The United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office has updated its North Korea travel advice page on June 10 amidst the recent detention of U.S. citizen Jeffrey Fowle.
The updated version includes an addition to the Local Laws and Customs section, warning UK citizens travelling to North Korea to avoid bringing in any religious materials written in Korean to the country.
“Avoid bringing books or other written material in the Korean language, including anything with religious content,” the travel notice now reads.
According to Kyodo News, Fowle who was in North Korea as part of a tour group, left a bible in his hotel room.
Fowle is the fourth foreign national to be detained in North Korea within the last 18 months for possessing religious materials or for conducting religious activities while in the DPRK.
The most recent was the dentention of John Short an Australian missionary who was arrested in February for distributing religious leaflets written in Korean. He was later released following a written and spoken confession.
In December 2012 U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae was arrested for religious activities for which he is subsequently serving a sentence of 15 years hard labor.
In October 2013 South Korean national Kim Jeong-wook was detained and sentenced to a life of hard labor for what North Korea state media reported to be “anti-DPRK religious acts”, spying and for attempting to set up an underground church in North Korea.
The U.S. Department of State also recently updated their travel warning for North Korea in May, warning U.S. citizens not to assume that they can avoid detention if they are travelling within an official tour group.
The Department of State travel warning also includes a provision about religious activities. “Foreign visitors to North Korea may be arrested, detained, or expelled for activities that would not be considered criminal outside North Korea, including involvement in unsanctioned religious and/or political activities…,” the warning reads.
“It is a new and troublesome tendency that North Korea began to harass tourists for doing something they don’t like but could be easy to localize. These peoples who try to proselytize and try to get copies of the bible are not very dangerous frankly,” Dr. Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University told NK News on Friday.
Image: Eric Lafforgue
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