Multiple gifts bestowed on a Pyongyang elementary school by Kim Jong Un were stolen last month, leading to the
arrest of an administrative supply soldier at a reserve military training unit,
who said he had carried out the act to curry favor with a high-ranking cadre,
Daily NK has learned.
“There was a burglary at Unha Elementary
School in the Ryongsong district around mid-January, and the perpetrator was
later apprehended,” a source from Pyongyang told Daily NK on Monday. “The
individual is an administrative soldier at a reserve training unit near Unha
Scientists’ Street, so the atmosphere there is pretty fraught.”
An additional source in the capital corroborated this news.
He continued, “What’s adding to this is
the fact that the man arrested for the crime claimed, ‘This was not just for my
own benefit. I won’t go down for this alone,’ implying there were others
involved, and that’s why his brigade is on high alert.”
The pilfered gifts included a computer,
television, and musical instruments that Kim Jong Un had presented to the
school in 2013 after conducting an on-site tour. The offerings were touted as
evidence of the “supreme leader’s benevolence,” and as such, the failed
burglary attempt will not be treated like an average theft.
“If it were just a simple burglary, it
could have ended with a labor-training sentence, but there’s already word from
the judicial office handling it that will not be the case,” the source said.
“Stealing presents gifted by the Marshal (Kim Jong Un) is bad enough, but the
fact that he sold it and used the money to pay up bribes to high-ranking cadres
is worse, so everyone who has ties with this individual is under interrogation.”
The leadership is highly sensitive
to the issue of “doing damage to the highest dignity,” and is expected to interpret the recent incident in the harshest light possible. “Kim Jong Un may deduce that his fearpolitik path has yet to root out the issues of corruption and bribes and try to use this instance to set an example–execution looming in the most severe case ,” speculated the source.
Strong reactions are already brewing among those in the lower echelons of society. Many point their fingers both at the soldier who chose such
extreme measures to climb up the ranks as well as the high-ranking cadres inciting these corrupt practices. Incidents like this one, according to the source, fan the flames of exasperation among those forced to sustain a system of ubiquitous bribery among cadres in order to survive.
“People say that officers practically leave
soldiers with no choice but to steal, and they’ve been very critical of the
State Security Department agents and Party cadres who took bribes at the
training unit,” he reported.
“As far as the soldier in question, who
jumped at the chance to carry out the school heist during winter vacation while students were out collecting compost and scrap metal, people comment on the audacity he would have had to muster up to rob a school to get a promotion.”
Some people even joke that the General’s
(Kim Jong Un’s) gifts have “played into the hands of this bribery culture.”
While the incident will likely invite tighter monitoring accompanied by myriad
events underscoring Party loyalty, North Korean residents, all too familiar with this
predictable chain of events, note that “none of it will last long; the bribery
issue will persevere,” he concluded.
