JUCHE Kim Il-sung
CHRISTIANITY Founder
Jesus Christ
Kim Il-sung Kim Jung Sook (wife) Kim Jong-il (son)
Trinity
Writings and teachings of Kim Il-sung
Holy Text
The Bible
Worship
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matt. 22:37 NIV
North Koreans are required to worship Kim Il-sung with all their heart and might
Fear On Self Man is master of the world and his own destiny.
Motivation Reliance
God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit
Love On God
Master
Jesus in submission to God.
North Koreans must hang pictures of Kim family in homes and bow to worship.
Images
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” Ex. 20:4-5 NIV
Spy on your neighbor
Others
Love your neighbor
North Koreans gather regularly to admit their wrongdoings.
Confession
and overly presumptuous, referring to outside ideology as imperialistic and aggressive.
The Repression of Christianity In light of these tenets of Juche, it’s easy to understand why the North Korean government is so adamantly against Christianity. Juche ideology allows the Kim family to act as
“Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” James 5:16 NIV
stand-in gods to the North Koreans. In Juche, you rely on your nation, your teaching and your leader…and no one else. Juche is your absolute religion, false though it may be. There are estimated to be some 200,000 to 400,000 Christians living in North Korea today. Of that number approximately 60,000 are serving in prison and labor camps for their faith. Prison camps in North Korea closely resemble the concentration camps of WWII, which killed
almost 12 million people. It doesn’t take much to end up in such a dreadful place. Christians in North Korea can be prosecuted for propagating religion, possessing religious items, carrying out religious activities, or having any sort of contact with religious persons. Secret police are integrated into society at the most intimate level. For this reason, Christians in North Korea must keep their faith an absolute secret. Those who are found out easily suffer arrest, torture, imprisonment and execution. Perhaps the greatest challenge and tragedy is that Christians are often turned into authorities by their own neighbors and friends. Juche means total loyalty to the government. You do not love your neighbor in Juche, you spy on him. You do not feed the poor in Juche, for that man is not self-reliant. Christianity is the anti-juche, the greatest threat to the Kim dynasty and pet nation. This is why North Korea fears Christianity and makes examples of anyone daring to accept this faith. Stories from defectors paint horrifying illustrations of living conditions and punishments inflicted on the Christian population. For example, reports tell of ‘execution by train’ in which the authorities go to the extreme trouble of having men and women tied to railroad tracks and run down by trains. This is not a simple execution to rid a threat; this is a terrorizing form of persecution. When looking at the history and timeline of Juche, one can easily see spiritual forces of evil at work. This false religion and counterfeit Christianity is not just the work of one crazy man but was birthed through him. In 1907, there was one of history’s most amazing revivals in Pyongyang. Thirty-five years later, the Soviet Union installed Kim Il-sung as a puppet leader who went on to lead the Korean War that killed 2.5 million people. After the Korean War, he consolidated his power and then went on to strangle Christianity. As Christians, we know that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and principalities of darkness (Eph. 6:12). Satan wanted to extinguish the light that burned in North Korea and then to build a fortress to keep out the light and to imprison and blind the North Korean people from truth. Juche and the false worship of Kim and his progeny were keys to that prison. Belief in both are fading quickly inside North Korea and it’s only a matter of time before the locks break and the prison doors of North Korea swing open.
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