The head of a local People’s Committee industry organization in Ryanggang Province who defected to China in late 2016 due to a power struggle was arrested recently and sent back to North Korea in early May.
“An official who was the director of a local industry organization affiliated with the Ryanggang Province People’s Committee was arrested in China and repatriated to North Korea,” said a source in Ryanggang Province on May 17. “The official defected on December 29, 2016 and was captured just after a year and a half.”
The source further stated, “A friend who works in the judiciary said that the official was taken across the Sino-North Korean border in early May and placed into the custody of Ryanggang Province’s Ministry of State Security. There are rumors in local judiciary-related agencies that a bad relationship between the former official’s older brother and the head of the local Ministry of State Security led the official’s entire family to feel threatened, so he decided to defect.”
As this suggests, the official’s defection is seen as the result of a power struggle within the ruling elite.
According to a separate source in Ryanggang Province who corroborated the details of the official’s defection, the former official’s older brother had secured evidence that the head of Ryanggang Province’s Ministry of State Security had been in contact with a South Korean intelligence agent who was linked with smugglers.
The older brother had consequently been subjected to an investigation for no particular reason two years earlier, later to be released after no charges were filed. The former official, however, defected to China with the intent of making public the local Ministry of State Security director’s illegal activity to prevent “future trouble,” but was ultimately arrested and brought back to North Korea.
“It’s a serious situation because he defected and is now back in the hands of the authorities,” he said. “The older brother of the former official has been relieved of his duties at the Ministry of State Security. When his younger brother is questioned by investigators, the entire family will likely fall apart.”
“It is very clear that the official will be blamed for the mistake made by the Ryanggang Province Ministry of State Security director who was reportedly in contact with South Korea,” he added.
There are a growing number of government officials who are choosing to defect as they find themselves becoming scapegoated in power struggles between the ruling elite, he said, noting that the “growing number of defections by officials to China is evidence that the power struggles among the elites are growing worse.”
“There have been more defections by officials than ordinary people since 2010,” he pointed out.
