[imText1]There has been a news report by “Good Friends,” regarding the recent theft in trains in North Korea.
“Good Friends” indicated that, “There has been increasing amount of baggage losses in trains. Citizens cannot trust anybody within the trains.”
Baggage theft incidents in the trains are nothing new. There were even gangs of thieves in the trains in the past.
Back in mid-1990s, there were specialized gangs of thieves in all trains and train stations stealing the passengers’ goods.
Three to five people would gather in a group and approach a person looking wealthy. While one person strikes up a conversation, the other person steals the luggage and the third person would take the person to somewhere else when he looks for his luggage.
Kim Myung Il (pseudonym, entrance upon South Korea in 2002) claimed that, “In 1996-1997, when North Korea was at its peak of the famine, everybody with luggage became the target of group theft.”
Kim still has vivid recollection of the incident that occurred in August 1996 in Gowon station, South Hamkyung Province. It was a sweaty summer and the train reeked of smell. He was sitting on the floor waiting for the train to arrive after having a couple of drinks with his friend during dinner.
His friend had asked him to hold tightly onto the bag straps while he went to the bathroom. In a second, when he dozed off, he found himself holding onto two strands of bag straps and with no bag.
Surprised and shocked, he asked the people around him if they have seen the thief. One of the bystanders told him that the thief had run the other way. Kim and his friends ran to catch him but the thief was nowhere to be found. He came back to the original spot where he waited for the train. After thinking about the incident for a while, Kim realized that the person who had told him the direction that the thief had run off to was also a part of the gang.
Park Myung Ok (Pseudonym) stated that, “There were a lot of people that drank sodas that were intoxicated and fell asleep, losing everything in a second.”
Park stated, “Ever since, there has been a widespread consensus that one should not drink or eat the food offered by strangers. Back then, a lot of people selling Chinese goods piled onto Hyesan area, hence there was a huge rise of group theft especially in this area.”
It’s been 10 years since then. People often say that even mountains and rivers change its shape in a decade. It appears that, however, North Korea still remains the same.
