Personnel Dispatched to Shenyang and Dandong

The North Korean authorities have dispatched two substantial groups of security personnel to Chinese cities, Daily NK has learned. The agents from the State Security Department have been ordered to arrest and repatriate both citizens who have
overstayed their visas and others who are suspected of contact with Christian groups.

A source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on the 17th, “The agents are under orders to arrest anyone who acts strangely while in China on family visits. It was only a month ago that they sent over 50
agents, and at the beginning of April they dispatched an additional 20 to Dandong and 50 to Shenyang.”

The main task of the agents is to arrest
overstayers, the source believes. However, they have additional instructions: to track people receiving religious [Christian] education and/or making contact with South Korean citizens while
in China.

“There is talk that even more people could be dispatched after the Day of the Sun holiday [April 15th].  The authorities seem particularly keen to root out people who have learned of religion and so do not want to preserve the regime,” the source added.

Ordinarily, if a North Korean visitor to China on an official family visit permit of one or three months duration fails to return on time then consular staff and regional security units are informed. They then conduct searches in locations popular with such travelers. The dispatch of more than one hundred security personnel is unusual, however, and appears to support claims that North Korea is currently excessively sensitive to religious matters.

This may relate to recent inside source reports, which allege that 30 Pyongyang residents were sent to political prison camps in the aftermath of the interrogation of a captured South Korean missionary. A further 100 people were investigated in relation to similar offenses.