Security cameras around hotels in Pyongyang’s central district and foreign embassies in Taedonggang district were replaced with new equipment just before the Lunar New Year, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Wednesday that North Korean authorities issued an emergency directive to replace security cameras within a five kilometer radius of the hotels and embassies before the holiday.
The source explained that the directive was prompted by the arrest of a woman in her early twenties at the Haebangsan Hotel on Jan. 1. Central District police had received a tip that the woman was involved in prostitution.
“Women of uncertain identity who had been frequenting hotels in Central District and embassies in Taedonggang District around the New Year were caught practicing prostitution. Orders were then issued to crack down on such non-socialist behavior to ensure that public discipline is not undermined around the Lunar New Year, and a campaign was organized to carry out the efforts,” the source said.
The authorities ordered the municipal police and the state security bureau in charge of the embassy area to cooperate in stepping up public surveillance because “shameful behavior in the heart of Pyongyang, the capital of the revolution, is a slap in the face of our nation.”
Specifically, law enforcement officials were instructed to install better surveillance cameras around hotels and embassies, assign workers to monitor camera feeds around the clock, and set up a system to immediately report any suspicious behavior and arrest people loitering in the area, the source said.
“For some time now, there have been powerful cadres in Pyongyang who have enjoyed making concubines out of struggling provincial women studying at party-run universities and giving them pocket money in exchange for adult entertainment. But this directive describes such behavior as a disgrace to both the country and the capital and declares that anyone caught in such behavior, regardless of their status, will face the legal consequences without any leniency,” the source said.
The North Korean authorities also ordered that all Pyongyang officials who frequently use hotels in the Central District, which have been largely empty as fewer foreign tourists and provincial cadres visit the capital, be placed under strict surveillance.
The authorities have also ordered all citizens and vehicles that frequently visit the embassy area in Taedonggang District to be thoroughly monitored and searched, and immediately arrested if any suspicious items are found, the source said.
In particular, police have been urged to keep a close watch on the hotel and embassy areas to ensure that not a single incident of non-socialist behavior occurs during the Lunar New Year, the source added.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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