An official of the “Liaison Office,” which is under the Operations Department of the Central Committee of the Party, was secretly executed for selling copies of adult movies.
A source in North Hamkyung Province said in a phone conversation with the “Daily NK” on the 19th, “Park Geun Choon (48), an official in charge of selling narcotics of the 459 military unit–also called the ‘Chongjin Liaison Office –‘ was secretly executed early June for the crime of copying and selling adult movies brought in from the outside.”
Having been designated as the “My Royal Guards” by Kim Jong Il himself, the devotion of the Operations Department of the Party Committee is known for being tougher than the military’s, so the execution of the official was a “shocking incident.”
“The Chongjin Liaison Office,” located at the seashore of Ganae-dong in the Shinan-district in Chongjin, North Hamkyung Province, is associated with the Operations Department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party and is in charge of collecting information about Russia, China, and Japan and dispatching combat soldiers.
The source said, “Park, who was executed, was a person in-charge of exporting narcotics to China, Japan, and Russia for the foreign-currency earning of ‘No. 39 Department’ of the Party which is in charge of Kim Jong Il’s secret fund. The crime attributed to him by the National Security Agency (NSA) was the ‘distribution of lewd materials,’ but the charge was more likely stemmed from the fact that Park not only engaged in private business through the Liaison Office, but misused Party funds as well.”
According to the source, Park, born in Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung Province, smuggled antiques secured in the South Pyongan Province when the food crisis began in North Korea in the mid-90s and accumulated immense wealth.
Park was detained by the National Security Agency for the crime of smuggling activities in 1999 and was sent to a Labor Training Corps, but gained the favor of the Chongjin Liaison Office officials who looked for a narcotics export route to China and was appointed as the person in charge of narcotics sales since 2000.
Park, after entering the Chongjin Liaison Office, used China’s smuggling organization with which he previously dealt antiques and began to be known for his narcotics sales. He could come and go from China anytime, having earned the favor of the Liaison Office officials.
However, since last summer, one of the officials at Chongjin Liaison Office proposed Park’s “embezzlement of Party Funds” to the National Security Agency in North Hamkyung Province, saying that “Park is always strung out on drugs and uses them too much.” Subsequently, the NSA began an investigation of Park.
Park, while transporting 550 grams of narcotics from Hamheung, South Hamkyung Province at the end of March this year, was arrested by the NSA of North Hamkyung Province which was travelling in disguise. When the NSA searched Park’s home, a large amount of Yuan and dollars were found as well as a CD burner and several hundred copies of adult movie CDs.
The investigation revealed that not only did he use the name of the Liaison Office to privately smuggle narcotics, but used the dollar at luxury hotels in Chongjin for prostitution. Park’s wife used the CD burner and copied and sold adult movies to merchants in Chongjin.
The source said, “When Park Geun Choon was arrested, Suh Gwang Hee, the person-in-charge of the foreign currency earning department, tried to save him, but could not challenge the Anti-Socialist Group of the Central Committee of the Party. Suh is a powerful figure, but could not change the course of events.”
The source said that Park’s family was taken to a political prison camp on April 10th and Park himself was secretly executed early June in front of the officials of Chongjin Liaison Office at the Hamheung Reeducation Department. It was relayed that the North Korean authorities did not reveal the execution to the public due to the fact that Park was an official of the Chongjin Liaison Office and had been in charge of narcotics sales.
