North Korea’s Ministry of State Security is generating a climate of fear as it conducts surprise inspections aimed at cracking down on illegal activity in the China-North Korea border region, a Daily NK source reported on Jan. 18.
A ministry strike team has reportedly launched a vicious month-long crackdown, raiding residents of the border towns of Hoeryong, Musan County and Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province.
As a trial run, the team nabbed a man in his 30s in Onsong County on Jan. 7, putting him under emergency arrest for transferring money to the families of North Korean defectors in not only North Hamgyong Province but also nationwide. The man conducted this activity in collusion with cadres of the county branch of the Ministry of State Security during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite serving in the military for about a decade, the man was unable to become a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea because his older sister had defected.
Even after his discharge, he persistently worked to join the Workers’ Party, participating in the erecting of statues, construction in the city of Samjiyon and the building of homes in Pyongyang.
In the end, however, he could not become a party member.
The source said the Ministry of State Security is “generating widespread fear by starting rumors among residents of Onsong County of an emergency spy arrest, saying that that if you have a bad background, you’re a target of surveillance, even if you do good things.”
The Ministry of State Security thinks the man became a major player during the coronavirus pandemic years because he transferred money from defectors to their families in North Korea. He transferred so much money he was able to provide security agents with a livelihood.
The ministry is focusing its investigation accordingly, keeping open the possibility that the man was involved in human trafficking prior to the pandemic as well.
In fact, Ministry of State Security has reportedly started face-to-face interrogations of cadres from the ministry’s county branch who took money to look the other way at — or collude in — the man’s activities, warning that it will go “full scorched earth” this time around.
Meanwhile, the Onsong County case has put officials with the local branches of the Ministry of State Security in nearby Musan County and Hoeryong on guard, too, said the source.
“The local branches of the Ministry of State Security in Musan and Hoeryong are quietly cautioning everyone not to get caught by the ministry strike team, pressuring agents who collaborated with remittance brokers for money to turn themselves in,” he said.
“It is appealing for agents to ensure that brokers and neighbors don’t talk about what has already been done,” the source added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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