[imText1]Yanji, China — Several sources in North Korea report that province-wide investigations of anti-socialist activities are being carried out in Yangkang Province. The investigations began in mid-December.
One source reported that some county-level cadres have fled to China or have committed suicide out of fear of being caught by investigators. Another source confirmed that the manager of the Bocheon Branch of the Joongang (central) Bank committed suicide.
This latest round of investigations comes on the heels of an earlier investigation that centered on Hyesan, the provincial seat of Yangkang Province, and targeted local officials earning illicit fortunes, smugglers, mobile phone users and those caught watching South Korean dramas. Fifty people were sent to political prison while hundreds more were sent to labor detention camps or incurred fines.
“When the Hyesan investigations concluded, authorities shifted their focus to the counties” one source said.
He added: “In Hyesan, authorities are investigating a serial murder case and a kidnapping case.” Because back-to-back investigations make Hyesan residents feel uneasy, the authorities supposedly are being laxer in their enforcement of jangmadang regulations.
Unlike Hyesan, the counties of Yangkang Province face a much different situation. The investigations are so severe that even local party officials and executive bureaucrats are cringing, said the source.
In Bocheon, the manager of the local branch of the Chosun Joongang Bank, a target of the investigations, committed suicide by taking rat poison in late-December of 2007. The investigators turned up evidence he had embezzled money in conspiracy with a manager of the Joongang Bank in Pyongyang and the director of the finance department of the Bocheon People’s Committee.
The Bocheon branch collects money from provincial factories, rental fees from jangmadang stands, and requisitions, and remits them to the Joongang Bank in Pyongyang.
The director of the finance department escaped from investigators. He is being hunted with the assistance of the Chinese police. Officials suspect that he might cross the border.
“There is a rumor that the chairman of the Samsoo Agricultural Management Committee and a manager at the Samsoo Food Policy Department were arrested for embezzlement of rice,” said the source.
He added: “In Kim Hyung Jik (a county in Yangkang Provice), many cadres and traders were imprisoned for corruption, but this is just hearsay. I could not confirm it because the train does not run there.”
