[Exclusive] N. Korea intensifies religious oppression

[Anchor]

We have obtained a video that proves religious oppression by North Korean authorities.

They are labeling religious individuals as spies, claiming that religion is an attempt to undermine the worship of the Kim family, and this oppression has reportedly intensified recently.

This is an exclusive report by reporter Yoo Ho-yoon.

[Report]

Men and women hiding in a small boat are dragged out.

This is footage of them being captured by the North Korean Coast Guard while secretly conducting missionary activities.

In the video, they claim to have received training in the "den of enemies" and infiltrated the North.

[North Korean Military Ideological Education Video: "They confessed that their mission was to entice soldiers acting individually to believe in God more than in the leadership."]

They go as far as to accuse South Korea of infiltrating religion to undermine loyalty to the leadership.

[North Korean Military Ideological Education Video: "We must clearly understand the reactionary nature of the enemy's religious infiltration attempts to make people believe in a God or spirits that do not exist in the world more than in the Party and the leader."]

This educational video was produced in 2010 by North Korea's 'People's Army Military Science Education Film Studio,' which, while proclaiming 'freedom of belief' in its constitution, openly creates videos that oppress religion.

This trend has become particularly blatant recently; for instance, the Vatican-affiliated foundation 'Aid to the Church in Need' recently stated that among the North Korean defectors forcibly repatriated from China last October, those who had contact with Christians are being punished more severely.

They are being sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in political prison camps.

[Hyun Seung-soo/Deputy Director of the Korea Institute for National Unification: "They react quite sensitively to religion because they perceive it as a decisive threat to their basic governing ideology."]

While the North's religious oppression is not a new issue, it is analyzed that they are responding with unprecedentedly high levels of repression against religion amid an emergency in ideological control due to the rapid spread of South Korean culture.

This is KBS News, Yoo Ho-yoon.