The northerly border town of Musan was stunned recently after a couple
was murdered by a third family member in a fight over remittances from abroad.
“At the beginning of this month a teenager of around 18 killed his uncle and aunt with a knife,” an inside source in the region reported to Daily NK on the 16th. “People are saying that it
was all motivated by money.”
According to the source, the teenager’s uncle and aunt had been responsible
for the child’s care, and as such had been managing monies remitted from China by his
family. However, “He graduated school and became an adult, so he told them that he
would manage the money for himself. But the uncle and aunt told him he couldn’t; they
told him he was still too young. They faced up over it and it turned into a
fight.”
Local people report, “They fought over whether he could have the money or not for a
few days, then finally it came to a head,” the source said. “The child was always
a bit of an unwelcome resident in his uncle’s home, and so he had apparently been thinking of
moving out with the money.”
Unfortunately for the young man, the timing of the case
could not be worse. “Punishments for taking remittances from defectors have
been ramped up since the start of this year, so the young guy is likely to face
serious flack too,” the source said. “He’s currently under investigation at Musan MPS
(Ministry of People’s Security; the North Korean police).”
This latest case is not the first. Last year,
the Sangbong area of Musan was hit by another shocking incident after the municipal branch of
the State Security Department received information concerning a doctor acting as a middleman for
families receiving monies from South Korea. Sensing the encroaching threat of
arrest and punishment, the doctor sought to cover his tracks by murdering four people he had helped to receive money.
North Hamkyung Province is particularly vulnerable to this type of crime. First and foremost, it is the home province of the majority of
defectors. Moreover, state distribution remains highly unreliable even at state
enterprises, and life is still very hard in the spring and at other times when food is difficult to come
by. “Cases of people getting bilked for their
remittances are on the rise, too, which is making life even harder,” the source
added.
