Families of North Korean defectors have suffered significant financial losses after state security officers in Musan county, North Hamgyong province, arrested an illegal remittance broker.
According to a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province recently, a woman in her 40s known as Kim (a pseudonym) was caught by authorities while conducting illegal remittances using a Chinese-made mobile phone. She was arrested on the spot late last month after being detected by radio monitoring equipment.
When Kim was arrested, both her Chinese mobile phone and her domestic phone contained detailed transaction records, along with dozens of photos and videos of defector family members. Using this evidence, the local Ministry of State Security branch launched further investigations into the defectors’ relatives.
The Ministry of State Security focused particularly on relatives who had received money within the past six months, conducting face-to-face interrogations. During questioning, these family members were reportedly pressured to “voluntarily” surrender the money they had received.
State forces defector families to hand over cash
One Musan county resident, Choe (a pseudonym), was forced to turn over 20,000 Chinese yuan yuan (approximately $2,786 USD) he had received the previous month to state security officers. The money his relative in South Korea had worked hard to send never reached its intended purpose—instead, security officers confiscated it entirely.
“Relatives of defectors can’t eat or wear what they want, even when they have money, because the Ministry of State Security constantly watches them,” the source explained. “State security officers summoned the defectors’ relatives, confronted them with evidence of the remittances, and demanded they hand over their money immediately. They asked things like, ‘Why didn’t you report these remittances?’ and ‘Why didn’t you follow our instructions?'”
Most defector relatives quietly surrender the cash without much resistance. Since the state security officers already possess the evidence, the relatives can’t claim innocence, and they’ll only exhaust themselves further if their homes are searched.
Because Choe failed to report the remittance, he was also threatened. State security officers told him, “Maybe you’ll come to your senses if you face criminal punishment.” In the end, he handed over all the remittance money he had received.
Another defector relative in Musan, Lee (a pseudonym), was forced to surrender all 30,000 yuan he received from a family member in South Korea. Lee, who rents space in someone else’s home because he owns no property, had planned to use the money to buy a house. However, state security officers appeared suddenly while he was house-hunting, leaving him no choice but to give up the money.
The Ministry of State Security has recently been confiscating mobile phones from remittance brokers to verify previous transaction details, even restoring deleted phone records, photos, and videos. In the past, people could avoid crackdowns by claiming ignorance due to lack of evidence, but now they’re helpless since authorities use the restored materials as definitive proof.
“When a single broker like Kim gets caught, many people connected to them also get caught, so defector relatives can’t help but live in constant fear, even after receiving money,” the source said.
“You need to use the money effectively once you receive it, but from the moment you get the cash, you never know when police will come barging in, so you’re always on edge,” the source added. “Both the people delivering the money and those receiving it face much greater risks now.”
