North Korea authorities have arrested seven religious believers in North Korea with the cooperation of Chinese police, according to Dong-A Ilbo.

According to an inside source, the seven were arrested in North Korea's Shineju city and Pyongyang with the help of Chinese authorities. The State Security Department has strengthened its indoctrination of North Koreans on ‘the evils of religion,’ and North Korean agents passed themselves off as religious followers in order to arrest religious believers in North Korea.

The North Korean authorities have long regarded religion, specifically Christianity, as a threat to the maintenance of its dictatorial control. Furthermore, Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s supreme leader, issued direct orders to "strengthen the blockade and censorship to stave off religious penetration,” and North Korea authorities were alerted by Chines polices.

In addition, North Korean authorities have been carefully collecting information on the Pope's s schedule to avoid shedding light on the suppression of religious freedom in North Korea.

A high-ranking North Korean defector said, “North Korean authorities consider the spread of Christianity as a subversive agitation."

North Korean authorities have been keeping an eye on the religious believers and severely punishing them.

In mid-May, Jeffrey Edward Fowle, the American citizen detrained in North Korea because of a Bible that had been left behind in his hotel, and Jongwook Kim, a Korean missionary, were sentenced to “indeterminate reform through labor."

SOURCE: DONG-A ILBO