Open Doors has released its 2023 World Watch List, an annual report that ranks the 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution. North Korea now holds the number one position with the “highest levels of persecution ever seen,” according to Open Doors, taking the spot held by Afghanistan in 2022 following the Taliban takeover.

The organization cited North Korea’s “anti-reactionary thought law” as the cause for the skyrocketing arrest and assault rates against Christians. The law passed in December 2020 and prohibits the flow of news, information, and cultural information,  such as published materials, video content, music, and radio broadcasts. This includes the Bible and all other faith-related resources. 

This mandate gives North Korean authorities permission to arrest anyone who engages in religion, forcing the estimated 400,000 Christians in North Korea to hide all evidence that they follow Jesus. If they are found consulting religious materials, conversing about religious topics, or suspected of abiding by religious beliefs, they will be severely punished, which may include interrogation, torture, and imprisonment. Over the past year, multiple underground North Korean churches have been exposed and shut down, with countless citizen arrests and stories of families rounded up and sent to labor camps. 

Other countries high on the 2023 Watch List include Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Sudan. Most of the persecution within these countries originates from violence incited by Islamist extremists, which has displaced thousands of Christians and forced many groups underground.

Globally, Open Doors reported 5,621 Christians were murdered, 4,542 were detained, and 2,110 church attacks occurred from Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2022 — the span of time during which data for the 2023 Watch List was collected. They estimate that around the world, 312 million Christians face high or extreme levels of persecution, which equates to one in seven Christians. 

While these numbers are grim, Wybo Nicolai, who first created the World Watch List, told Baptist Standard that despite the growing levels of persecution, the global church has only increased its strength and size. 

“It’s extraordinary — but incredibly encouraging and challenging,” she said, “that in a number of countries in the world where it is hardest to live as a Christian, where the consequences are most grave, the church is continuing to grow.”