A money lender in Yanggang Province was recently brought to public trial after allegedly forcing the husband of a couple to live with her until their debt was repaid.
“While exploiting people’s economic difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic by lending them money at unreasonably high interest rates, a female loan shark in Taehongdan County made the husband of a couple unable to repay their loan live with her,” a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Mar. 4. “After her actions were discovered by the authorities, the woman was brought to public trial.”
According to the source, approximately 200 people, including officials from the provincial prosecutors’ office, the provincial party committee, the provincial people’s committee, and Taehongdan County’s party committee, attended the trial on Feb. 21.
In fact, a total of twelve people were put on trial on the same day. They were accused of lending money at high interest rates or perpetrating violence against borrowers who failed to pay back their debts. According to the source, the case involving the female money lender was deemed the most serious by the judges.
The money lender is in her mid-30s and was reportedly widowed at a young age. She had lent RMB 2,000 (USD 316.82) to a married couple she knew well. The couple makes a living selling medicinal herbs, and the woman expected the loan to be repaid in six months.
When the couple failed to repay the loan on time, however, the money lender pressured the couple to pay back the money by selling their household items. This was not enough to repay the debt, so she forced the wife to write a contract saying, “I will give up my husband if I fail to pay back the loan within ten days.”
The source disclosed that the money lender had been in love with the husband of the indebted couple for several years. The wife told the money lender that “It is fortunate you like my husband,” and allowed her husband to live with the woman until she could return all the money.
Soon, locals and even the head of the inminban (people’s unit) found out about the affair. The head of the people’s unit reported the affair to members of the local Ministry of Social Security, but ministry officials refused to take up the case, calling it a “trival matter.”
The head of the people’s unit then reported the affair to the provincial prosecutors’ office. Claiming that “letting this case go would lead to even more corrupt behavior that may taint the image of socialism,” the prosecutors’ office held the public trial, forcing residents of Taehongdan County and even provincial government officials to participate.
The woman at the center of the case was sentenced to eight years in a correctional facility in Hamhung. Other people put on trial the same day were punished with time in forced labor camps, the source added.
Translated by Youngheon Kim
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