The North Korean authorities are working to enhance their security surveillance capacity in advance of Supreme People’s Assembly elections slated for March 9th. One Daily NK source revealed over the weekend that the State Security Department (SSD) in his region has established a new emergency communications network incorporating heads of local People's Units.

The source from Yangkang Province reported, “Hyesan SSD has mobilized leaders of People’s Units to devise various ways of weeding out would-be defectors and ‘impure elements.’ The SSD called in People's Unit leaders last week and gave them orders regarding the establishment of a new system of surveillance and reporting."

“The authorities have ordered the establishment of a ‘networked communications system' through which People's Unit heads can more rapidly report their civilian surveillance," he went on. "Unit heads can share information on the goings-on of the people amongst themselves and local agents, and report it up to the SSD."

The source went on to claim that local People's Unit heads, who are each responsible for approximately 100 individuals, have been telling people in regular People's Unit meetings to “report suspicious people.  If our family or friends say something unusual, we must handle and report this, too.”

The spread of a networked communications system means that if somebody is deemed a defection risk, their movements can be reported not only to the head of their own People's Unit but also heads of neighboring units.

However, the problem, the source said, is that “almost everyone in the border region engages in some kind of illegal activity, whether it be smuggling, aiding defectors, remitting money or scrap metal trading. People's Unit heads are openly critical of the orders, saying that if everyone is doing something illegal, who will report it? If there was a way to make money that wasn't illegal then people would do that instead.'”

“Some people from ‘defector families’ have been made People's Unit heads, with the rationale being that families of defectors are more likely to defect so they must be watched. They have been deliberately promoted to the role because the security forces often pay unexpected visits to the homes of People’s Units heads,” the source reported.