Security Officers Investigated over Corruption

The North Korean authorities have followed up ongoing efforts to stamp out remittance flows and the making of outside phone
calls with an investigation of the security forces themselves.

“Inspectors from the
Central Party showed up in the middle of July, and
now officers from all over the province have been targeted
for investigation and summoned to the provincial security bureau,” a source in
Yangkang Province reported to Daily NK on August 5th. “In Hyesan alone, dozens
of officers went in for investigation.”

The source surmised
that the focus of the investigation is on: (a) persons who aid and abet smuggling
and communication with the South, to which officers have long turned a
blind eye in exchange for inducements; and (b) the question of whether members
of families within the remit of a given officer or unit may have defected.

“Even some officers in
counties to the east of Hyesan like Baekam, Daehongdan, and Bocheon have been called
in,” the source revealed. “No-one knows how long it will last, but it feels as
if they want to completely root out [corruption among security officials].

However, she alleged, “The smart ones among them will have already dealt with
the bribes they received, and so the investigators will be left with nothing.”
Nevertheless, the public is unsettled: “Although the investigation only concerns
security officers, it could pose a problem for anyone who has ever used bribes
to evade punishment. Obviously people are a nervous.”

Since corruption is a
ubiquitous cost of doing business in contemporary North Korea, almost anyone is
susceptible to the ramifications of an investigation of this sort.
The majority
of security officers have received bribes at some point; it would be much
faster to investigate the ones that are clean.”

“Some people are
saying that it’s like they mustn’t have gotten anything out of giving us the third
degree so now they are going to fight with one another; others that it will
at least be good to see punishment meted out to security officers who used to
give them such a hard time,” the source said.

Article 60 of North Korean criminal code
was amended early this year to include five new items that are now officially seditious:
 Illegal phone contact with foreigners, including South
Koreans; 
 Viewing South Korean dramas or
DVDs and listening to [foreign] radio broadcasts; 
 Using or dealing in drugs;  Transnational human and sex
trafficking; and 
 Aiding and abetting defectors
and leaking state secrets.

The source said it constitutes an attempt by the Party to regain its grip on the
population. However, doubts over efficacy linger. “Telling residents not to participate in illegal
activities and then turning right around and committing even graver offenses
means that the law is as corrupt as it can get,” she pointed out. “Just watch,
they’ll use bribes to end this investigation, too.”