North Korean security personnel have recently begun forcing residents of the China-North Korea border region to sign written oaths pledging never to use foreign-made mobile phones.
A Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province said the local branch of the Ministry of State Security in Hoeryong has been forcing locals to sign written oaths not to use Chinese-made mobile phones since the middle of last month.
“The head of the neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More and the security agent in charge have been going around together collecting signatures from locals,” he said.
According to the source, the written oath includes not only the pledge not to use Chinese-made mobile phones, but also a promise to promptly alert relevant security organizations when they discover somebody using a Chinese-made phone, along with a warning that violators face criminal punishments.
The oath warned that “we cannot protect our lives, the socialist system that is our livelihood and the fate of our children if we leave alone those who, blinded by a few coins, sell our internal secrets.”
“Citizens in the border region must come together as one in the struggle against users of Chinese-made mobile phones and prevent impure elements from emerging in our midst,” it said.
North Korea has waged a war to eradicate users of illegal foreign-made mobile phones in the border region since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The authorities have branded people caught up in the crackdown as spies, sending them to detention facilities and even exiling their family members to rural areas.
However, residents of border regions continue to use foriegn-made mobile phones despite the intensive crackdowns and controls. Faced with this situation, the authorities now appear to be pressuring people to submit to written pledges.
In fact, local authorities called a meeting of one neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More in Hoeyong’s Mangyang-dong district on Aug. 19, with a local security officer and a provincial security guidance officer present. Officials at the meeting explained the written oaths and obtained signatures from local residents.
The local security officer stated that “the time to educate you through words has passed,” the source said, adding that he warned the meeting attendees that they face “criminal punishments if they use Chinese mobile phones or fail to report unusual behavior they’ve seen.”
For residents of the border region who make their living through smuggling and dealing with the outside world, the order to stop using Chinese-made mobile phones amounts to “telling them to starve to death,” the source claimed.
“They [local residents] doubt that getting people to sign written pledges like this is an effective tactic given that people are suffering economic difficulties,” he added.
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