North Korea is blaming “enemy plots” for the recent spread of drug smuggling in the country, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a Daily NK source in South Hamgyong Province said Wednesday that the Ministry of Social Security sent study materials for the public to the ministry’s South Hamgyong Province branch on Jan. 19. He said the materials state that “drug production and smuggling, which have increased this year, are a plot by paid internal spies in line with a plot by the US imperialists and their puppet South Korean scum to isolate and suffocate our republic.”
On the same day, another source in South Pyongan Province said that the police, referring to criminals arrested for drug production and smuggling, were criticizing “those who take the lead in schemes to sicken our society in line with the enemy’s orders and plots at a time when the anti-DPRK machinations of the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean scum to suffocate us are worse than ever.”
The provincial branches of the Ministry of Social Security in South Hamgyong Province and South Pyongan Province have delivered the study materials from the ministry headquarters to their local city and county branches, where police officers have been visiting county offices in their jurisdictions to distribute the materials to local residents.
The source said the study materials are a response to a year-on-year doubling of drug crimes – including production, distribution, smuggling, and consumption – in South Hamgyong Province and South Pyongan Province in January and are aimed at raising alarm among people at the beginning of the year.
Blaming enemy conspiracies for the serious drug crimes in the two provinces this year, the police authorities are telling the people that “the struggle against drug crimes is a life-and-death class struggle in the great battle with the enemies who are trying to suffocate our republic.”
“Many people will be arrested this year”
In particular, the provincial offices of the Ministry of Social Security in South Hamgyong Province and South Pyongan Province have held public struggle sessions against local residents of Hamhung and Pyongsong who are under investigation or preliminary examinationsAlso referred to as "pretrials," the preliminary examination... More for allegedly manufacturing, producing, distributing, selling or using drugs.
The source in South Hamgyong Province told Daily NK: “At the struggle meeting, the provincial police delivered the order of the Ministry of Social Security to declare a war on drugs this year and lamented that while all the social components are united in carrying out the party’s decisions at the beginning of the year, the reactionaries collaborating with the enemy’s plots to suffocate us and the enemy’s paid spies have infiltrated to pour cold water on the revolutionary fervor of the masses.”
Some people responded by saying that those who made money selling drugs while the state ignored the people during the Arduous March were absurdly blaming the problem on enemy plots. Others said that with the authorities labeling people who make money from drugs as spies for the U.S. or South Korea, “many people will be arrested this year.”
“As it gets harder and harder to get by, people will do anything to make money at the drop of a hat, whether it’s drugs or whatever. Will struggle sessions solve anything?” the source said. “The fact that drug crime was up in January compared to last year means that people are doing all kinds of things because they are struggling so much.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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