Despite strict conduct guidelines for surveillance handed down during the memorial period marking seven years since Kim Jong Il’s death on December 17, a large fight in North Hamgyong Province disrupted the designated week of remembrance.
In the lead-up to the mourning period, officials highlighted the illegality of watching foreign media content smuggled into the country, and warned residents to refrain from drinking and dancing in large groups, criminal activities, and fighting, all of which would lead to harsher punishment during the mourning period.
However, a gang fight in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province prompted the local Ministry of People’s Security (police) to get involved.
“On December 16, a major brawl broke out within a large group of youth in their teens and early 20s, and the area MPS unit was on the scene almost immediately. They apprehended everyone involved,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on December 18.
The fight, which included dozens of participants, began as a verbal altercation at a restaurant in central Chongjin but rapidly escalated, spilling out onto the street and attracting a crowd of spectators.
Provincial party officials joined the MPS to contain and control the incident and demanded that all involved be immediately detained and punished.
“Then the provincial party officials reiterated orders that we should show the utmost respect until the very end of the mourning period and are planning severe punishment for the gang fight as a warning to would-be troublemakers,” a separate source in North Hamgyong Province said.
“The punishment had to be commensurate with the behavior during such a sensitive time. There’s no way the central authorities will ignore it.”
According to many North Korean defectors, fighting during the memorial period for a Kim family member is considered irreverent behavior, warranting a stay in a political prison camp. It remains to be seen if such sentences will be reduced given the young age of some of those apprehended.
Residents’ attitudes during Kim family memorial periods have shifted significantly from the past.
One defector originally from North Hamgyong Province who escaped the country in 2017 told Daily NK that “these days, people are busy with their livelihoods and even if they attend memorial events, they don’t invest any energy or concentration into it. It’s just perfunctory. No matter how hard they crack down, they can’t do anything about the lack of interest surrounding these events.”
According to an additional source in North Hamgyong Province, despite markets being close on December 17 (marking the day of Kim Jong Il’s death), many secretly offered goods for sale from their homes or hidden backstreets.
