North Korea’s digital iron curtain has fallen on its workers in Russia, with several forcibly repatriated for watching videos about defectors and life abroad. As smartphones become windows to the forbidden outside world, Pyongyang is treating even a glimpse of unauthorized information as a dire threat to the regime’s control.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in Russia said recently that a 20-something worker dispatched to Volgograd in early July was forcibly repatriated around July 20 for secretly watching videos on his mobile phone.
In mid-June, a laborer in his mid-30s working in Nizhny Novgorod was arrested while secretly watching videos on his mobile phone in his workplace dormitory after an informant placed by the workplace security officer snitched.
Both were watching videos about North Korean defectors in South Korea or the lives of North Korean workers overseas.
“North Korea believes that information about the lives of freedom led by people who went to South Korea after escaping in Russia or ordinary defectors fuels attempts by laborers to escape,” the source said. “The authorities give other foreign videos a bit of a pass, but they believe they must mercilessly stop people from viewing videos on those subjects.”
“They hand out light punishments for watching South Korean films or TV shows, often giving offenders a second chance by moving them to another workplace,” he added. “But unlike in the past, they are meting heavier punishments for watching videos about defectors or overseas workers.”
N. Korea tightens rein on workers in Russia
In late May, the North Korean authorities issued a No. 1 order — directives signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — calling for intensified surveillance of internet use and outside video viewing by North Korean workers overseas. The order included instructions to “make examples” of “troublemakers” by “immediately repatriating them.”
Since then, the authorities have threatened overseas workers more, telling them that “the state will never forgive watching videos about people who betrayed their fatherland” and that “anyone arrested for doing so would immediately be classified as political criminals.”
In June, the Ministry of State Security dispatched technicians to regions where workers are employed to analyze the Internet usage history, cell phone search records, and website access records of North Korean workers overseas and to track proxy users.
The authorities also planted more informers among the laborers, frequently replaced them, and offered them rewards for informing on people for watching foreign videos.
“The authorities keep a tight rein on North Korean workers and carry out surprise inspections or crackdowns every day,” the source said. “Things like tracking search records are fast and easy because cooperation with the Russian side is excellent.”
“This surveillance and punishment won’t end anytime soon,” he continued. “North Korea will continue researching various ways to completely block connections between North Korean laborers and the outside world.”
In these circumstances, North Korean workers in Russia have expressed unease and concern.
“Laborers are frightened at the thought that if they watch a video or search for information on defecting, even their families could face disaster,” the source said.
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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