The North Korean authorities have installed a series of
German-produced radio wave detectors along the border areas to monitor
and block residents from making phone calls with people in other countries. The
Daily NK has learned that by using the new devices near borders areas where
phone reception can be detected, the authorities have been tapping phones and
tracking down the call locations.
“It has become very difficult to make
mobile phone calls from the North Korea-China border area,” a source in North
Hamkyung Province told the Daily NK on Tuesday. “Security officials have set up
high-tech frequency tracking devices here and there along the border and are
listening in on phone calls.”
“A five-minute conversation allows them to
pick up the location and content of the call, so people get caught by patrol
teams carrying out investigations,” he explained. “Before they come, the caller
needs to hang up and relocate, which is why it’s hard to get calls out.”
The new detectors, managed by the
department overseeing wiretapping and frequency control at provincial
security units, have been set up in multiple locations, with mobile patrol teams
on standby ready to catch people in the act.
In the past, a lone device manufactured in
China would be set up in densely populated locations, or officials would use
hand-held signal detectors that are easily carried like bags. Recently however,
even small detection guard posts in remote mountainous areas, a great
distance from any residential area, aid in the crackdown on
residents headed there to make illicit international phone calls,
most often to relatives in South Korea.
According to the source, starting late last
year the State Security Department [SSD] purchased Chinese-manufactured
frequency detectors through the “Hyoksin Trade Company” and “Sinheung Trade
Company” as part efforts to thwart residents from making calls to the
outside world. However, unable to produce the intended results, the devices
have been replaced with products from Germany, giving the SSD a broader range
and quality of monitoring to secure details of the conversation.
“I believe the latest equipment can pick up
all signals within a 500m radius,” the source said, adding, “Residents say
there are ten installed in Onseong County alone.”
He went on explain that within each company
of border control forces, “mobile platoons,” specifically
tasked with search and patrol, have formed. “They usually patrol areas at night and mostly
rest during the day. When phone calls are detected, they launch unexpected
inspections in the area,” he explained.
Kim Jong Eun’s era has seen increased
efforts to wipe out illicit phone calls, believing them to be the root source of information leakage and aiding in illegal river-crossing to escape the country.
The latest installation of frequency detectors supports a larger framework
aimed at blocking information going in and out of the country.
These new devices may not prove effective
for long, the source pointed out, “Now that residents are able to identify the
detection posts, they’ll likely just move beyond the 500m range to make calls, once
again rendering the devices useless.”
