What are North Korea's most common religions?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Both Koreas share a Buddhist and Confucianheritage and a recent history of Christian and Cheondoism ("religion of the Heavenly Way") movements.

Although North Korea is officially atheist and according to the Western standards of religion - the majority of Korean population could be characterized as irreligious - the cultural influence of such traditional religions as Buddhism and Confucianism still have an effect on North Korean spiritual life.

Answer 2

Almost all North Koreans believe in the idea of Juche, also known "Kimilsungism" after Kim Ilsung.

Juche should be incorporated in the answer about what are North Korea`s most common religions. Juche is the religious, political, social and economic ideology of North Korea. The Juche Idea was first introduce by Kim Ilsung in 1955 to distance North Korea from the Soviet Union, which at the time was undoing many of the Stalinist policies that Kim Ilsung liked.

Over time, Juche evolved, borrowing from Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism and Confucianism whatever Kim Ilsung and Kim Jongil wanted, as well as their own ideas, and in 1972 replaced Marxism-Leninism in the North Korean constitution as the country's official ideology.

According to Juche, there is no god but Kim Ilsung, the country's "Eternal President", which makes North Korea the world's only country governed by an embalmed dead body. Juche has also attributed divine powers also to Kim Jongil.