"The Fifth National Conference of Heads of Branch Public Security Stations was held from April 30 to May 1 at the 4.25 Cultural Center," Rodong Sinmun reported on May 2, 2024. (Rodong Sinmun-News1)

City, county and district branches of the Ministry of Social Security were ordered to convene general assemblies of basic party branches and party cells immediately after the Fifth National Conference of Heads of Branch Public Security Stations (analogous to police boxes in South Korea).

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Friday that the order “called for general assemblies of basic party branches and party cells for social security officers to create a new ethos of struggle per the party’s policy calling for a revolutionary transition in the entirety of social security activities.”

Accordingly, the Ministry of Social Security branch in Musan County, North Hamgyong Province, convened a party general assembly for two days on May 3 and 4. All social security officers responsible for hamlets and villages were instructed to attend. Afterward, the authorities ordered separate general assemblies of individual party cells.

At the party cell general assemblies, the authorities listed the results of the social security officers’ reviews and problems they were supposed to overcome from the last 10 years and ordered individual agents who had demonstrated flaws in the past to discuss their issues.

“In Musan County, problems involving village social security officers have hit a zenith,” the source said. “Most were roundly criticized for colluding with the heads of farm management committees, chief technicians and village party secretaries to store farm grain or cover up non-socialist behavior by farm officials.”

Others were severely rebuked for taking money, cigarettes, liquor or grain to turn a blind eye to non-socialist acts committed by farm workers and their relatives.

Two police officers placed on suspension for corruption

Two village social security officers were particularly taken to task for corruption so bad that locals called them “vampires,” with complaints about them reaching the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

According to the source, immediately after the censure, Musan County’s party committee received a package with the pair’s personal documents and other evidence regarding their corruption. The county party committee announced it had temporarily suspended the two and put them on standby, saying they could no longer serve as uniformed protectors of the people.

The county party committee stressed that social security officers — the front line of public security activities — must elevate their mission and role in all possible ways with new determination and will.

“The two social security officers who were singled out this time did not go to prison, but they will face follow-up measures in one way or the other, be they political or criminal,” the source said. “People who heard about the ideas presented during the review and news of the social security officers being kicked out felt glad.”

Prior to this, North Korean media, including the Rodong Sinmun, reported that the Fifth National Conference of Heads of Branch Public Security Stations “was held at the April 25 House of Culture from April 30 to May 1” and that the conference “reviewed the work of more than ten years since the fourth conference was held and discussed concrete ways for bringing about a revolutionary turn in the overall work of public security by radically improving the work of branch public security stations, immediate combat units of public security organs and main bases for defending the people.”

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