North Korea has asserted what it calls its commitment to upholding freedom of religion and allowing Christians to freely practice in a new video from the television arm of Uriminzokkiri, a state-run website that disseminates propaganda materials designed to foster conflicts in South Korean society.

The video, “The newly renovated Chilgol Church," which was uploaded yesterday, shows minister Baek Bong Il declaring, “The church provides basic resources for and guarantees that Christians can freely lead their religious lives.”

The claims in the video appear to represent North Korea’s response to the July 28th release of the U.S. State Department’s annual report into religious freedom worldwide, in which North Korea is listed as among the world’s worst abusers of the right to practice religion.

Minster Baek continues, “The churches in North Korea were re-established after the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945," adding, “Our esteemed Premier [Kim Il Sung] taught us what Christians should believe, thus setting new ground for our religious lives.” The video alleges that the U.S. demolished North Korean churches during the Korean War, resulting in the loss of many believers.

The minister later cited June 15th, 2000, when South Korean President Kim Dae Jung met Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, as another turning point in the nation’s religious history. The event spurred “many Christians from South Korea and overseas to come to Chilgol Church. We have become a church that does good deeds for the reconciliation and unification between both Koreas,” he concluded.

In 2011, the South’s Ministry of Unification described the underlying motivation behind similar videos as follows: “[The North] is trying to expand the scale of international humanitarian aid by interacting with religious groups overseas”. Starved for foreign currency, this is seen as one of a number of means employed by the North to procure it.

In addition, however, deliberately drawing attention to the 2000 summit between leaders Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae Jung is a tried and tested method of generating sympathy from the left wing of South Korean society, which supports greater engagement with North Korea and the provision of aid and assistance across a number of sectors.

In accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the U.S. Department of State annually releases an annual report assessing the state of religious freedoms in all nations. North Korea invariably appears near the bottom, among those nations that lack “genuine religious freedom,” and since 2001 has been designated a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC).