The Ministry of State Security recently arrested a party cadre in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province, on charges of leaking secret internal documents, Daily NK has learned.
North Korean security authorities are in the midst of a “mop-up operation” against users of foreign-made mobile phones along the China-North Korea border. The arrest of the official shows that the authorities are not refraining from cracking down on party cadres, who play a leading role in supporting the regime.
According to a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province on Friday, a managing guidance officer with the organizational department of the Hoeryong party committee — a man identified by his family name of Choe — was suddenly arrested by the municipal branch of the Ministry of State Security on Apr. 7.
The authorities accused him of leaking secret internal documents to the outside world over several years, including orders and directives sent from the ruling party’s Central Committee to the provincial party committee.
The authorities began suspecting that Choe was a spy last year.
While ordinary people and even relatively better-off cadres were suffering from economic difficulties due to the prolonged closure of the China-North Korea border, Choe and his family lived an extravagant lifestyle, frequently going to high-priced restaurants and buying a lot of foreign goods.
Having received tips from locals about Choe’s lifestyle, the Ministry of State Security formed a special surveillance team that kept him and his family under tight 24-hour watch for over a year. They even mobilized a mobile radio detection unit to monitor his cell phone usage at night.
The charges against Choe grew especially clear after a ministry raid of his home turned up three foreign-made mobile phones and stacks of dollars and yuan.
An investigation of messages Choe sent and received through the Chinese messaging app WeChat revealed that he had forwarded 247 secret materials, written orders, and other documents to people outside the country.
The Ministry of State Security is now conducting an intensive investigation to learn if Choe passed on similar materials through international calls or text messages.
Officials at major agencies in North Hamgyong Province — including the provincial party and provincial branches of the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Social Security — are on edge because Choe leaked secret documents from the Hoeryong municipal party committee’s organizational department. This department passes on party policy to partymembers and local residents and organizes various political events.
Daily NK’s source said that Choe’s arrest has been reported to the Central Committee since the official was allegedly using his position as a cadre in a key party organization to engage in espionage. Choe’s case may lead to investigations of other people involved and sweeping ideological probes of party cadres.
The source further said that while it would not be an exaggeration to say that people’s use of foreign-made mobile phones in the border region has been “annihilated,” the cadre’s arrest has frightened local residents even more. He added that locals believe that it is best not to contact the outside world because “it’s only a matter of time before one gets caught.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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