Perceived by the North Korean authorities to be higher flight risks, family members of defectors still residing in North Korea have become subject to strict surveillance and sentenced to hard labor, Daily NK has learned.

¡°After their parents defected, two twenty-year-old children were forced to do hard labor in the blast furnace of an agricultural machinery plant in Daegok District of Haeju City,¡± a source in South Hwanghae Province reported to Daily NK on the 30th. ¡°Furthermore, since they are under the watchful scrutiny of the factory managers and agents from the State Security Department, they aren¡¯t afforded a single minute of free time or privacy.¡±   

The agricultural machinery plant in Haeju is notorious for being a difficult workplace, which is why the children of defectors are being sent there, thwarting any chance they could have to follow suit, according to the source, who said they are "branded as subversive individuals and carefully monitored by the factory management."

The children¡¯s parents were punished for "anti-socialist" crimes and carried out one year of their sentence at the re-education camp in Jeungsan before escaping three years ago. ¡°They were initially listed as missing persons, but after catching wind of a rumor that they had escaped to the South and had sent money back to their children, the SSD began a vigorous surveillance campaign,¡± he said. 

Unlike South Hamkyung Province, which plays host to a large number of escape attempts, incidents of defection are rather rare in Hwanghae Province. It was likely believed that the parents had probably gone to China. However, after the SSD found out through an informant that the parents were using a broker to send money to their children still in the North, the parents and children alike were marked as defectors.   

¡°A year has passed since the children were relocated from their homes and moved into the factory dormitory. A few months ago, they left the factory to go to the market without official permission. Before an hour had passed, factory officials declared an emergency situation,¡± he explained, describing the stringently repressive conditions there. ¡°The managing director in charge said, 'Inspections were carried out carelessly. I am ordering surveillance to be undertaken more strictly moving forward.'¡± 

Because they have been branded as a defector family, factory management has to issue a report to the SSD every 30 minutes detailing the children¡¯s behavior and whereabouts, which is, as the source put it, ¡°obviously dreadful for the children, [but] dealing with the SSD is no doubt a burden for the factory management as well.¡±

*The contents of this article were broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.