The Christian Council of Korea, a conservative organization of 44,000 churches across South Korea, announced on Thursday that it would launch a vigorous campaign to support North Koreans who flee their country. The campaign, entitled, “Save North Korea" will help North Koreans who leave their country to settle in refugee towns in neighbouring regions as early as this year. The main effort surrounds the construction of refugee towns in Mongolia and Russia.

Currently, there are an estimated 500,000 Christians among the North Korean people. Similar to China, there are some government sponsored religious groups, but many believe these exist to provide the illusion of religious freedom.

At that end, the government recently re-opened a theological seminary and handpicked twelve students to study Christianity. Not surprisingly, the seminary features portraits of the current dictator and his father in the centre of each room, and that of Christ on the side. North Korea has been long placed on the top ten-list of human rights violators.