Multiple Daily NK sources have confirmed that North Korea’s Central Committee is conducting an inspection focused on security and political officers in two military units, including the Third (Nampo) and Eighth (Yomju County, South Pyongan Province) corps. The inspection is expected to end on Feb. 15, according to the sources.
North Korean authorities announced the “elimination of corruption” during the Eighth Party Congress and the inspection appears to be part of efforts to transform the military into the “Party’s Army” and the “Supreme Leader’s Advance Guard.”
A military source in Nampo told Daily NK on Wednesday that an “urgent order” from the Central Committee was handed down on Feb. 1 about the inspection. The order stated that the inspection would investigate cases of “verbal abuse, violence and bribery” among security and political officials during the military’s winter training period (from December to March).
Another military source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK that a “Central Committee inspection team” recently arrived at the headquarters of the Eighth Corps. “This inspection is being conducted by the military division of the Central Committee’s Organization and Guidance Department, and aims to investigate and punish cases of highhandedness and corruption among security and political officers,” he said.
The source told Daily NK that the reason the authorities are conducting inspections at both the Third and Eighth corps is because “recently there has been a rise in complaints by soldiers due to worsening highhandedness and arrogance on the part of military officers.”
North Korean authorities feel that this arrogance on the part of military officers is “weakening” the party and government’s ability to control the military’s rank-and-file, according to the source.
Based on accounts by the sources, security and political officers at the Third and Eighth corps actively encourage soldiers to give them bribes and there have been frequent cases of violence and verbal abuse by these officers when the soldiers refuse to comply.
While the entire military is scrambling to fulfill the decisions made during the Eighth Party Congress, there have been cases where military officers have demanded money and other types of bribes to help soldiers obtain school recommendations (the first round of which starts in February) and for decisions related to placements within the military. Moreover, soldiers who hand over only paltry bribes have been subject to verbal abuse or other forms of debasement, the source said.
There have also been cases of corruption within the headquarters of the Third and Eighth corps that involve political, security, and even political department officials sharing the bribes they have acquired.
Sources told Daily NK that there was even a case where a soldier tried to murder an officer. In mid-January, a soldier in his mid-20s in the Third Corps covered a military officer who was protecting the child of a donju (North Korea’s wealthy entrepreneurial class) with diesel fuel and tried to light the officer on fire.
Security and political officers in the military frequently use their positions to earn money. For example, they will involve themselves in issues related to party membership, commendations, school recommends, military discharges, and deployments on the part of the sons of donju or cadres to receive bribes. Soldiers from ordinary backgrounds are said to complain that “if war breaks out, we will kill all of the bad apple military officers if they just give us live rounds.”
Eliminating corruption in the military, however, is not easy to do. The authorities are emphasizing that corruption will be met with “heavy punishment,” but there is a widespread belief that anti-corruption efforts will fail to completely solve the problem.
Even inspections conducted by the Central Committee’s Organization and Guidance Department involve a great deal of politics, so all those with the money and the power will escape punishment, according to the sources.
Another military source told Daily NK that soldiers are worried that if they become whistleblowers to corruption they will face retribution from security and political officers once the inspection team has left the scene. “[The military] already has an organizational culture that makes it hard to specifically root out all cases of corruption,” he added.
