With a spike in cases of border security
guards abetting escapes into China from North Korea, Pyongyang is reportedly
coercing consent from guards that delineate harsher punishments against such
acts. Depending on the severity of wrongdoing, the contracts stipulate that
guards are subject to punitive measures ranging from dishonorable discharge to
removal from the Chosun Workers’ Party, or in the most
serious cases, transfer to a re-education camp.
“At the beginning of February, an order was
handed down to root those abetting defectors and smugglers. Unless you have
nerves of steel, no one can imagine smuggling anything or even helping people
smuggle things in,” a source based in Yangkang Province
told Daily NK on Thursday. “The affiliated military security
headquarters has been demanding consent forms from soldiers
patrolling border areas, stating that they will be punished if caught in any of these illicit activities.”
“State Security Department officials say
that border guards who help those running away from their own country and
bringing in goods from the capitalist world all do so because their ideology
has been corrupted,” he added. The state is upping the ante, he said, trying to intimidate people by declaring that these transgression will no longer be dealt with “words only” and that “people need to wake up.”
According to the source, Party membership does not warrant exception in this case. “If the guards are caught smuggling [or aiding in defections], those
who are Party members are kicked out and their Party badges confiscated,” he explained. “If the illegal activities
continue even after the initial punishment, they are sent to reeducation camps.”
For those not in the Party whose wrongdoings are exposed, dishonorable discharge is in order. “In the North, those who have
been removed from the Party or expelled from the military are considered to
have significant faults in their ideology and labeled as failures in
society.” The offense goes on
one’s public record, presenting significant–often
insurmountable–challenges when these individuals attempt to secure other jobs.
Surveillance is so severe that traces of
footsteps in the snow or swept over snow suggesting an attempted cover up can
stir up major problems. “In the past, merchants from the
North and China could trade goods while doing their laundry or getting water
[at the riverside bordering the two countries] as long as they coughed up the
requisite bribes to the guards on watch,” he said. “But at the moment that’s
simply out of the question.”
Most smugglers have devised innovative, if
temporary, methods of bringing in their goods without the involvement of
guards, agreeing there is no need to place them in more peril for the time being.
Criticism of the directive runs rampant
among many locals, who say–albeit among themselves–that if the authorities want to
root out these practices they should extend the scope of surveillance to the goods smuggled in at the behest of Party cadres. Residents, ever cognizant of
the fact that the gifts and bribes circulating through elite circles during holidays are brought
in through illegal channels, assert that such a probe would be an inconvenience none
would be willing to endure.
This, they say, is why the recent measure is not expected to last long. “Most Party cadres seek out special goods from China for public holidays or
major events through special routes, so this tightened control on border
officials will likely wither out soon after February,” he concluded.
