The Ministry of Social Security recently issued an order to strengthen surveillance and control over people who have returned from long stints abroad, Daily NK has learned.
“The agency said that North Koreans returning from abroad may exhibit anti-socialist and non-socialist behavior that might affect the ideological sentiment and lifestyle of local residents, and ordered each province’s security bureau to strengthen surveillance and control over returnees to restrain such behavior in a timely manner,” a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Sept. 20, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The ministry issued the instructions in early September, followed by further instructions to monitor and promptly report on the activities of the returnees.
In its orders, the ministry emphasized strict monitoring and control of the speech and behavior of returnees, which may attract the attention of people who have significant interest in international news or who have become economically impoverished and “mentally idle.”
“The ministry urged the security bureaus of each province to never neglect the work of reporting the returnees’ every move to their higher-ups. The bureaus were also ordered to find out everything returnees may have said to their families and acquaintances about various things that happened while they were staying abroad and promptly send the materials to their superiors.”
The ministry also pointed out in its orders that those who return home after their quarantine period could use goods or foreign currency brought from abroad for illegal activities.
It ordered the close monitoring of returnees and, in the case of any illegal activity, the confiscation of all imported goods or currency as well as political and administrative punishments, in addition to criminal punishments for particularly serious offenses.
“The orders state that if returnees are reported by other people to be harming healthy socialist lifestyles and manners by aggravating the non-socialist phenomenon or imprudently using foreign currency, these cases are to be thoroughly investigated. If returnees are revealed to be engaging in hostile behavior, they are to be subject to harsh punishment, and the organizations they are affiliated with will be notified with a view to have them undergo ideological indoctrination.”
The ministry also instructed provincial security bureaus to work with inminban (neighborhood watch units) and organizations to strictly monitor the distribution of impure video and audio content and the indiscriminate circulation of foreign currency among returnees.
Translated by Annie Eun Jung Kim. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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