DELUDED despot Kim Jong-un is executing growing numbers of North Koreans who no longer worship him as a living GOD.

His ruthless regime is persecuting thousands who dare to practise "other religions" within its borders, according to a shock new US government study.

8 Statues of Kim and his family draw 'worshippers' all over North Korea Credit: Times

8 Kim's god-like status was passed down to him when his dad died Credit: AFP

8 Female soldiers crying for late Kim Jong-il at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in 2011 Credit: AFP

The heartless crackdown - spearheaded by the paranoid Glorious Leader himself - is leading to imprisonment, torture and even execution by firing squad.

The news comes as it's revealed more and more people are now turning to traditional religions like Buddhism and Christianity - rather than follow the so-called Cult of the Kims.

Among those are tens of thousands who have refused to sign up with the army.

The report said: “The number of conscientious objectors refusing military service for non religious reasons is also on the rise, according to local NGOs, lawyers, and religious groups.”

Article 86 of the North Korean Constitution states: "National defence is the supreme duty and honour of citizens. Citizens shall defend the country and serve in the armed forces as required by law."

8 Kim is reportedly paranoid his own people are turning against him Credit: Getty

8 Record numbers are refusing to join the army on 'religious grounds' Credit: Associated Press

8 Kim is still loved by many of his people, but the tide is turning Credit: EPA

Kim sees his army's strength as more important than ever before as he looks set to to take on the military might of Donald Trump's America.

The US State Department released the annual report on global religious freedoms on Tuesday, with North Korea singled out for denying its people the "right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion".

"The government continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings and arrests", the report states.

"An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the politcal prison camp system in remote areas under horrific conditions," it adds.

Those claims were backed up by a North Korean defector who is now a member of the Seoul-based Worldwide Coalition To Stop Genocide In North Korea.

"Officially sanctioned persecution of people for religious reasons is still there and, I would say, even stronger than before," the unnamed defector told The Telegraph.

"In the past, the people were told to worship the Kim family as their god, but many North Koreans no longer respect Kim Jong-un," he said.

8 Kim Jong-un, centre, standing in front of a bronze statue of the late Kim Jong-il in Samjiyun Credit: Getty

8 Soldiers visit the bronze statues of North Korea founder Kim Il-sung (L) and late leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang Credit: Reuters

"That means they are looking for something else to sustain their faith. In some places, that has led to the emergence of shamens, but the Christian church is also growing and deepening its roots there.

"Even though people know they could be sent to prison - or worse - they are still choosing to worship, and that means that more cracks are appearing in the regime and the system." In 2013, the Workers' Party of Korea amended the country's ideological system to ensure civilians showed "absolute obedience" to Kim.

Kim's uncle, Jang Sung-Taek was executed when he dared to question the Kim family's god-like status in the rogue state.

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In 2015, at the end of the formal three-year mourning period for the death of Kim Jong-il, Kim ordered the construction of new monuments to be built in every county of North Korea honouring himself.

A UN Commission of Inquiry into human rights in the secretive state found that “there is almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought conscience and religion as well as the right to freedom of opinion, expression, information, and association”.

The Commission also noted that the tyrannical regime “considers the spread of Christianity a particularly severe threat” and as a result, “Christians are prohibited from practising their religion and are persecuted”.