After a large amount of South Korean products recently began circulating among people in North Hamgyong Province, local authorities held a public struggle session to warn people to stop consuming illegal goods, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Thursday that “the provincial unified command on non-socialist and anti-socialist behavior joined with the provincial branches of the Ministry of Social Security and Ministry of State Security to carry out an inspection after several places in North Hamgyong Province got a sudden influx of South Korean products entering from China.”
According to the source, a scad of used South Korean electronics, medicines, cosmetics and other products — which traders are believed to have brought into the country by ship — proved a hit with residents of North Hamgyong Province, going into widespread distribution as rumors spread far and wide.
The provincial unified command raided several areas, including Chongjin and Kimchaek, for three days in the first week of July. In Kimchaek, it sent 20 inspectors to simultaneously search the homes of persons of interest.
During the home searches, inspectors found products with South Korean trademarks, including electronics, medicines such as transdermal patches and cosmetics. Additional investigations revealed that South Korean goods were widespread in Kimchaek’s markets.
South Korean products burned before struggle session
The provincial unified command arrested four wholesalers who disseminated a consignment of South Korean goods among the locals. The very next day, a public struggle session was convened on a levee in Kimchaek, with leading cadres from the provincial branches of the Ministry of Social Security and Ministry of State Security and even provincial judicial officials in attendance.
“First, [the authorities] gathered all the confiscated South Korean goods and set them alight, and when they were reduced to ashes, they stood the four wholesalers on stage and subjected them to severe criticism,” the source said. “[The authorities] said that using or liking South Korean goods was reactionary, and that getting people to say this or that about South Korea was also reactionary.”
In the end, the four wholesalers were handed to the local police for preliminary examinations.
Preliminary examinations include the entire interrogation process prior to suspects being indicted.
People connected to the wholesalers and their family members likely face punishment in the form of writing self-criticism letters at the political organizations to which they are affiliated, or stints of forced labor, the source said.
Meanwhile, family members of the wholesalers are borrowing money and trying to sell their homes to get money to get their kin out of custody, he added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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