North Korean authorities have recently begun emphasizing that party organizations must adhere to principles regarding the writing and management of classified documents.
This appears part of a broader move to improve systems in the country amid efforts to build a “powerful socialist country.” In tandem, the authorities are aiming to stop leaks of internal secrets in the belief that such incidents are a potential threat to the regime.
Daily NK recently obtained a document entitled “Principles to Adhere to While Writing Classified Documents.” The document was distributed to elementary party committees and elsewhere earlier this month. The document contains seven articles.
The beginning of the document states that when writing documents, party secretaries must “responsibly consider” what goes into them and who receives them.
North Korean party committee secretaries have long been lax with managing secret documents, entrusting such duties to organizational departments or guidance officers. The order stressed that from this year, officials in charge should take direct management of documents, regardless of their importance.
The authorities also ordered that all documents be written in a “precise and easy-to-understand manner with grammatically correct Korean.”
This focus on the language written in the documents appears related to the regime’s emphasis on the use of North Korea’s standard Pyongyang dialect, the so-called “Pyongyang cultural language.” In short, North Korean authorities are fully aware that South Korean speech patterns are all the rage among the youth and even amid cadres thanks to the so-called “Korean Wave.”
Next, the document calls for officials to use “standard-sized paper” according to established formatting. With documents of two or more pages, officials should add the page number at the center of the bottom of each page, “add color only to the left-hand corner” of the document, and include the name of the document, party organization, and date on the document’s cover page.
This emphasis on compliance with regulations is apparently a warning toward party cadres about “complacency.”
In the last part of the document, cadres are told to prevent leaks of party secrets – particularly when mobilizing “external officials” to craft or print documents. It warns them not to print, copy, or type up any important documents received from higher level party committees.
This suggests the authorities are calling on cadres to completely eliminate the possibility of documents getting leaked. Warning violators that they face severe punishment, the authorities also apparently aim to re-establish flagging internal discipline.
In fact, North Korea’s security authorities recently arrested a cadre in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, for leaking a secret document to the outside world. The cadre confessed to leaking internal documents to South Korea over the course of several years, and additional investigations are reportedly ongoing into the case.
North Korean authorities have long worked hard to prevent the leaking of government documents, but given that leaking incidents continue to occur, they have apparently called on party organizations once again to strictly manage confidential documents, the source said.
