North Korea: Christianity

(asked on 26th January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the report by Open Doors entitled World Watch List 2023, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the finding that North Korea is the most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian; and if he will hold discussions with his international counterparts on this.


Answered by
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Portrait
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 2nd February 2023

The UK remains engaged in addressing the appalling human rights situation in North Korea. The right to freedom of religion or belief for all is an FCDO policy priority and a key strand of our DPRK human rights strategy. We regularly raise this with the North Korean authorities and at the UN, and have discussed North Korea's human rights situation during closed consultations at the UN Security Council on 9 December 2022.

The UK co-sponsored the resolution on DPRK human rights, adopted by consensus at the UN General Assembly Third Committee on 16 November 2022. The resolution sends an unequivocal message to the DPRK Government and reiterates long-held demands of the international community for the regime to take concrete action to end the systemic and widespread human rights violations in the country, and to uphold the right to freedom of religion or belief.

Reticulating Splines