"Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung" is the first phrase North Korean parents are instructed to teach to their children. From cradle to grave, North Korean citizens are surrounded by the all-encompassing presence of the "Great Leader" and his son, the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il. The Kim dynasty is much more than an authoritarian government; it also holds itself out as the ultimate source of power, virtue, spiritual wisdom, and truth for the North Korean people. Heterodoxy and dissent are repressed, quickly and efficiently, with punishments meted out to successive generations of the dissident's family. The study that follows was commissioned by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan U.S. government agency that monitors freedom of religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments, and that provides independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress. Forty former North Koreans were interviewed extensively regarding conditions of freedom of religion or belief in the DPRK.