This study explored the relation of the religious orientation and the ego defense style of North Korean defectors. Herein, the intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation scale and the Defense Style Questionnaire were administered to 100 South Koreans and 93 North Korean defectors, residing in Hanawon. Results indicated that North Korean defectors used more of the active defense style and the emotion repressive style than South Koreans. The intrinsic religious orientation in South Koreans was higher than in North Korean defectors and the extrinsic religious orientation in North Korean defectors was higher than in South Koreans. South Koreans who have religion used more active defense style than others, however the religion did not affect the defense style present in North Koreans defectors. The intrinsic religious orientation was significantly related to the active defense style and the extrinsic religious orientation was significantly related to the passive defense style of South Koreans. Compared to South Koreans, the extrinsic religious orientation of North Korean defectors was significantly related to the passive defense style, the emotion relieve defense style and the emotion repressive defense style. In addition, the North Korean defectors' religious orientation on the view of religion's role in North Korea and the escape process from North Korea was studied, and religious orientation's influences on both mental health and future study were discussed. Finally, the implication and the limitation of this study were suggested as further studies.