Kim Il-Sung had a church rebuilt there shortly before he died. Likely this was for propaganda purposes. But he also allowed Billy Graham to preach to some NK military officers. (They sat in stoney silence, probably not having been informed as to how they were to react; and Graham had to read from a script which an NK handler observed over his shoulder. But he was allowed to preach.)
Kim’s mother was a Christian and he knew Christian hymn tunes.
He had ordered the railroad to the South repaired so that he could make
a journey to the South; and was supposedly preparing to remove Kim Jung-Il as his successor in favor of another son.
Then (abruptly?) he died. He was old enough to have died of natural causes; but one wonders...
There is also a large number of Catholics, though Protestants can’t see them, and they go back to the 1600s. The group of Holy Martyrs of Korea includes 103 from 1839 to 1867. Together the Presbyterians and The Catholics from before them formed the business class in Korea as the Catholics did in Japan and do in Vietnam. Christians share the Mosaic ability to trust each other and can do business with un family related others. They can make a deal and each has a reasonable expectation that the other will follow through. That is almost unique to the Judaeo Christian tradition. It is absent in almost all other cultures except Buddhists who are able to take what works from other traditions and apply it to themselves. Moslems can’t do that except as individuals in J-C societies.
Source (taken from wikepedia): http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/003/16.28.html