Inspection teams led by students linked to North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security are creating unease in regions along the Sino-North Korean border. The jurisdiction of the teams is broader than that of local security officials, and they have been not merely checking for transgressions, but also enforcing arrests.
“Ministry of Public Security inspection teams made up of political university students are conducting checks targeting the people; of late four families have been arrested in the Tapseong-dong district of Hyesan alone for the crime of aiding defection,” a source in northerly Yangkang Province reported to Daily NK on the 22nd. “They are in possession of the residents’ ledger from the local MPS office and are using it to conduct checks.”
The source went on, “The inspectors have been visiting households alongside People’s Unit heads, and are trying to find out the precise whereabouts of all absent family members. They have also been seeking confirmation of those deaths that occurred in other regions.”
It is not only families with members known to have left for China or South Korea who are falling under suspicion, the source further alleged. Rather, disappearances are automatically being treated as attempted defections to South Korea, and such families are coming in for stern criticism.
According to the source, the presence of the teams of political university students on the banks of the Yalu River alongside MPS agents and border guards have made it such that any person deemed dubious in any way, as well as families moving as a unit, are being treated as targets. An imprudent glance across the river into China or walking along the levees above the river is also enough to attract unwanted attention.
The source went on to add that the current inspections are clearly not being fabricated by local security organs to pursue bribes.
“The inspectors seem to think that one reason why criminality is not disappearing is because the MPS takes bribes and does not impose the appropriate penalties,” the source said. “The core of the inspections is to treat defection, smuggling and even remitting money as anti-state crimes and dole out punishment accordingly. They say that nobody is going to escape this time, no matter what they do.”
“The atmosphere along the border itself is really intense. You can see people being taken in or questioned by the inspection teams all the time,” she concluded.
However, “As the audit gets nearer its end [on February 16th, former leader Kim Jong Il’s birthday], naturally some of those guys will want to earn a little cash. Right now they’ve only just started so they are giving it their all, but after some time they’ll start taking bribes and turning a blind eye instead.”
In advance of the dispatch of political university students to form the border area inspection teams, the state issued “four guidelines” outlining crimes that would be dealt with harshly; ▲ besmirching the reputation of Kim Jong Eun; ▲ “superstitious activities,” including Christianity; ▲ drug crimes; and ▲ production, sale, circulation and use of foreign dramas and films.
