Although there is still plenty of smuggling taking place in North Korea with the active collusion of border guards, there have recently been a number of cases in which border guards double-crossed their links, reporting on them in order to obtain alternative benefits.
A source from North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK about one case yesterday, “Earlier this month a group of people tried to defect across the Tumen River near Hyesan. The moment they tried to cross the river they were arrested by border guards.”
“A guard who had promised to help them didn’t show up; indeed, I heard it was him who reported them,” she explained.
The source then went on, “The soldier who was suspected of reporting them received a vacation from his unit and went home. People are very resentful. They wonder how someone could do that, no matter how obsessed with getting Party membership he may have been.”
According to a large number of border sources, residents have to form close networks with guards for the purpose of smuggling or aiding in defection. This is done through bribery, but there has recently been an increase in the number of guards seemingly willing to double cross their associates in favor of the incentives on offer from above.
“People assume that when the soldier comes back after the vacation he will have to work in another region because of the heavy criticism he’ll receive. He could get beaten up at night or cast out,” the source mused.
However, the source pointed out that the current policy will have an effect on people who trade in smuggled goods, but that ultimately people will find a way to circumvent the problem. “They think we cannot compete with the soldier who is obsessed with party membership,” the source explained, “but we say ‘if this is how you decided to treat us, we will find our own way to stand up to it.’”
