Korea Herald
5/8/2007
An online website named North Korea’s “juche” (self-reliance) ideology as the world’s 10th major religion, although some argue that it is more a philosophy than a religion, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday.
Adherents.com, which collected information and statistics on more than 4,200 religions around the globe, cited Christianity as having the largest number of believers at 2.1 billion. Islam has 1.3 billion, followed by Buddhism claiming some 376 million believers, while another 100 million people share African traditional faith, according to the site.
Juche was said to have 19 million believers, which is the entire North Korean population.
Some 22 religions were listed to account for the beliefs of over 98 percent of the world’s population.
The website explains juche as the official philosophy promulgated by the North Korean government and education system, initially classified as the country’s form of Marxist communism.
