A border patrol officer recently assaulted police officers while being arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a restaurant waitress in Chongjin.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province said Friday that an officer of the 27th Brigade of the border guard was drinking in civilian clothes at a restaurant near Chongjin Station on June 30 when he sexually harassed a waitress. The restaurant owner saw this and reported it to the station police.
However, during the arrest, the man hit the police officers and said, “Why are you interfering? I’m a border guard!” One of the officers suffered a broken tooth in the fight.
A mobile strike squad was sent to the scene to subdue the drunk man, who was now spewing unspeakable obscenities.
Unable to tolerate the man’s behavior, the mobile strike squad leader ordered that he be “taught a lesson,” and the five or six members of the squad began beating the man.
Beaten to a pulp, the border guard was eventually taken to a police station in Chongjin. He remained uncooperative during questioning, so the police officers continued to beat him, the source said.
The officer was eventually handed over to the border patrol’s security department and is now in detention.
Man likely to face harsh punishment
This incident could have been treated as a simple case of trespassing, but the man is now likely to face severe punishment for assaulting police officers.
In particular, the authorities are expected to make a political issue out of the fact that he invited arrest while an extended meeting of a plenary session of the Workers’ Party of Korea was underway from June 28 to July 1.
“Legal authorities usually crack down harder than ever during important state events, even without orders from above,” the source said. “There was an important meeting in Pyongyang, so the officer could be kicked out of the military.”
In North Korea, mobile strike squads are Ministry of Social Security organizations whose primary mission is to “protect the leader and the state system” by detecting threats of unrest. If unrest breaks out in markets or certain areas, they take primary control before the military intervenes.
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons.
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