This book says a lot about North Korea.
In the 1880s, Korea opened relations with Western countries. Shortly after, American missionaries went there to preach about Jesus. Japan's imperial ambitions were growing, and by 1910 they fully occupied Korea. Hope was scarce. Zealous Korean Christian converts began planting churches all over the peninsula. A devout Christian, Syngman Rhee led an independence movement. The Wilsonian politics after WWI was encouraging until it failed to deliver a free Korea. Upset with the situation, many locals turned away from their biblical faith and toward Leninism and Bolshevism. When Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, the Soviet army "liberated" the Korean people--though plundering and other atrocities occurred. On the scene comes General Kim Il Sung--who was raised in a Christian family. War between the Chinese-Russian-backed North and the American-backed South was waged until an eventual stalemate. Christianity was outlawed in the North and replaced with a somewhat parallel Kimilsungism (Juche). Until his death in 1994, the Great Leader behaved like a god-king in a way that was more Stalinist than Stalin. Today, the Kim Dynasty continues its firm grip on power by maintaining the cult of personality.