By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
SEOUL (Worthy News) – At least 380 million Christians — one in seven worldwide — faced high levels of persecution and discrimination in 2024, an increase of 15 million from the year before, investigators said Wednesday.
Christian advocacy group Open Doors, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, revealed the figure in its annual World Watch List report of 50 nations where Christians “face most persecution” for their faith.
North Korea, as in most previous years, ranks number 1 in the report focusing on Christians that were reportedly persecuted from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024.
Christians in North Korea could face execution or imprisonment in a labor camp if their faith is discovered, Open Doors warned. The 2021 “Law Against Reactionary Thought” reaffirmed the ban on the Bible. Belief in God is considered a betrayal of the state in a country founded on a personality cult, several sources said.
Despite the targeted oppression, however, the latest World Watch List reported that around 400,000 believers in North Korea are continuing to “bear witness” to the love of Christ.
A North Korean Christian who escaped imprisonment twice told Open Doors that he is “praying“ to see his child again and “share Jesus.”
Jung Jik, whose name was changed for security reasons, was mentioned among several others in the 2025 World Watch List report released Wednesday.
UNDERGROUND CHURCH
He confirmed that despite reported persecution in the autocratically ruled state, a large underground Church still survives in North Korea.
The believer, who resides in South Korea, remembered hearing his grandmother mumble Christian prayers, not realizing what they were at the time.
Jung’s father also became a Christian after he fled North Korea in search of food, leading to his imprisonment. Jung would follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a follower of Christ and by fleeing North Korea.
The North Korean Christian has twice escaped imprisonment — once by climbing an electric fence while it was turned off, and another time when a guard asked him to fetch him alcohol.
During his imprisonment, the guards only referred Jung by his number, and he was deprived of food. Jung hopes to reunite with his child and teach him about Jesus.
“My heart still yearns for North Korea,” Jung said. “There’s still a large underground church. Because you pray, many people are miraculously healed, and they experience God’s power. They come to faith.”
Besides believers in North Korea, “all too often Christians across the world are denied basic legal rights in societies hostile to their faith,” the report stated.
THOUSANDS MURDERED
Open Doors said that throughout the year, an estimated 4,476 Christians were murdered, of which 3,100 were killed in Nigeria, which ranked seventh on the list.
“Though fewer Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria compared to last year, it remains disproportionately deadly for Christians,” the organization stressed.
It also estimated that 4,744 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned for their faith, including in India, where “1,629 Christians were detained without trial, and another 547 were sentenced to prison.”
Other countries where Christians have faced imprisonment for their faith include China, Eritrea, Bangladesh, and Iran.
Founded in 1955, Open Doors International, as it is officially known, has offices in 27 countries to advocate and provide services for persecuted Christians worldwide.
The group aims “to encourage and raise up people in every nation to pray, support and speak up for Christians around the world who suffer for their faith.”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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