North Korea Opens First Russian Orthodox Church

One of a number of North Korean priests trained at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Vladivostok in 2005 (ITAR-TASS) August 16, 2006 -- Communist North Korea opened its first Russian Orthodox Church today.

The country's state-run news agency says a delegation attended by the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad attended the consecration ceremony in Pyongyang.

It is unclear how many Russian Orthodox believers live in the country.

Several thousand Koreans were converted to Russian Orthodoxy by missionaries in the early 1900s, decades before the country was split in two.

(AFP)