Agents of the North Korea Ministry of State Security have recently been focusing on inspecting cell phones of people walking on the streets in North Korea’s border region, Daily NK has learned. It is unusual for state security agents to be given that job, rather than police officers or neighborhood monitors.
“People who are on the phone and other pedestrians on the streets of Hyesan have faced mobile phone checks since Sept. 10. Surprisingly, the checks are being done by agents from the provincial and municipal state security bureaus,” a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK last Thursday.
According to the source, residents of Hyesan often conduct their phone calls on the streets rather than inside their homes because mobile signals are weak in the city. They often have to walk around to find a strong signal. That is when state security agents suddenly show up to check their phones.
“In the past, ordinary people’s mobile phones weren’t monitored very closely unless they were family members of smugglers or defectors. But more recently, state security agents have been snatching the mobile phones of people making phone calls on the street and checking meticulously for seditious music and videos on their phones,” the source said.
The state security agents who have been assigned to these phone inspections are reportedly going through phones multiple times even when they are clear of issues. This behavior is causing a great deal of irritation among people in the city.
For example, an individual surnamed Kim was stopped by state security agents on Sept. 15 when he stepped onto the street to call his son, who is in the military. Grabbing Kim’s phone from his hand, the agents demanded to know who he was talking to and what they were talking about and then inspected the text messages and video files on his phone.
Because the state security agents were in plainclothes and seized his mobile phone without any prior explanation, Kim was initially terrified by what he assumed to be a robbery.
After the agents failed to find any issues in their search of the phone, they returned it to Kim and explained that they were with the municipal bureau of the Ministry of State Security. Before they left, the agents stressed that Kim was not to tell anyone about the search.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the North Korean authorities have been trying to stamp out the use of Chinese-made mobile phones, which are capable of communicating with the outside world. But more recently, the authorities have been seeking to tighten control over people by inspecting North Korean-made mobile phones as well.
In short, the authorities know that news from the interior of the country, including Pyongyang, keeps leaking to the outside, and has mobilized state security agents to check whether secrets are being leaked through phone calls by people both in the border region and in the interior of the country. The authorities appear hopeful that doing this will prevfent people from leaking internal information.
“As people are struggling to make a living, the government is mobilizing all available methods to monitor and control the public. You can’t help but asking who exactly all these controls and inspections are supposed to benefit,” the source said.
“In the past, the authorities just wiretapped phone calls on the border and in the interior, but now state security agents are doing random mobile phone checks on the streets,” he explained, adding, “The ministry’s overbearing crackdowns and inspections will get worse before they get better.”
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