The North Korean authorities have moved to ban all family visits to China. The newly imposed controls seem intended to tighten up social discipline in advance of the 1st anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il on December 17th.
A Pyongyang source told Daily NK on the 26th, “The overseas department of the National Security Agency (NSA) has had a blanket ban on the issuance of new transit permits for family visits to China in place since the start of November. Those who were issued transit documents in October are still being allowed to leave, but they must all submit a form promising to return before the General’s memorial day.”
“This was one of Marshal Kim Jong Eun’s special instructions,” the source went on, adding that the authorities issued the ban in order to reinforce the idea that every citizen must play his or her part in preparations for the solemn commemoration of the death of Kim Jong Il in mid December.
North Koreans wishing to visit relatives in China are required to apply for the right to exit North Korea through the Overseas Affairs Division of the NSA in the area in which they live. If the Embassy of the PRC in Pyongyang is able to confirm that the applicant’s relative is real, alive and living in China then the transit document is issued and the individual is permitted to cross the border into China immediately.
However, document issuance bans such as today’s are not rare; such things frequently occur whenever there is a special political event. All family visits were prohibited for a full month before and after the 3rd Workers’ Party Delegates’ Conference in September 2010, for example, so as to ensure that information about Kim Jong Eun did not leak out. The same, though to a lesser extent, occurred at the time of the birthdays of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung on February 16th and April 15th.
North Korea has already made overall transit document approval procedures much stricter over the last twelve months. New measures have made it necessary for a letter of invitation provided by the applicant’s family and a photo to be submitted with all applications, with the purpose being to limit the ability of citizens to merely bribe their local NSA officer in order to obtain a fraudulent transit document.
