Sung 

throughout your life, but I believe in God.’ I told my 

friend that ‘You should be careful because the NSA officials said that people who have or saw the Bible should 

confess. It seemed that she had gotten it from a relative, 

not an acquaintance, from China. My friend said ‘Since 

the police talk about it, I’m assuming many people have 

one because even I have one.’” 

Interviewee 16: “No, I haven’t. I did not encounter any 

underground church in China.”

Interviewee 19: “Yes, in Hoeyang. My relative by marriage was caught while giving away a Bible, so the entire 

family was taken to Prison 22 [in Hoeyang]. They were 

taken there under the category of religious spy.”

Interviewee 20: “My first wife’s parents used to have a 

religion. They also said that they were Christians. My first 

wife’s father said this [before he died.] When her mother 

died, she said the same thing.” 

Interviewee 23: “Hoeyang. Mr. Han preached the Gospel to my husband and me in 1997. My husband prayed 

alone. I prayed with Mr. Han who was evangelized by 

Mr. Park. There was one underground church which 

was a decoy, and I heard about it from my husband since 

he worked for the National Security Agency (NSA). This 

church was started by the NSA to host all those people 

who came back from China after becoming believers 

who wanted to pray. There was no underground church 

that was led by believers.”

Interviewee 25: “When I was repatriated to North 

Korea, there were many defectors and people who lived 

near the border who sometimes prayed. They gathered in 

a group of family members and carefully prayed. I prayed 

with them too.”

Interviewee 27: “There are underground churches. I 

heard about spying activities regarding the underground 

churches at a drinking meeting, from my relatives who 

were executive Party members. [They said] three to five 

people got together to worship.” 27

27 Among this respondent’s relatives, there was a high official in the NSA who 

even helped her escape North Korea.
23

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 3

Interviewee 28: “When I visited a high-ranking official’s house, there was another official there and we 

worshipped together in his house with the curtains 

drawn. They told me to read the Bible so I read a verse 

from Genesis 12:2 and that’s when I first decided to 

study theology. They also prayed for Kim Jong Il. They 

told me that there are many underground churches in 

North Korea. They said that it was a heartbreaking job 

to catch Christians while they, too, were Christians, 

but they had to stay in their positions because their 

situation could turn even worse if an evil-minded person was in that position to ferret out believers. So they 

keep their positions and sometimes advise people to 

run away.”28

Interviewee 29: “[Worshipping God] is possible only 

among relatives and families and no one can meet with 

other people in a regular place. It is impossible for 20 or 

30 people to gather together. A collective farm vice-manager in Eundeok believed in God and worshiped with 20 

people in his house in secret including colliers and farm 

workers in 1994, but they were caught.”

Interviewee 30: “The underground church began when 

China opened its doors in the 1990s. I’ve seen a trial and 

a public execution [of religious believers.]. They weren’t 

executed for believing in God. Instead, they were executed for not following the One and Only Guidance System. 

It was in 1991 and five people were executed. Five out 

of 12 people were executed for religious reasons and the 

rest were executed for stealing a cow. Notice for the public execution was posted in the market.”

Interviewee 34: “‘Underground believers’ would be 

a more appropriate term than ‘underground church.’ 

Church would be something like a place where people 

can gather and listen to a sermon, but it’s impossible to 

exist for long. Instead, underground believers can exist. 

There is a chance that two people pair up and hold their 

hands together to pray. However, a gathering of three or 

more is dangerous.”

28 When this respondent was caught and sent to the NSA in North Korea, the 

NSA agent in charge of interrogating her was a Christian and helped her to 

avoid being killed.

Interviewee 37: “It is said that there are underground 

churches in North Korea, but I have not seen them with 

my own eyes, and it is unbelievable.”

Interviewee 38: “If underground churches really do 

exist, then it would be between individuals, like husband 

and wife.” 

III. The Widespread Re-emergence of 

Shamanism and Fortune-Telling

The survival, and even flourishing, of traditional Korean 

Shamanism and folk beliefs, including the widespread use 

of fortune-tellers and exorcists, was one of the most surprising findings from the previous interviews.29 Many interviewees associated the re-emergence of fortune-telling 

with the onset of the famine and the severe deterioration 

in social conditions in the mid-1990s. The North Korean 

refugees interviewed for this update confirmed these 

conclusions and provided additional information about 

the extent and scope of Shamanistic practice. 

Many of the refugees spoke of visiting a fortune-teller 

before leaving for China or to ascertain marital prospects. 

Because the practice is illegal, visiting a fortune-teller is not 

a casual thing and is reportedly very expensive. The fortunetelling sessions were often described as being conducted in 

rooms devoid of furniture except for a bowl of water. The 

fortune-teller would ask many questions about the person 

and his or her family, and sometimes shake and speak in 

unintelligible syllables before rendering the fortune. The 

fortune-teller would be paid in kind (e.g. animals or rice) or 

in cash, sometimes the equivalent of a month’s salary. 

Of the refugees interviewed for this update, most 

had visited fortune-tellers whose services they had 

learned about from friends and relatives. Several noted 

that high-level officials also visit fortune-tellers and that 

high fees are paid for their services. All of the refugees 

knew that Shamanism was illegal, and some testified to 

taking part in political indoctrination sessions during 

which Shamanism was criticized. Two of those interviewed noted that books on fortune-telling can be purchased on the black market in North Korea.

29 See Chapter 5 of Thank You Father Kim Il Sung, pp. 56-7, for a brief 

description of Shamanism in Korea. 
24

Several of the refugees stated that they knew of 

fortune-tellers being arrested and detained. Overall, 

however, the practice was tolerated because high-level 

officials and military officers frequented fortune-tellers. 

In analyzing the most recent interviews, it is difficult to 

determine any regional or provincial trends. However, it 

seems that fortune-tellers are tolerated as long as their 

practice continues to occur on a one-to-one basis and 

does not involve public assembly or open advertising. 

The continuing proliferation of fortune-tellers and 

the apparent toleration of Shamanistic practice by North 

Korean security agencies may demonstrate an area where 

corruption and, to a smaller degree, spiritual or social 

needs trump political ideology. Fortune-tellers are criticized by government propaganda, and the practice’s illegality is widely known. At the same time, large numbers 

of North Koreans consult with fortune-tellers in making 

major decisions and fortune-tellers are reportedly earning so much money for their services that bribing security officials is a common way to avoid arrest.

Specific Responses on the Existence of Folk 

Beliefs and Shamanism 

Interviewee 1: “Yes, there were many of them. Fortunetellers do palm reading or face reading. They run their 

business at their own houses, running the risk of an arrest. Still, people recommend them to each other and 

they make money out of it. Fortune-telling is pretty 

popular there.”

Interviewee 2: “Yes, there are many. Unlike Christians....when [fortune-tellers] get caught doing their 

business, they are just put under investigation or receive 

light sentences.”

Interviewee 3: “The government tries to keep it under 

control. Still, because it’s like a traditional custom, people go [to fortune-telling places] when they face difficulties. My grandmother and mother went to those places.” 

Interviewee 4: “Yes, there are many places. However, 

it is rare in Pyongyang. They are found in rural areas. 

People go in secret.” 

Interviewee 5: “Yes, there are many places. They are illegal. People do it in secret. Many old ladies who live there 

with their daughters run fortune-telling businesses. They 

are like shamans in South Korea. [People ask questions 

like] ‘Can I succeed if I open my business?’ ‘Won’t I get 

caught if I smuggle myself into China through the river?’ 

‘Is it all right if I live with this man/woman?’ My mother 

goes. [She] used to prepare a small table with a bowl 

of water and some food near the chimney and secretly 

prayed by rubbing her hands together. People bring pieces 

of cloth or something else when they don’t have money.” 

Interviewee 6: “Many people go to a fortune-teller. I 

also have been to one. The fortune-teller predicted that I 

would meet my husband. People still do it in secret even 

though the state made a movie, Seonghwangdang, in order 

to make people believe in Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il as 

the absolute power and the only ideology. Fortune-tellers 

are supposed to be arrested.”

Interviewee 7: “The government instructs us not to believe in fortune-telling or other superstitions. However, 

about 80 percent of the people believe in such things. 

Government officers also go. A fortune-teller told me 

that I would not get caught on my way to South Korea.”

Interviewee 9: “There are many places [for] exorcism, 

to tell a fortune, and to read a person’s palm. Many 

people go in secret. Anyone who is found out may be sent 

to prison as a political offender. The pressure was relieved 

lately because state officials also visit fortune-tellers. The 

officials ask the fortune-tellers whether there would be 

difficulties in business or business trips. They also ask regarding their contracts. People do not know which house 

is a fortune-teller’s. If strangers go to a fortune-teller, 

they cannot get their fortunes told [for fear of arrest]. 

There is a fixed price...depending on the number of 

persons who get their fortune told. If I want to know the 

fortune for my wife and children, I have to pay money for 

all members.”

Interviewee 11: “Yes, you can find them everywhere 

throughout the country. This is not done in public, but 

secretly done through introductions of acquaintances. 

Members of the Party [go]. They do it in secret. I have 
25

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 3

done it several times whenever I faced difficulties in my 

business or whenever I was making plans for the future.” 

Interviewee 12: “[In the Kim Il Sung Study Halls], they 

tell us not to believe in fortune-telling.”

Interviewee 13: “There are lots of places that do such 

services. I’ve done it...[for] business. If fortune-tellers 

receive money, the government will catch them. They 

don’t tell how much we should pay. We [decide the price] 

on our own—100 won, 500 won.”

Interviewee 14: “There are many. For example, our 

family provided the service too. Some people fall into a 

trance or some [use books]. My father also cured people 

for free. We also performed exorcisms. However, everybody knows. Even police, members of the NSA, and 

people who are well-off. Old fortune-tellers are allowed, 

but young ones cannot do it openly. I didn’t reveal myself 

in public that I do fortune-telling. They don’t [usually arrest] fortune-tellers.” 

Interviewee 15: “The fortune-teller gives his services 

in secret. A fortune-teller will only tell fortunes [with a 

referral]. If they don’t know you, they don’t provide their 

services. Many Party members come in secret, too.”

Interviewee 16: “They don’t get arrested unless they 

get paid too much [and their predictions are wrong]. 

Then they get arrested under the charge of ‘fraud.’” 

Interviewee 17: “There were a lot. All of them were 

illegal. My mom was very into that kind of stuff [fortunetelling]. She visited many places here and there so I told 

her not to do it because there was a risk of my identity 

being revealed. I once arrested a fortune-teller’s granddaughter, so she was very wary of me. When I visited her 

I had to keep telling her to relax.”

Interviewee 18: “There are many fortune-telling places. 

People go there often...soldiers go....every time when 

we had a chance. I used to ask [the fortune-teller] what 

would happen to me in the future. Members of the National Security Agency and police, they say they regulate 

them, but they also go and ask about their fortune. There 

are regulations but [superstition] is growing too fast to 

catch all of them. It is not allowed but they just let it be.”

Interviewee 19: “There are many fortune-telling books. 

In the past, there weren’t many [fortune-telling places], 

but as North Korea’s economy got worse, it became 

more popular. Nowadays, even police just go [to fortunetellers] and ask questions.”

Interviewee 20: “Once a week, there is a policy seminar held at our company. There, they tell you not to believe in such superstitious things. They strongly lecture 

on the issue.”

Interviewee 21: “Fortune-telling service is not freely 

allowed. So, you get punishment if caught. The punishment is not that severe. Just confiscating some books.”

Interviewee 22: “Although it’s not legal, other executive members of the [Korean Workers] Party and their 

wives go there. My wife often went there.” 

Interviewee 24: “They are illegal. They are more allowed than before. The government doesn’t control them 

as long as they do it quietly. They do it a lot in Pyongyang 

too. Older people go more often. Officials with position 

and power go there a lot. It costs [them] about 30,000 

to 50,000 won [in South Korean currency]. Because my 

mother had heightened interests in those, we visited 

there many times. One time, the fortune-teller actually 

came to my house.”

Interviewee 27: “There are many places. On a New 

Year’s Day or on big holidays, people wait in line to see 

famous fortune-tellers. Because the fortune-telling service 

is not legally permitted, most fortune-telling houses are 

located in the mountains. When the sun goes down, a lot of 

cars [of high-ranking officials] go up the hill in lines.”

 Interviewee 28: “I went to see a famous fortune-teller 

in Seonbong, North Hamgyeong Province when I was 

getting married. I gave her 450 won. At the time [a sack 

of] rice was 30 won. There was a time when the police 

blocked the area and caught people who came [to see the 

fortune-teller]. But since many officials came to see her 

and because she was good [in fortune-telling, the police] 

didn’t take her away.”

Interviewee 29: “[People] do it in secret, but they are 

suppressed. I know a fortune-teller who went to prison.”
The interior of the Parliament, Pyongyang 
27

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 4

This chapter presents interviewee testimony on 

the severe human rights violations of persons 

caught or presumed to be engaging in religious 

activity outside of the party-state sponsored religious federations. It also looks at the treatment of and punishments 

meted out to North Koreans who encountered religious 

believers while in China, including brutal interrogations, 

torture, inhumane conditions in detention, and executions. 

Refugees consistently report that any religious activity is deemed illegal by the regime and practitioners can 

be arrested, sent to political prison camp (kwanliso), or 

executed. Unlike the last group of interviewees, refugees 

interviewed for this update did not provide direct testimony of public executions of those accused of engaging in 

religious activity.30 Several said they had witnessed public 

executions for crimes that were not religious in nature, 

most dating back to the 1997-1999 period. There was also 

one account of a public execution in Chongin in 2003 for 

the sale of South Korean videos and DVDs. 

Refugees interviewed for this report provided evidence of the arrest and disappearance of relatives for 

owning Bibles. There was also an eyewitness account of 

the public humiliation of a boy who memorized large 

parts of the Bible while in China. He and his family 

were arrested and disappeared. Refugees continued to 

provide testimony of other harsh penalties, including 

torture, mistreatment, and the disappearances of those 

suspected of religious activity. 

30 See Chapter Four of Thank you Father Kim Il Sung for more on this subject.

Specific Responses on the Repression of Individuals 

on Account of their Religious Belief, Affiliation, 

or Practice 

Interviewee 19: “[My relative] brought a Bible from 

China and gave it to some close friends. But the rumor 

spread....the police heard [about it.] His entire family 

was taken to the prison camps (kwanliso)....I don’t think 

they will ever be released.”

Interviewee 20: “There was even a case of a child (16 

years old). That kid was the same age as my kid. They 

made that kid stand on the platform, in front of gathered parents. They declared that it is a big problem how 

teenagers cross the river too often and how they spread 

rumors about God. There, the kid’s entire family was arrested in order to show an example. It happened in 2003 

at Yuseon boys’ middle school. According to the rumor, 

that kid had learnt whole Bible scriptures by heart and 

that was the reason he was arrested. He stayed in China 

for eight months and got caught. And because of religion, 

he and his family were all arrested.”

Interviewee 39: “A person was shot to death on a 

riverside in Hoeryeong when I came out of the prison 

after repatriation. I asked why the person was shot and 

[they] said, “A person from Musan took the Bible from 

South Korean priests. But as soon as he came to North 

Korea, one of his relatives informed [the PSA] against 

Eyewitness Accounts of the 

Persecution of Members of Religious

Groups and Repatriated Refugees
28

him, so he got arrested yesterday and he is going to 

be shot to death.” 31

I. Persecution of Refugees along the North 

Korean-Chinese Border 

Based upon the evidence from this study and the Commission’s previous study, as well as other prominent studies that utilize refugee interviews to analyze conditions 

in North Korea32, there is sufficient evidence to make the 

case that North Koreans in China should qualify as refugees under the relevant international standards. Either 

they are persons who have a well-founded fear of persecution had they remained in North Korea, or they are 

refugees because of the place to which they fled, persons 

who may not have fled persecution in the first place but 

who nonetheless risk persecution upon return to their 

country of origin. The Chinese government continues 

to forcibly repatriate North Koreans who have entered 

China without proper authorization back to North Korea, where they face brutal interrogations, detentions, 

forced labor, and disappearance into the infamous kwanliso, or political penal labor colonies. Such acts violate 

Article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status 

of Refugees. 

The freedom to leave one’s country of origin is a 

right protected by the Universal Declaration on Human 

Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The DPRK is a party to the ICCPR.33

Nonetheless, leaving North Korea without authorization 

is a violation of the North Korean penal code. In fact, in 

the 1980s and even the early 1990s, leaving North Korea 

was considered by the North Korean authorities as an intended “defection” to South Korea. During the height of 

the North Korean famine crisis of the mid to late 1990s, 

scores of thousands of North Koreans fled to China 

searching for food or employment to send money back to 

their families. Afraid of the consequences of this migra31 This interviewee was a former director of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth 

League (called sarochung) and her husband was a Workers’ Party official. 32 See Norma Kang Mucio, Forced Labour in North Korean Prison Camps, AntiSlavery Society, London, 2007, and North Korea: Harsher Policies Against BorderCrossers, Human Rights Watch, March 2007. 33 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Art. 13; International Covenant on 

Civil and Political Rights, Art. 12.2.

tion, the Chinese government repatriated thousands of 

North Koreans, resulting in intensified punishment of 

these deportees by North Korean authorities. In 2000, 

Kim Jong Il issued a decree declaring that North Koreans 

who crossed the border into China in search of food or 

a feasible livelihood would be treated “mercifully,” and 

penalties against them would decrease.34 However, according to the direct testimony of interviewees who were 

forcibly repatriated, North Korean border police routinely torture refugees during interrogation to determine 

their intentions for leaving; if border guards uncover that 

any deportee met with South Koreans or had ongoing 

contacts with Protestant Christian organizations, their 

departure is deemed a political offense. According to this 

policy, many of those repatriated from China were sent 

to the penal labor colonies or to the gyohwaso (felonylevel penitentiaries). 

The number of North Koreans seeking refuge in 

China has decreased in the past several years as famine 

conditions have abated. However, there continue to be 

34 Prior to the decree, anyone who was forcibly repatriated was automatically 

assumed guilty of treason and sentenced to a term in the kyohwaso criminal 

penitentiaries or the kwanliso political prisoner labor camps. Following the 

decree, once at the border, refugees were interrogated—in ways that included 

torture—to determine if they had crossed only for economic reasons. If so, 

after interrogation, they would be returned to their locality for approximately 

a month in a local detention center and then released. If guards determined 

they had left the country trying to defect, they would be sent to the kyohwaso or 

the kwanliso. For more information on recent changes in North Korea’s policy 

toward deported refugees, see North Korea: Harsher Policies Against Border Crossers, 

Human Rights Watch, March 2007. 

The Chinese government continues to forcibly 

repatriate North Koreans who have entered China 

without proper authorization back to North 

Korea, where they face brutal interrogations, 

detentions, forced labor, and disappearance into 

the infamous kwanliso, or political penal labor 

colonies. Such acts violate Article 33 of the 1951 

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. 
29

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 4

those seeking asylum or economic survival in China, 

though both the North Korean and Chinese authorities 

forcefully discourage such activity. North Koreans hide 

among the large Korean-Chinese community in Yanbian 

Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, where they 

are assisted by a network of religious and humanitarian 

organizations and Korean-Chinese churches. Conditions 

in China are often very difficult, particularly for women. 

A considerable number of them are sold as brides to 

Chinese widowers or Korean-Chinese bachelors in farming villages, whether voluntarily or under the threat of 

exposure to the Chinese police or the NSA agents of 

North Korea. Cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment 

of women, including trafficking and forced labor, is pervasive. Because they are often indentured or married, 

North Korean women are not repatriated in the same 

numbers as men. In addition, Chinese police view North 

Korean males as a threat in terms of espionage and public 

security and thus place a higher priority on their capture 

and return.

Refugees continue to provide consistent testimony 

that North Korean police conduct intense interrogations at 

the border regarding their contacts and activities in China. 

Most testify that large numbers of repatriated North Koreans are sent to border detention centers or provincial 

incarceration facilities, including small, mobile labor detention facilities known as “Labor Training Camps.” North 

Koreans who are repatriated and punished by post-interrogation detention often conclude that they are “marked” 

as politically unreliable and have no future in North Korea. 

Thus, they sometimes flee a second or third time to China, 

often with the goal of reaching South Korea.35

Specific Responses on Refugee Lives in China 

after Fleeing North Korea

Interviewee 4: “Religious groups provide a channel to 

South Korea by connecting North Korean [refugees] with 

a broker. However, if you have a pretty face, the broker 

35 For further information on the situation of North Korean refugees in China 

and their treatment upon repatriation see Invisible Exodus: North Koreans in 

the People’s Republic of China, Human Rights Watch, 2002; Hidden Gulag, US 

Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, 2003; and most recently, 

Acts of Betrayal: The Challenge of Protecting North Koreans in China, Refugees 

International, 2005.

might want to sell you [as a bride instead.] It’s scary...

you don’t have any choice since he can decide your 

life....unless you should spend a night with him. I was so 

scared of it that I asked for help from a guy from North 

Korea and was able to avoid that risk.”

Interviewee 27: “Most women [refugees] I met in the 

Korean-Chinese church told me that they had that kind 

of experience [sexual trafficking], except for those who 

had relatives in China. Pimps in China do their business in 

cahoots with the Chinese police. For male North Korean 

defectors, trafficking cannot be an option because so many 

of them are ferreted out and are repatriated to North 

Korea. In the case of male North Korean defectors, they 

conceal their identities and work in farms or coal mines, or 

at construction sites. Even so, finding that kind of work is 

not that easy.”

Interviewee 28: “Many young North Korean women 

[like me] who marry old Chinese men are so abused that 

they run away leaving their children behind.”

Interviewee 29: “I know a case where a North Korean 

sold five North Korean women in cooperation with the 

North Korean army. Chinese people were waiting on 

the border. However, male [refugees] have more difficulties. Chinese police treat male defectors more severely 

because they think they are more threatening to Chinese 

public security. If a male defector says that he served in 

the army, then he is immediately shackled. 

I stayed on a mountain in China, but Chinese police 

find North Koreans even deep in the mountains. North 

Koreans get caught because they cannot speak Chinese 

and they don’t have an ID card. [Because of police efforts] even Korean-Chinese churches do not much help 

North Korean refugees; they just give the defectors one 

or two meals and a [bus] fare, but never provide them 

with accommodations.”

Interviewee 30: “North Korean women are usually 

sold to Chinese people. [Once a woman is sold], they 

guard the woman so that she can’t go anywhere. There 

are also many cases where women actually wish to be 

sold of their own desire because their situation is so difficult. A 20-year-old woman is sold to a 70-year-old 

man. I once witnessed in Heilongjiang Province that a 
30

Korean-Chinese woman was selling seven North Korean 

women. The seven were seated and [buyers] chose from 

among them. [Women] are not sold to rich people but 

to very poor people or handicapped people. They are 

sent to rural towns. Prices vary depending on the age [of 

the woman]. It is just like trading goods. Because [North 

Korean women] don’t speak Chinese, they are sold and 

treated like slaves.”

Interviewee 31: “I entered China when the situation 

was not good. I was in a Korean town in Wangqing and 

Chinese police came in to search at night, which made 

me nervous. Sixty people were caught at the time and 

they were all executed in North Korea because they were 

all apparently heading to South Korea.”

II. Treatment of North Korean Refugees After 

Repatriation From China

Over two-thirds of the North Koreans interviewed for 

this report had fled to China, were caught by Chinese 

police, and subsequently were forcibly repatriated to 

North Korea, where they were detained and interrogated 

by North Korean police. From their testimony it is clear 

that religion was an important factor in determining the 

length and severity of their punishment. Virtually all interviewees reported that after being asked preliminary 

questions about how they had fled to China, where they 

had crossed the border, where they went, and what they 

did in China, they were specifically asked (1) if they had 

attended Korean-Chinese churches,36 and (2) if they had 

had any contact with South Koreans in China, including 

representatives of religious organizations doing charitable or humanitarian work in the border area.37 Contact 

with South Koreans is considered a political offense, as is 

suspicion of close and continuing contact with religious 

believers in China. 

36 There is considerable religious activity in the area of Northeast China 

populated by ethnic Koreans. Korean-Chinese churches are plainly evident 

in many cities and towns, and the North Koreans fleeing to China go to these 

churches for help.

37 There are large numbers of South Korean businessmen, students, and 

tourists in Northeast China. Additionally, there are faith-based South Korean 

NGOs that go to Northeast China precisely to help the North Koreans looking 

for food and/or refuge. There are also South Korean missionaries who travel to 

this part of China to evangelize both Korean-Chinese and North Koreans who 

have fled to China.

Among the respondents who had been forcibly repatriated to North Korea and re-escaped after 2003, 

nine claimed that their contact with Christians in China 

increased the severity of their punishment.38 However, 

at least one refugee testified that he was repatriated four 

times and was surprised that during his last interrogation, 

no torture was conducted despite his confession of having taken part in a Bible study in China.39 One revealing 

piece of evidence that emerges from the interviews is that 

most recent refugees knew to avoid admitting contact with 

South Koreans or having any religious affiliation. Information about border interrogations is shared among refugees 

in China. In addition, former security agents testified that 

it was well-known that Korean-Chinese churches provided 

food and aid for refugees. Thus, in recent years, police have 

been less harsh with refugees who admitted to attending 

churches only for shelter or food. 

Specific Interviewee Descriptions of and Responses 

on the Treatment of Refugees Who Have Had Contact 

with Religious Groups and Organizations in China

Interviewee 3 was sent with his older brother to the NSA 

prison in North Hamgyeong Province for one year and 

three months. His older brother killed himself while in 

prison. He was asked by NSA interrogators what he did 

in China, whether he had ever contacted South Koreans 

and whether he had contacted any church. He was told 

that if he answered “yes” to these questions, his status 

would change and he would be treated differently. He 

described his treatment in prison as follows: “Just like 

animals. An animal without a name. It’s up to the condition of the guards. Because killing a prisoner will do no 

harm for them... When they feel stretched out or to 

hide some undesirable motives from a prisoner, they beat 

him/her up.” 

Interviewee 7 testified about how she was treated at 

the PSA detention center when she was repatriated. She 

was asked why she went to China and whether she had 

contact with a church or missionary. She was forced to 

kneel for a whole day; if she moved the guards beat her. 

The guard asked the prisoners to hit each other. If they 

38 Interviewees 3, 7, 8, 14, 16, 23, 25, 28, 30, 31.

39 Interviewee 29.
31

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 4

did not obey, the guard would hit them. Her brother was 

sent to jail for 10 years because he admitted to having 

made contact with Christians in China. 

Interviewee 8 was sent to Saetbyeol, the PSA detention center in North Hamgeyong Province, and later was 

sent to the NSA’s prison at Onseong. She described her 

interrogations as follows: “They didn’t ask whether I had 

encountered Buddhists but asked whether I had contact 

with Christians. I was kicked and struck severely. I had 

to stand all day long and I was not permitted to move or 

speak. It was impermissible to raise my hand or to walk. 

If I went to the bathroom, a guard followed me. When 

they asked again whether I had heard of Christianity, I 

admitted that I had.” 

At the detention center, prisoners had to follow the 

regulations by being seated and were not permitted to 

talk to anyone else. There seemed to be about 200 prisoners. Two compartments were for men. A fistful of corn 

powder and five spoonfuls of thin porridge were distributed three times a day. There was a hallway on both sides 

[of the detention center], and there were three partitions 

so prisoners could sit in the middle. There were almost 

50 persons in a small partition with a small iron door. 

They beat me whenever I had difficulties breathing due to 

my weak heart.” 

Interviewee 16 was put in the PSA detention center in 

Saetbyeol, North Hamgyeong Province for three months. 

The prisoners were forced to sit on the floor and could not 

speak or make eye contact with other prisoners. About 20 

people were held in a cell. Prisoners were given 10 minutes to exercise, but then had to return to the floor. They 

were given heated corn husks in water for food. The refugee added that she was told directly “that if she had carried 

the Bible of God into North Korea, she would be sent to 

the kwanliso and they would kill her there.” 

Interviewee 23 was in prison for three years following 2000 in Hamheung and Cheongjin and she describes 

the situation as follows: “I was beaten up and ate nothing 

for three days after being detained for the first time on 

10 January 2000. They knocked my head with an iron 

hook. I was hung head down from the prison bars with 

shackles on my legs and I was beaten with an iron hook. 

My shoulder was also beaten. Those sufferings resulted in 

the rupture of a capillary. I had to sit and could not make 

even a motion all day long from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., which 

continued for six months from February to July.” 

Interviewee 25 is a 30-year-old female who testified that she had been repatriated to North Korea in 

2005 and put in Onseong because of her admitted contact with South Korean religious groups in China. She 

said there was no torture except she had to sit on the 

floor without moving.

Interviewee 29 escaped North Korea four times and 

was sent to an NSA political labor camp four times. He 

describes the moment he entered the prison as follows: 

“When I was sent to Onseong, the NSA officer said to 

me ‘Damn you! I’ll beat your face!’ and they poured cold 

water on me and kicked me. There were about 50 – 60 

people in a cell, so we had to sleep in a seated position because there was no room to lie down. There was 

one toilet in the cell, so the entire cell was like a dung 

tub. Many people died of colitis because of the polluted 

water. There were so many lice. We got a mouthful of 

overcooked noodles three times a day.” During his fourth 

repatriation, he revealed that he had joined a Bible study 

group in China. In his words, “the NSA officer told me, 

‘You are a stranger and you have a child! So you should 

be clever! In these days most people agree that God 

is good, don’t they?’ And they sent me to Hamheung 

(short-term detention center) instead of putting me in 

Political Offense Concentration Camp.” 

Interviewee 30 escaped and was repatriated three 

times before reaching South Korea in 2003. She describes 

her detention at Onseong as follows: “It was a small 

room and I was there for about eight days. About 80 people were in that small room. [In the room, people] must 

be seated with their heads bowed down. If you raise your 

head, you would get beaten. People who were beaten 

had bruises all over their bodies. We were put to bed at 

10 o’clock and I really thought that dying would be better. There was a woman who gave birth in the cell, but 

the guards took the baby away. It seemed like in my cell 

about 10 people out of 80 were believers. [They] kept 

praying. So I started to pray with them.” 
A South Korean soldier facing the 

North side at Panmunjeom in the 

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing 

North and South Korea
33

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 5

This chapter includes interviews with six North 

Koreans who worked for police or surveillance agencies, including the National Security 

Agency (NSA) and the Public Security Agency (PSA), 

and one former official with the Korean Workers’ Party. 

The information provided by these officials offers unusual 

insight into the DPRK’s repressive policies and practices. 

In addition, the testimony of the former security agents 

supplements previous research, as most evidence on religious freedom and other human rights in North Korea 

stems from refugees who left North Korea because of 

food shortages and other severe hardships.40 

The role and tactics of North Korean security agencies may already be known to those familiar with the 

repressive tactics of totalitarian societies. However, the 

information provided by the former security agents illustrates the constant surveillance, the arbitrary power, 

and the extent to which North Koreans are recruited to 

inform on each other. As one former official said, “North 

Korea is a prison without bars...The reason why the 

North Korean system still exists is because of the strict 

surveillance system.” 

Former security agents testified to executions of 

political offenders, including eyewitness accounts of a 

specially trained officer with the job of executing prisoners with one blow from a hammer. Such officers are 

reportedly referred to as man-butchers (baekjeong). One 

agent who worked for 20 years in the Political Offense 

40 Four respondents were from the NSA (Interviewees 33-36), two from 

the PSA (Interviewees 37, 38), and one was from the Workers’ Party 

(Interviewee 39).

Concentration Camp said he witnessed secret executions 

where “the [accused] digs the hole to be buried and then 

the baekjeong strikes him just one time with a two-knuckle-sized hammer.” Former security agents also testified 

that public executions of political offenders and criminals 

were curtailed in recent years because of negative public 

attention to the practice. 

The interviews also provided information about 

the way security agencies view the threat from religious 

adherents, how they organize and train to suppress religious activity, and the incentives that are provided to 

those who uncover clandestine activity. As one former 

agent said, “because religious people are classified as 

political offenders, there is a great reward [in promotions and decorations].” Conversely, security agents 

are often “desperate because if they don’t catch two or 

more cases, they cannot get promoted and they might 

get kicked out [of the NSA].” The former police agents 

also told of being trained in religion in order to infiltrate prayer meetings or pose as “pastors.” Some told 

of going to China to attend Protestant churches and to 

collect information on the sources of support available 

to refugees there.41 Another described the NSA’s efforts 

to set up false underground religious meetings to attract North Koreans who had become Christians before 

returning to the DPRK. 

41 For additional accounts of North Korean security agents entering China 

to infiltrate the North Korean refugee community on the border area and 

reporting back to the North Korean NSA, see Perilous Journeys: The Plight 

of North Korean Refugees in China and Beyond, International Crisis Group, 

October 2006. 

The Policies and Practices of 

Repression: Testimonies of Former 

Security Agency Officials
34

The former security agents are particularly interested in halting new Protestant religious activity inside 

North Korea that is spread by North Koreans who convert while in China. This activity is considered both a 

security and an ideological threat; the latter because 

the agents all believed that South Korean and American 

intelligence agencies are behind the spread of Protestantism and the former because Protestantism is a “leading 

element” challenging the “One and Only Ideology—

KimIlSungism.” According to one former security agent, 

“In a way....all threats are related to religion.”42 

I. The Roles and Methods of the PSA and NSA 

The NSA coordinates efforts to uncover “reactionary elements” and “anti-government forces” within the 

DPRK. According to those interviewed, the NSA’s 

Counterintelligence Department (bantamgwa) is in charge 

of identifying, arresting, and incarcerating political offenders, ideological dissidents, foreign spies, and illegal 

religious adherents. Religious activity can be considered 

a political crime if an individual is suspected of having 

close and continuing contact with Protestant religious 

groups in China or of intending to worship outside of 

the government-approved federations. Said one former 

NSA agent, “North Korea isn’t interested in people who 

escape North Korea because of the shortage of food; we 

target those who escape in order to go to South Korea or 

[become] religious believers.”43 

The People’s Safety Agency (PSA) network is the 

national police force whose primary concern is conven42 Interviewee 38.

43 Interviewee 34.

tional criminal activity. However, the PSA is also involved 

in the process of religious repression, mostly because its 

extensive network of informants provides information 

on clandestine religious activity, according to interviewees. For the most part, the PSA is responsible for North 

Korean defectors who cross the border into China. PSA 

agents will question repatriated refugees, seeking to 

identify those who became Christians or had contact with 

foreign humanitarian organizations in China. The PSA 

usually hands over those suspected of “political offenses” 

to the NSA. However, according to those interviewed, 

as the two agencies compete for resources and prestige 

there are organizational rivalries.

In their efforts to uncover “anti-government” and “reactionary elements,” the NSA and PSA utilize a network 

of “informants” and the “resident registration dossier,”44

which contains information on family backgrounds, past 

religious activities, and political propensities. Each North 

Korean citizen has such a dossier. The PSA’s Department 

of Resident Registration compiles the dossiers through 

secret investigations. The resident registration dossiers 

are used for identifying, monitoring, and punishing those 

accused of political offenses, including engaging in unauthorized religious activity. 

Agents reportedly run networks of informants to 

create the resident registration dossiers and to provide 

information on clandestine activities and “political offenses,” including religious activities. Agents are given 

considerable rewards for identifying and arresting “political offenders,” including religious adherents. Rewards are 

usually given in the form of medals, pay, or promotion. 

Informants are also “rewarded” by having unfavorable 

family information (songbun)

45 deleted or changed, or 

sometimes they are given permission to move to a more 

desirable place.46

44 The interviewee who gave this information, whose relative was a NSA agent, 

testified that in the late 1980s, there were instructions requiring every agent to 

operate 30 informants.

45 Songbun refers to the DPRK system that stratifies society on the basis 

of family background and perceived loyalty to the regime. For additional 

information, see the chapter on North Korea in Annual Report 2007, U.S. 

Commission on International Religious Freedom, May 2007.

46 According to Interviewee 42, membership in the Party, admission to 

university, and enrollment in the NSA are other ways of rewarding informants.

Said one former NSA agent, “North Korea 

isn’t interested in people who escape North Korea 

because of the shortage of food; we target those 

who escape in order to go to South Korea 

or [become] religious believers.”
35

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 5

Specific Responses on Surveillance Methods of 

the PSA and NSA

Interviewee 33: “The NSA officers in charge of a district have all official documents regarding the residents, 

so they know everything about an individual’s [life and 

family history.] We find this out by informants. We [use] 

this information to decide whether to arrest a person. We 

have many informants. There are [risks and rewards] of 

being an informant. If an [investigation fails or the NSA 

officer defects] his informants can be executed. When 

an informant finds something useful, that person will be 

compensated for his service with a mark of honor rather 

than money; he could be exempted from his bad family 

background, get a better job, or he could even be moved 

to Pyongyang for his safety.

“The officer picks a person with [a poor family] 

background or...some other flaw. The NSA officer 

takes the [potential informant] to his office, and beats 

him severely without mercy because even if the person 

dies, no one would even know or care about it. After 

the severe beatings, the officer...asks him to write 

down any misdemeanors he committed. [When he is 

done writing,] the officer yells, ‘Why did you skip over 

[your crimes]?’ When the officer threatens to send the 

person over to the PSA and says that he will receive a 

three to four-year sentence, then the person begs for 

his life and says, ‘Save me just this once, please.’ Then 

the officer says to him, ‘Ok, I’ll forgive you if you do 

something for me.’”

Interviewee 34: “We arrest political offenders after 

securing evidence by using all our informants. In the 

past, there was a group called the Northwest Youth Association. I was in charge of tracing...that group. They 

were all executed. Things like possessing religious books, 

sharing one’s faith with others, or preaching cannot exist because they undermine the Kim Jong Il regime. All 

we need [to arrest someone] is one bit of evidence such 

as the Bible with someone’s name on it. If the Bible is 

found, [the NSA] leaves it until the real owner shows up.”

Interviewee 37: “I joined the Department of Resident 

Registration in the Public Security Agency (PSA) and 

created [official] documents on residents through secret 

investigations. The documents still exist and play an important role in oppressing [North Korean] human rights. 

I was in charge of one village and I investigated residents 

secretly in that village. Then I made a document called a 

‘residents’ register’ after investigating what people did 

in the past and what their parents did in the old times. 

When someone wants to go to college, join the Party, 

or get a job, the executive [of the Party] first studies the 

document and if the executive decides that this person 

cannot work for them in the future, then that person cannot go to college. North Koreans are classified according 

to their background in the residents’ register. Families 

of POWs [prisoners of war] are listed as Number 43, 

families that have been exiled and were brought back are 

listed as Number 49, people who committed a flagrant 

offense during the war or before independence are a hostile group and they are listed as Number 149. Religious 

people are not classified because they were supposed to 

have been liquidated after the revolution. A Ms. Kim has 

a mother who was a Protestant evangelist. Her husband 

had an important post in the Party and she wanted to join 

the Party, but because of her background, she could not. 

She visited me to eliminate the record of her mother, so I 

took her name off the list. Confirmation of seven people 

is required to make a document that a person’s ancestor 

was a Christian.” 

Interviewee 38: “There are always four groups of surveillance teams and they are the NSA, the PSA, the Party, 

and the neighborhood unit. [We] give instructions to the 

neighborhood unit and the Primary Party Committee to 

“

Things like possessing religious books, 

sharing one’s faith with others, or preaching 

cannot exist because they undermine the 

Kim Jong Il regime. All we need [to arrest 

someone] is one bit of evidence such as 

the Bible with someone’s name on it. If the 

Bible is found, [the NSA] leaves it 

until the real owner shows up.”
36

watch [certain] people. We tell them to watch them closely 

and report [the list of] people who visit them. We are to be 

informed once every 15 days. There were lots of religious 

people in Jeongju, Gwaksan, Unjeon, and Namsinuiju, so 

people in that area are still prohibited from moving to other 

places and no executive party members are selected from 

that area. People there are closely watched [by the PSA] 

throughout their entire lives. If an informant does a good 

job, we sometimes write an official letter from the PSA [to 

that person’s workplace] saying, ‘this person has ferreted 

out a religious believer at his workplace and is not comfortable in this company, please transfer this person to another 

company’ and in this way, we find a better job for that person. That is how we make people watch one another.” 

Interviewee 39: “North Korea is a prison without bars. 

The reason why the North Korean system still exists 

is because of the strict surveillance system. When we 

provide the information like ‘this family believes in a 

religion from their grandfather’s generation,’ the NSA 

will arrest each family member. That is why entire families are scared of one another. Everyone is supposed to 

be watching one another like this. All organizations, the 

Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League, and the Women’s 

League are [gathering information].”

Specific Responses on Training Given to 

Uncover Clandestine Religious Activity

Interviewee 34: “In North Korea, there is a school 

called the National University of Security and Defense. 

In principle, students can enter after graduating from 

university and receive special education for four to five 

years. There is no special education on religious issues. 

However, [some] study about religion in order to ferret 

out religious people. There are samples of Bibles in all 

languages in the NSA.” 

Interviewee 35: “There are courses for religion in 

Kim Il Sung University and most graduates [or religion 

majors] go abroad or work for the domestic [religious 

groups], but most of them are recruited by the NSA. 

[Sometimes,] the NSA selects a person and then asks 

Kim Il Sung University to educate him on religion. 

There are courses on...theology now [because] there 

are missionaries and pastors in North Korea. NSA officers also learn skills and techniques for interrogating 

[religious people]. The officer who investigated me 

knew Christian terms and...seemed to have read the 

Bible. When I went to China last May (2006), I met a 

person who was an NSA informant. He said that he 

was being trained to uncover religious people [according to] special directions from the NSA. [He was supposed to look for things] such as a person who remains 

silent with closed eyes and meditates or when habitual 

smokers or drinkers quit smoking or drinking all of 

the sudden. [These people] should be targets to be 

watched closely.”47

Interviewee 36: “Agents are educated in the National 

University of Security and Defense, but sometimes 

professors come and teach them secretly. An agent is 

told to have a religion, but it is for infiltrating 

the enemy.”48

Interviewee 37: “We just learn that ‘because a religion 

is a drug, it can be spread in a second, and [that is how] 

Gorbachev of Russia fell because imperialism penetrated through religion.’ In this way, [all threats] are related 

to religion.” 

47 This interviewee was sent undercover to China as a false escapee.

48 This interviewee was trained as a spy in the NSA.

“

When we provide the information like ‘this 

family believes in a religion from their 

grandfather’s generation,’ the NSA will arrest each 

family member. That is why entire families are 

scared of one another. Everyone is supposed 

to be watching one another like this.”
37

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 5

II. Uncovering Clandestine Religious Activity: 

the Training and Tactics of Security Agencies 

in the DPRK 

Some North Korean security officials are trained to 

understand religions, identify religious literature, and 

interrogate those suspected of clandestine religious activity. They are trained to ask questions to determine if 

a repatriated refugee intends to practice Christianity in 

the DPRK. According to those interviewed, questions on 

Buddhism are not asked. The NSA both recruits students 

from the religion department of Kim Il Sung University 

and sends security agents there for training. 

The interviewees also told of the tactics used to uncover clandestine religious activity or missionary activity, 

including infiltrating religious communities, recruiting 

informants among Chinese-Korean pastors, and posing 

as “pastors” or “elders.” Most of this activity took place in 

China, in the Protestant churches of Yanbian Autonomous 

Prefecture. However, the wife of a former security officer also testified that her husband set up “fake prayer 

meetings” in North Korea to try and attract Christian 

converts who had been repatriated from China.

Specific Responses on Tactics Used to Uncover 

Clandestine Religious Activity

Interviewee 34: “Research [on religious groups] is conducted in two ways. First, North Korea trains pastors 

and sends them out on a mission. Second, there are cases 

where [the NSA recruits] real pastors as informants in 

China. Members of the church do not know that their 

pastor is our informant or spy. That’s how we can capture 

[religious believers]. Otherwise, we can’t capture them.”

Interviewee 35: “As large numbers of North Koreans...started to escape and information [about North 

Korea] started to leak, the NSA created the 8th Division to stop the leaks. I was recruited in this new division and went to China as an undercover North Korean 

defector. My boss gave me a mission [to find out if] 

political defectors received help from religious groups 

or Christian groups. The NSA still sends spies posing as 

Christians in order to uncover [missionaries] among the 

North Korean refugees.”

III. NSA and PSA Operations Along the 

China-North Korea Border

Former security agents interviewed for this report confirm the testimony of refugees about harsh interrogation, 

torture, and detention, including incarceration in political prison camps, if it is discovered that a refugee had 

contact with South Korean groups or converted to Protestant Christianity while in China. 

 According to former agents, repatriated refugees 

are asked questions to determine if they have had contact with South Koreans in China and whether or not 

they have close and continuing contact with religious 

groups. The security agents state that beatings, threats, 

and other forms of mistreatment regularly occur during the interrogation. If the interrogator is convinced a 

refugee had little or insignificant contact with religious 

groups in China, he or she is turned over to the PSA for 

short-term detention. However, if it is determined that 

a refugee has had extensive contact with religious activity and foreign religious groups in China, he or she is 

handed over to the NSA, and can be sent to the kwanliso, 

where the person experiences inhumane conditions, 

including torture and hard labor.

 There is evidence, however, that North Korean security agents are distinguishing between the humanitarian 

and religious roles played by Korean-Chinese churches. 

According to the agents, simple attendance at a Korean 

Christian church in China may not be considered a “political” crime. This corroborates the testimony of some 

recently repatriated refugees who claim that they found 

leniency when insisting that their affiliation with South 

Korean groups or churches was temporary and needsbased. Said one former NSA agent, “(I)f a [repatriated 

refugee insists] that they went to church because they 

were hungry...we let them pass and tell them not to tell 

anyone that they went to church.” 

The overall picture provided by former security officers is of the inhumane and cruel conditions faced by 

repatriated refugees during interrogation and detention. 

It also confirms the argument that North Korean refugees 

in China should be given international protection because 

of the torture and imprisonment they face upon return. 
38

Specific Responses on Interrogation by the 

NSA and PSA

Interviewee 33: “There are no preliminary hearings 

when religious people get caught. [We] regard them as 

anti-revolutionary elements. When such an offender is 

caught in North Korea, the NSA officers surround the 

person and kick and beat the person severely before interrogating. When repatriated refugees are interrogated, they 

are first asked whether they had gone to a church in China. 

North Korea is very concerned about religion. However, 

no question is asked on Buddhism. Most of those repatriated say they went to church [to receive] food, but that 

they stayed in the mountains. They pretend to know nothing of religion. If it works, then they are sent to the PSA. 

Many of those who are repatriated know to avoid discussing religion. However, if they get caught [during the interrogation], they are turned over to the NSA. North Koreans 

in China cannot speak ill of Kim Jong Il because no one 

knows who [is an informant] or who will be repatriated. 

A repatriated refugee may confess everything [they know]. 

The NSA will have a document.” 

Interviewee 34: “We usually just ask them general questions like ‘did any [South Koreans] give you money?’ 

and ‘Is God good?’ to test them. If we find out that this 

person is untrustworthy we bring in a professional investigator. I have witnessed many cases where investigators 

[either let a person go free] or send them to kwanliso. 

[When refugees are held in detention] there can’t be 

secrets because when a group of people is repatriated 

or captured, [they know each other] from the church in 

China, etc. But [interrogations are more difficult] now 

since too many refugees have been to church in China. 

If a [repatriated refugee insists] that they went to church 

because they were hungry...we let them pass.”

Interviewee 38: “The most important question asked 

to the repatriated is whether they have met South Korean 

missionaries or evangelists or encountered or experienced 

religion. If they confess that they have met missionaries or 

deacons...then without any further questions, they will 

be sent to the NSA and they are as good as dead. However, 

only a small number of cases involve religions. 

“[In order to find out the truth] we interrogate seven 

– eight times. We compare all the interrogations....when 

a prisoner forgets to include [information in written confessions] we find out what is really true. This way we find 

out that the prisoner really believed in a religion. [If we 

don’t find out what we want during interrogations] we 

let people go hungry for about three months, [then they 

inform] on each other naturally. [In prison], we give two 

big spoonfuls of bean-mixed rice and it is comprised of 

20 percent beans, 70 percent corn, and 10 percent rice. 

If they behave well, then [we give] a full cup of soup and 

they can at least fill their stomach with water. We don’t 

give enough water. Also because the place is cramped, 

[the prisoners] are seated in two rows and are not even 

allowed to raise their heads.” 

IV. Religion as a Security and 

Ideological Threat

According to former security agents, refugees who left 

North Korea for food or jobs are no longer considered 

enemies of the state or defectors who should be “publicly 

executed for having a capitalist ideology.” Repatriated 

refugees who are determined to have left North Korea 

solely for economic motivations are detained for relatively short periods of time. However, refugees who confess 

to religious belief, or are suspected of spreading Christianity, are viewed as “political offenders” or “foreign spies.” 

They are subject to the harshest penalties, including hard 

labor and lengthy imprisonment. The potential spread 

of Protestantism particularly is viewed as a destabilizing 

force, a “poison that could affect other people,” because it 

presents an ideological alternative to KimIlSungism.

49 

The North Korean government views Buddhism 

and Shamanism as types of “superstitions,” the security 

agents said, but not as political or ideological threats. 

These religious traditions “do not spread.” Nevertheless, Buddhism and Shamanism remain illegal. As noted 

above, the practice of Shamanism is now widespread 

and unofficially tolerated by government authorities, 

as long as the practice is not overt and occurs between 

or among individuals. Buddhism continues to be officially recognized through the preservation of temples 

as cultural heritage sites; however, unhindered religious 

practice does not occur openly at these sites. Protestant 

49 Interviewee 38.
39

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 5

Christianity, in contrast, is implicitly viewed as a dangerous security threat. All the former security agents 

interviewed for this report stated that they believed 

Protestantism was spread by South Korean and American intelligence agencies to undermine Pyongyang’s 

interests and to gather information on North Korea. 

North Koreans who return from China to evangelize 

are considered “pawns of infiltration and spies.” 

The threat of Protestant Christianity is directly 

related to its origins. Thus, according to some of those 

interviewed, a family of believers practicing “remnant” 

forms of Protestantism or Catholicism, i.e., religious 

adherence that predates the establishment of the 

DPRK, will receive lighter punishment than those who 

were converted in China or in the DPRK through the 

efforts of missionaries from South Korea or China. 

Specific Responses of Former North Korean 

Security Agents

Interviewee 33: “The punishment of religious people 

varies according to that person’s current activity—

whether he was active or in hiding. The fact that a person 

keeps a Bible means that this person plans to believe in 

a religion in the future. Those who have had faith for 

generations are punished only to the extent that the NSA 

agent can find out about it, but the punishment is light. 

The most severe punishment is applied to those who are 

engaged in the [new religious] activity: those who carry 

the Bible from China and those Christians who help 

North Korean refugees in China. 

“North Korean authorities do not care about Buddhism. When they mention a religion, it is mainly Protestantism rather than Catholicism or Buddhism. I went 

to a fortune-teller many times. There are many old 

fortune-telling ladies in North Korea. While I was in 

North Korea, there were no executions of Catholics or 

Buddhists. There are many temples, Confucian temples, 

and the shrines of a tutelary deity. If someone puts rice 

cakes or something inside, then it was considered as a 

superstition and the person got beaten. Even Buddhist 

temples were regarded as superstitions. Therefore, 

North Koreans consider Buddhism as a different thing 

from religion.

“The target of the search is Protestantism. None of 

the North Korean defectors are asked, ‘Did you go to a 

Buddhist temple?’ when repatriated. This is the thinking 

process of the NSA officers because I myself was never 

[concerned] with Buddhists while I was in the NSA. 

Protestantism is the only religion that is so persecuted 

because basically, it is related to the United States...and 

is considered spying. Since Americans conveyed Christianity and since they are the ones who attempted to 

invade our country, those who are Christians are spies. 

Spies are executed. 

“The level of punishment for Christians is different 

from that of fortune-tellers. Although [the authorities] regulate and interrogate fortune-tellers, they just 

ask, ‘How many times did you provide your service? 

What did you receive as payments?’ and send them to a 

lockup for a few days. They are not even handed over to 

the PSA. Some get acquainted and visit a fortune-telling 

service. The executives of the Party would go together 

in secret.” 

Interviewee 34: “We are not interested in people who 

escape North Korea because they are hungry. The targets 

are those who escape in order to go to South Korea and 

those who become religious believers and come back 

to North Korea. Protestant religious organizations are 

considered political offenders and traitors attempting to 

[overthrow] the government. 

“Buddhism has nothing to do with politics. Buddhist organizations don’t spread religion and are considered to be superstitions, so, if we find them, they...do 

forced labor for about six months. We just consider this 

a superstition. 

The North Korean government views 

Buddhism and Shamanism as types of 

“superstitions,” the security agents said, but not 

as political or ideological threats. These 

religious traditions “do not spread.”
40

“Regarding Buddhism, monks are actually members 

of the Party. They practice how to pray to Buddha and 

they are enthusiastic because they are well paid when 

they complete their missions well. When I visit my 

[monk] friend and ask him to go out to drink with me, 

he declines. However, after foreign visitors are gone and 

events are over, he runs to the pub and drinks. There are 

also some cases where people start to believe sincerely. 

Even the NSA can’t say anything about them because 

when foreigners and South Koreans visit, they give some 

money to [monks] and some of that money comes to us. 

Since it costs money to buy foreign cigarettes and so on, 

we just report as nothing special is going on.

“You know, first of all, Chondokyo has its origin 

in the independence of Korea and also Kim Il Sung had 

received many benefits from it. In the times of the antiJapanese movement, Kim Il Sung had received financial 

support from Chondokyo and he also knew that Chondokyo won’t spread its influence much within the society. 

The idea is that, at least Chondokyo doctrines are patriotic and they teach us to value our own culture so why 

would one want to believe something that has come from 

the West such as Christianity and Catholicism.”

Interviewee 35: “In 2001, there was Kim Jong Il’s 

‘generous politics policy’ which said, ‘people who went 

to China are not traitors if they went because of hunger. 

[After repatriation] they should be set free after several 

months of investigation and detention.’ This was because 

there were great numbers of people who escaped North 

Korea. I knew of Christians who were detained for two 

months in 2003. They were about to be set free when 

[someone from] the group informed [the authorities]. 

They were taken away by the NSA from the detention 

center in Cheongjin, North Hamgyeong Province. 

“Christians are regarded as spies. If you meet a 

Christian, it is considered the same as meeting a South 

Korean intelligence officer. Spies and Christians are sent 

to the kwanliso. They are treated equally. Most people 

who are Christians or who met Christians are sent to 

Yodok to serve sentences of between four years and life. 

People who spread Protestantism—instead of just believing—are sentenced to life sentences.

“There was an incident in Xian, where about 70 

North Korean refugees were living. A Korean-Chinese 

informed the Chinese police and they were arrested. The 

North Korean border police called the Ujin military unit 

in Yanbian. They took the Christians by train to North 

Korea. The arrestees kept praying even as they were beaten. The group leaders and the most faithful ones were 

sent to kwanliso.”

Interviewee 36: “Christianity was suppressed more than 

Buddhism because it is against the One and Only Ideology. Kim Il Sung is god; a real God [cannot] replace him. 

Believing in [Protestantism] is an act of espionage...Religion is a poison that can be spread to other people. 

“Regarding Buddhism, there are temples in North 

Korea. Many people pray in front of a candle and a bowl 

of water in their homes, and no one cares about it. [The 

authorities] crack down on superstitions temporarily, but 

do not maintain their policy, and many even are going 

to the fortune-teller. Many refugees carry the Bible with 

them back to North Korea because they would do anything for the money. If caught, they are sent to kwanliso.

The authorities have rarely executed political offenders 

lately because human rights in North Korea became an 

issue worldwide...but now they are sent to inland mountain areas where living is difficult.” 

Interviewee 37: “Everything except Christianity is fine. 

When a person is caught carrying the Bible, he will be 

punished severely because he has brought an external 

influence to North Korea. A person caught carrying the 

Bible is doomed. When a person is caught [worshipping], he will be sent to kwanliso...and the whole family 

may disappear.”

“

Kim Jong Il is more afraid of his own 

people than the United States. The great god 

of North Korea is Kim Jong Il and if that 

changes to a real god, it can stir up people.” 
41

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS CHAPTER 5

Interviewee 38: “Buddhism is tolerated a little. Buddhists tend to keep their religion to themselves, but 

Christianity spreads fast unlike Buddhism. [Christians] 

don’t pray alone, but try to get together in numbers 

and also they spread fast. Kim Jong Il is more afraid of 

his own people than the United States. The great god of 

North Korea is Kim Jong Il and if that changes to a real 

god, it can stir up people.” 
A North Korean temple near Baekdu Mountain, close to the Chinese border 
43

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS appendix 1

I. The Interview Questions 

During the course of the Commission’s project, 72 

former North Koreans were asked a series of questions 

designed to elicit information on several aspects of respect for the right to freedom of thought, conscience, 

and religion or belief in North Korea. The first question 

was short but open-ended: Does freedom of religion 

or belief exist in North Korea? And second, why or 

why not? 

Another series of questions asked the interviewees if 

they had ever encountered or seen any (1) authorized or 

permitted religious venues, worship places, or activities; 

(2) religious literature such as texts from the Buddhist 

Tripitika or the Christian Bible; or (3) religious personnel such as priests, pastors, or monks. They were also 

asked about their awareness of the holy days of various 

religions, and whether they knew about religion before 

they had gone to China and South Korea. In the second 

round of interviews, several questions were asked regarding the North Korean government’s dissemination of anti-religion propaganda, including through its educational 

system, mass media such as television or radio broadcasting, or other ways. 

The North Korean Constitution proclaims Juche, or 

KimIlSungism, as the country’s official ideology, and virtually all observers note that this state ideology is itself 

highly religious in nature. Thus, a series of questions 

were asked about the implementation and propagation 

of Juche/KimIlSungism as the official “belief system.” 

Questions were also asked about alternative systems of 

thought and belief. Interviewees were asked if they had 

ever encountered “underground,” illegal, secret, or 

unauthorized religious activity, and if so, what kind. 

Finally, interviewees were asked about any encounters they might have had with religion while residing 

without formal government approval in China. They were 

also asked whether there were any consequences to such 

encounters when they were caught by Chinese police and 

forcibly repatriated to North Korea.

II. Overviews of the First and Second Series of 

Interviews (72 North Koreans)

The First Round of Interviews of 40 North Koreans who Fled 

the DPRK Before 2003

The 40 persons questioned in the first round of 

interviews were split almost evenly between men and 

women. However, there was no discernable correlation 

of responses by gender. The interviewees included 

former housewives, traders or sellers (small business 

operators), teachers, students, factory workers, soldiers, policemen, construction workers, office workers, 

and low-level state officials. As was the case with gender, the responses of the interviewees to questions of 

interest for the Commission’s first report did not correlate with previous occupation and/or profession. 

One respondent was 73 years old, four were in their 

60s, and one was 20 years old, but the bulk of interviewees were in their early to mid-30s. One of the interviewees fled North Korea in 1989, two left in 1996, three 

in 1997, and three in 2003. The rest of the interviewees 

left North Korea between 1998 and 2001. Once again, 

the answers provided to the interview questions showed 

Methodology for and Information 

on the North Korean Refugee 

Interviews
44

little or no variation by age or the year of departure from 

North Korea.50

It should be noted that the viewpoints of the approximately 40 North Koreans are based on experiences 

inside North Korea prior to 2003. Although the North 

Korean government undertook economic adjustments in 

2002 and in 2004 made a revision to its Criminal Code, 

it is not apparent that these or any other changes have 

made a difference in the government’s policy regarding 

the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion 

or belief. In any case, North Korean authorities have been 

making the same assertions about religious freedom and 

religious observance in North Korea for the last decade. 

One of the most significant factors in which an interviewee’s life experience appears to have had a substantial impact on his or her answers is whether or not the 

interviewee had spent time in the North Korean capital 

of Pyongyang.51 Few knew of the existence of the three 

official churches in Pyongyang, and of those who did, one 

thought they were exclusively for foreigners, another 

thought they were for liaison with foreigners, and a third, 

despite never having attended services at the churches, 

assumed that they could not be “real churches” like those 

in China and South Korea. 

Second Round of Interviews of Former North 

Koreans Who Fled the DPRK after 2003

The second round of interviews was conducted with 

North Koreans who fled North Korea, for the most part, 

after 2003. The questionnaires were very similar to those 

used in the first round, with several questions added on the 

practice of Buddhism, the interrogation of repatriated refugees, and how the North Korean government conducted 

its anti-religion propaganda though its educational system 

and mass media such as television or radio broadcasting. 

All of those interviewed in the second round left 

North Korea after 2003, except for two who fled in 

50 Several interviewees fled North Korea more than once. These people 

were caught by the Chinese police and forcibly repatriated. Their treatment 

by North Korean police authorities upon their forced return is described in 

Chapter 4 of the Commission’s first report. The present calculations are based 

on their subsequent departure from North Korea prior to obtaining de facto 

asylum in Seoul.

51 Internal travel in North Korea is restricted, and residence in the capital 

Pyongyang is reserved for political elites and privileged workers.

1999. Two interviewees left North Korea in 2006, five in 

2005, 16 in 2004, and seven in 2003. Four respondents 

were in their 50s, five in their 40s, and five in their 20s. 

The rest were in their 30s. 

The interviewees were split almost evenly between 

men and women. However, as with the first group, there 

was no discernable correlation of responses to gender. 

The interviewees included former housewives, teachers, 

college students, high school students, office workers, 

transporters, drivers, soldiers, carpenters, vocational 

trainees, construction workers, and several who were 

unemployed. As with the first round of interviews, the 

responses of the interviewees to questions of interest for 

the second report did not correlate with previous occupation and/or profession. Similarly, the answers provided 

showed little or no discernable variation by age or year 

of departure from North Korea. Four respondents (Interviewees 43, 48, 65, 69) had fled North Korea before 

2003 but were repatriated back to North Korea before 

fleeing again after 2003. 

The interviewees in the second round have one thing 

in common: the length of their stay in China was very 

short. It has been estimated that North Korean escapees 

stay in China usually for three or four years. This second 

group of interviewees, however, stayed in China for a 

relatively short period before successfully gaining entry 

into South Korea.

Apparently, the length of stay in China has shortened 

because the more recent escapees leave North Korea better prepared than previous refugees, as the necessary information for reaching South Korea is provided to them 

in advance by relatives and friends. Ten respondents were 

forcibly repatriated from China (Interviewees 43, 47, 

48, 54, 56, 63, 65, 68, 69, 70) and two fled in 1999; the 

rest of the interviewees were “directly imported” to the 

South. These “directly imported” escapees refer to those 

who escape into third countries for the purpose of going 

to South Korea after they cross the border into China. 

Their stay in China is normally short, sometimes less than 

a few months, before they head to third countries. Relatives and friends who have already successfully entered 

South Korea provide financial support and information. 
45

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS APPENDIX 2

Jae-Chun Won

Jae-Chun Won is a professor of law at Handong International Law School in South Korea and a scholar at the 

forefront of international advocacy on North Korean 

human rights issues. He teaches U.S. Criminal Law and 

Procedure, International Humanitarian Law, and North 

Korean and International Human Rights Law. Prior to his 

academic career, he was an international law officer in the 

Office of the General Counsel at the Korean Ministry of 

National Defense, and then Assistant District Attorney in 

the King’s County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, 

New York, specializing in domestic violence prosecution. 

He is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bars.

Professor Won serves as Board Member and Director 

of the International Campaign of Citizens’ Alliance for 

North Korean Human Rights. He made oral interventions regarding various Asian human rights issues at the 

UN Human Rights Commission, and currently serves as 

Director of Human Rights Education at the Asia Center 

for Human Rights in Seoul, South Korea. He advised the 

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees 

(UNHCR) on North Korean refugee issues. He advises 

the Korean Supreme Prosecutor’s Office on criminal 

procedure reform. He is a member of the International 

Criminal Law Advisory Committee of the Korean Ministry of Justice, and is a member of the International 

Association of Prosecutors.

Byoung Lo (Philo) Kim

Byoung Lo (Philo) Kim is an Associate Research Professor at the Institute for Unification Studies at Seoul 

National University in South Korea and a leading scholar 

on North Korea and Korean Religious Studies. Professor Kim received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Sung 

Kyun Kwan University in Seoul, his Master’s Degree 

from Indiana State University, and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, all in sociology. From 1993 to 2003, 

Professor Kim was Senior Research Fellow and Director 

of North Korean Studies at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU). He then served as Director 

of North Korean Studies at Ashin University in South 

Korea. He has visited Pyongyang, North Korea, several 

times and conducted extensive research on North Korean 

refugees in China.

Researcher Biographies
46

A monument in Pyongyang
47

About the Commission

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS APPENDIX 3

The United States Commission on International 

Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) 

to monitor violations of the right to freedom of thought, 

conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in 

IRFA and set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to 

give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. 

The Commission is the first government commission 

in the world with the sole mission of reviewing and making 

policy recommendations on the facts and circumstances of 

violations of religious freedom globally. The Commission’s 

impact and success in accomplishing its mission is achieved 

through its efforts to bring advice and accountability to 

U.S. foreign policy in the promotion of religious freedom 

abroad. By providing reliable information and analysis, and 

careful and specific policy recommendations, the Commission gives the U.S. government and the American public 

the tools necessary to promote this fundamental freedom 

throughout the world.

In the words of a key drafter of IRFA, the Commission 

was established for the purpose of ensuring “that the President and the Congress receive independent recommendations and, where necessary, criticism of American policy 

that does not promote international religious freedom.”52

The Commission, which began its work in May 

1999, is not a part of the State Department and is independent from the Executive Branch.

52 Congressional Record, S12999, November 12, 1998.

The Commission is composed of 10 members. Three 

are appointed by the President. Three are appointed by 

the President pro tempore of the Senate, of which two are 

appointed upon the recommendation of the Senate Minority Leader. Three are appointed by the Speaker of the 

House of Representatives, of which two are appointed 

upon the recommendation of the House Minority Leader. 

The system of appointments thus provides that leaders of 

the party in the White House appoint five voting members, and leaders of the other party appoint four. The 

Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom serves ex officio as a non-voting member. 

Commissioners bring a wealth of expertise and experience in foreign affairs, human rights, religious freedom, and international law; the membership also reflects 

the religious diversity of the United States.

In carrying out its mandate, the Commission reviews information on violations of religious freedom as 

presented in the Department of State’s Country Reports on 

Human Rights Practices and its Annual Report on International 

Religious Freedom. The Commission also consults regularly 

with State Department and National Security Council 

officials, U.S. Ambassadors, and officials of foreign governments, as well as with representatives of religious 

communities and institutions, human rights groups, other 

non-governmental organizations, academics, and other 

policy experts. It visits foreign countries to examine 

religious freedom conditions firsthand. The Commission 

also holds public hearings, briefings and roundtables.
48

The Commission has met with President George 

W. Bush and senior members of his Administration, including the Secretary of State and the National Security 

Advisor, to discuss its findings and recommendations. The 

Commission also briefs Members of Congress, U.S. Ambassadors, and officials from international organizations. 

In addition, the Commission testifies before Congress, 

participates with U.S. delegations to international meetings and conferences, helps provide training to Foreign 

Service officers and other U.S. officials, and advises the 

Administration and Members of Congress and their staff 

on executive and legislative initiatives. 

The Commission raises issues and brings its findings 

and recommendations to the American public through its 

public speaking activities, press conferences, other public 

events such as roundtables and briefings, its publications, 

Web site, and media outreach. 

Commissioners reside throughout the United States, 

and the Commission has traveled around the country to 

hold public hearings, public meetings, and other activities to inform the American people of its work. While the 

work of the Commission is conducted year round, the 

Commission compiles an annual report of its policy recommendations in May to the President, the Secretary of 

State, and Congress. 
49

A PRISON WITHOUT BARS

Notes
50

Notes

United States Commission on 

International Religious Freedom

800 North Capitol Street, N.w. Suite 790

Washington, D.c. 20002

Www.uscirf.gov

Tel. 202-523-3240 Fax: 202-523-5020