page_title: Religion in North Korea
section_title: Before 1945
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in North Korea / History / Before 1945
caption_attribution_description: English: Church building constructed at Sorae, Korea (now Ryongyon County, South Hwanghae Province, North Korea) in 1895 by Korean Christians.
context_page_description: There are no known official statistics of religions in North Korea. Officially, North Korea is an atheist state. Based on estimates from the late 1990s and the 2000s, North Korea is mostly irreligious, with the main religions being Korean shamanism and Chondoism. There are small communities of Buddhists and Christians. Chondoism is represented in politics by the Party of the Young Friends of the Heavenly Way, and is regarded by the government as Korea's "national religion" because of its identity as a minjung and "revolutionary anti-imperialist" movement.
context_section_description: In ancient times, most Koreans believed in their indigenous religion socially guided by mu (shamans). Buddhism was introduced from the Chinese Former Qin state in 372 to the northern Korean state of Goguryeo, and developed into distinctive Korean forms. At that time, the Korean peninsula was divided into three kingdoms: the aforementioned Goguryeo in the north, Baekje in the southwest, and Silla in the southeast. Buddhism reached Silla only in the 5th century, but it was made the state religion only in that kingdom in the year 552. In Goguryeo the Korean indigenous religion remained dominant, while Buddhism became more widespread in Silla and Baekje (both areas comprehended in modern South Korea).
  In the following unified state of Goryeo (918–1392), that developed from Goguryeo incorporating the southern kingdoms, Buddhism flourished even becoming a political force. In the same period, the influence of Chinese Confucianism penetrated the country and led to the formation of Korean Confucianism that would have become the state ideology and religion of the following Joseon state.
  The Joseon kingdom (1392–1910), strictly Neo-Confucian, harshly suppressed Korean Buddhism and Korean shamanism. Buddhist monasteries were destroyed and their number dropped from several hundreds to a mere thirty-six; Buddhism was eradicated from the life of towns as monks and nuns were prohibited from entering them and were marginalised to the mountains. These restrictions lasted until the 19th century.
  In this environment, Christianity began to rapidly gain foothold since the late 18th century, due to an intense missionary activity that was aided by the endorsement at first by the Silhak and Seohak intellectual parties, and then at the end of the following century by the king of Korea himself and the intellectual elite of the crumbling Joseon state, who were looking for a new social factor to invigorate the Korean nation. In the late 19th century, the Joseon state was politically and culturally collapsing. The intelligentsia was looking for solutions to invigorate and transform the nation. It was in this critical period that they came into contact with Western Protestant missionaries who offered a solution to the plight of Koreans. Christian communities already existed in Joseon, however it was only by the 1880s that the government allowed a large number of Western missionaries to enter the country. Protestant missionaries set up schools, hospitals and publishing agencies. The king of Korea and his family tacitly supported Christianity. From the late nineteenth century, the northwest of Korea, and Pyongyang in particular, became a stronghold of Christianity. As a result, Pyongyang was called the "Jerusalem of the East".
  At the dawn of the 20th century, almost the totality of the population of Korea believed in the indigenous shamanic religion and practiced Confucian rites and ancestral worship. Korean Buddhism was nearly dead, reduced to a tiny and weak minority of monks, despite its long history and cultural influence, because of 500 years of suppression by the ruling Neo-Confucian Joseon kingdom, which also disregarded traditional cults.
  During the absorption of Korea into the Japanese Empire (1910–1945) the already formed link of Christianity with Korean nationalism was strengthened, as the Japanese tried to impose State Shinto and Christians refused to take part in Shinto rituals. At the same time, numerous religious movements that since the 19th century had been trying to reform the Korean indigenous religion, notably Chondoism, flourished. Christianity became widespread especially in the north of the peninsula, as did Chondoism which aimed to counter Christian influence.
caption: A Protestant church at Sorae (now Ryongyon County, South Hwanghae Province) in 1895.
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