North Korea bans imports with markings resembling a cross
North Korea is confiscating products from China that enter its border that have markings resembling a cross.
Customs officers are on the lookout for the markings, said a Chinese-Korean seller based in Pyongyang who goes back and forth between China and North Korea, the Radio Free Asia reported.
"We've always had to make sure there were no Korean characters on the labels of products that we brought in from China," the unidentified source said. "Now we have to check again to see that there isn't anything that looks like a cross."
He said products that are more likely to be confiscated are some designs on women's clothes that resemble a cross, hairpins and hair band and men's neckties.
One source in North Korea's Hamgyong province told RFA that Chinese confections that enter the country are sometimes shaped like the letter X.
"If customs officers confiscate these products, insisting the shape looks like a cross, we have nowhere to complain," he said. "And if young women carry key chains or wear earrings that have designs resembling a cross, these are also taken away."
Students in North Korea must also be cautious when drawing the plus sign, ensuring that the vertical and horizontal lines are of equal length.
"You can't have the vertical line go longer," he said.
A 2016 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) said that "the North Korean government reserves its most severe persecution for Christians."
"It is estimated that tens of thousands of Christians in North Korea are currently in prison camps facing hard labour or execution," according to the report.
North Korea considers Christianity a part of the U.S. and Western ideology and is a threat to the administration of Kim Jong Un.
Recently, the U.S. government put Kim on its list of sanctioned individuals, an act that North Korea's Foreign Ministry officials described as having "crossed the red line," the Associated Press reports.
Han Song Ryol warned a showdown could ensue if the U.S. and South Korea hold annual war games next month.
