Chinese police in some parts of Liaoning Province have recently stepped up surveillance of North Korean defectors by asking them to send daily selfies, Daily NK has learned.
“The police in Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, recently launched an initiative to make North Korean defectors install a facial recognition app on their cell phones. The police are asking the defectors to verify their faces on the app every morning,” a source in China told Daily NK last Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“China views North Korean defectors as illegal aliens who must be strictly controlled and managed, and it is finding new ways to tighten surveillance to ensure they don’t try to reach South Korea,” the source said.
Daily NK reported in February that two defectors were detained by police a few days after exchanging messages about going to South Korea.
According to the source, Chinese police check defectors’ phone calls and text messages and arrest anyone who shows the slightest interest in going to South Korea. Now they are stepping up surveillance even further with the recent use of the facial recognition app.
When a face is verified on the app, it provides not only the user’s location, but also their personal information.
Defectors complain about being in a virtual prison
As a result, the source said, defectors in Chaoyang complain of severe stress, psychological pressure, and a sense of despair.
“It feels like my hands and feet are tied, which makes it hard to breathe,” the source quoted one person as saying. Others say they have “no hope” and are “imprisoned in all but name.”
“I came to China in my late teens, but the only thing I’ve gotten out of over a decade of living here is a stress-related illness. I had finally made up my mind to go to [South] Korea, but I haven’t been able to go because the pandemic has made travel to [South] Korea impossible,” the defector said.
“Recently, the police forced me to install a facial recognition app and want me to check my face every day. It’s terrible to think of having to live like this.”
The source noted that the police requirement for defectors to install and use the facial recognition app could spread to other parts of Liaoning Province, such as Shenyang, or even across China, so North Korean defectors are expected to face even greater pressure in the future due to government surveillance.
Earlier this month, police in a city in Jilin Province visited the home of a defector who had spoken on the phone with a broker about traveling to South Korea. The police warned the defector that they knew about the phone call, and are requiring the defector to send a selfie taken at home every day.
“Even now, this defector has to send a selfie to the police every day. This seems to be a transitional type of surveillance and control before the app verification process is fully adopted,” another source in China said.
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
