For more information see the North Korea profile.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is known internationally as North Korea. It is separated from the ethnically identical South Korea by a military demarcation zone. Until World War II, Korea was occupied by Japan. After the war, at the insistence of the USSR, Korea was partitioned into a communist North and democratic South. Ever since the stalemate of the Korean War of 1950-1953, North Korea has constanly threatend another war against the South. By 1993 attempts to become a nuclear power, the end of aid from China and the USSR, and the heavy costs of militarization had caused North Korea's economy to near collapse. Widespread hunger and even starvation have been the results.

The leaders are almost deified by adulatory propaganda, leading to harsh religious repression, causing Christian churches to go underground. In contrast to the largely Christian South, most North Koreans have never had an opportunity to hear the Gospel.