by Jim Kouri, TCV Reporter - Christians living in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea, have suffered government-sanctioned persecution since the brutal communist regime came to power.

However, according to a recent human rights report, North Korean Christians are experiencing more brutality and violence than at any time in history.

The Christian human-rights group Open Doors, based in Holland, reports that North Korea is number one on its annual World Watch List (WWL), which "ranks countries by the "intensity of persecution that Christians face for actively pursuing their faith."

For the first time, North Korea received over 90 of the maximum 100 points given to the most serious persecutors of practicing Christians.

North Korea, a nation cloaked in secrecy, has been topping the list of Christion persecutors for over five years, according to Open Doors.

In no other country in the world are Christians persecuted as severely as in the empire of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, the Christian group said.

According to officials at Open Door, more Christians had been imprisoned last year than the previous year, and the persecution "is getting worse" by the day.

North Korea's Stalinist system of implementing a Communist economy is based on "total devotion" of the individual to an ideology promoted by the late leader Kim Il Sung and his successor and son, Kim Jong Il, according to observers who visited the isolated nation.

Officials in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea see Christianity as a threat to their philosophy of state control. North Korean authorities, however, deny imprisoning, torturing and killing Christians in the same way they denied working on creating a nuclear weapon.

Open Doors' International Director Johan Companjen said, "Christians in North Korea say they have become more courageous thanks to [the] prayers," of fellow believers around the world.

"Perhaps that's why more believers have been jailed," he stressed.

To discover how you can help stop the persecution of believing Christians in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, please visit: www.helpNK.com/. The web site contains information on religious persecution including an online petition to the US Congress.