Following September¡¯s mass censure of more than thirty Party cadres in North Pyongan Province and Shinuiju, sources have informed Daily NK of an additional investigation leading to at least five executions and one suicide in a fishing region of the province.

According to the sources, the investigation was concentrated Unjong Village on the island of Shinmi, part of Seoncheon County around 70km south east of Shinuiju City.

According to one of the sources, ¡°On the 28th of last month they gathered provincial Party cadres and trading organ workers at Seoncheon Hall to report the inspection results and strengthen solidarity.¡±

The source gave more detail, saying, ¡°They said they shot the head of the unit, his vice (female; 39), the captain of a clam fishing vessel, the local Party secretary responsible for food distribution and the head of Unjong Village cooperative farm, firing sixty bullets into each person at the shooting range of Seoncheon County Chosun People¡¯s Army Base.¡±

The head of the fishing unit was executed on suspicion of having embezzled $60,000 and shifted it to a bank in China, the source explained.

¡°Aside from the execution of those five people, the local chief prosecutor then committed suicide,¡± the source went on. ¡°The head of the local NSA and ten cadres were also dismissed.¡± The source also noted that the incident led to the dismissal of at least one provincial Party secretary.

While the investigation was ongoing the adopted daughter of the head of Unjong Village cooperative farm apparently even tried to hide the head of the fishing team in their family home so as to conceal her own father¡¯s misconduct, but ended up in detention herself as a result.

According to the sources, the investigation was conducted by agents sent not from Pyongyang but from North Hamkyung Province, and as the shockwave of the devastation in Seoncheon County spread up to the provincial Party level, this fact began to cause regionalism to flare.

One of the sources explained, ¡°The inspection team from North Hamkyung Province had no love for that place and they punished everyone one-by-one, so the incident got bigger. I have no idea where they will destroy next.¡±

This was apparently done so that the work could be driven forward by that regionalism, but also so its planners in Pyongyang could avoid complaint. This is not uncommon on the Korean Peninsula; indeed, in South Korea under military dictatorship units were frequently dispatched to other parts of the country to quell disturbances.

Elsewhere during the Seoncheon Hall meeting, the fates of key people in the original purge of North Pyongan Province (as previously reported by Daily NK) were also reported;

Kim Yoon Ho, the provincial guidance department head, was exiled to Dongrim County on charges of illegally mobilizing farm workers. However, his case is now under review thanks to the intervention of the provincial Party Chief Secretary.

Kim Cheol Ho (son of candidate member of the Politburo and head of the Party Cadres Department Kim Pyeong Hae, and Shinuiju municipal guidance head) was exiled to Dongchang County.

Local People¡¯s Committee Chairman Park Cheon Geun was demoted.

The secretary of Wonlim, a marine products enterprise, was sent to Changson County on charges of embezzling $2,000.

However, Kim Jae Hwa, a Supreme People¡¯s Assembly delegate and Shinuiju city commercial director, only received a light punishment from the Party even though he stole 70 tons of beans from the state.