North Korean authorities have suspended activities by the “Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau” to illegally extend the visas of North Korean workers overseas.
The move follows the detention of Major Choe Kum Chol, a bureau agent North Korea nabbed after he tried to defect in Russia.
According to a Daily NK source in Russia on Tuesday, the visas of some North Korean workers dispatched to Russia were recently extended.
As recently as last year, military personnel of the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau deployed to Russia have handled the visa extensions, employing illegal methods such as forging documents.
This time, however, workplaces in Russia that employ North Koreans received visa extensions though travel companies run by Russian-Koreans.
Choe — who has been detained at the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok since he was found to be preparing an asylum application — had been extending the sojourn periods of North Korean workers and officials in Russia by forging visas and documents.
To extend a residency visa in Russia, you need to show you have visited a “third country.” However, because North Korean workers cannot visit their home country or a third country, the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau had been forging exit stamps.
That North Korean authorities have suspended the bureau’s visa extension efforts – and ordered workplaces to extend the visas themselves – suggests they hope to avoid responsibility for having systematically forged visa documents of its overseas workers for so long.
It reportedly costs over 100,000 rubles (about USD 1262.50) per person for workplaces to extend the visas of their workers through Russian-Korean associates.
However, even if it becomes public that North Korean workers overseas are illegally extending their visas, North Korean authorities can simply dismiss the infractions as having nothing to do with them.
Moreover, North Korean authorities have moved the secret base of the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau in Russia to another region.
The move is apparently in response to intensified attention on the bureau’s activities in Russia after the international community learned of Choe’s detention, with human rights organizations demanding an end to his forced repatriation.
However, the source said this did not mean the bureau is suspending all of its previous activities or disbanding its organization in Russia.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s measures regarding the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau in Russia may have been due to an impending trial of Choe.
North Korean authorities need the permission of Russian authorities to repatriate Choe. However, with the international community learning of Choe’s situation, even the Russian government may have trouble handling the case quietly. Moscow could convene a trial — even if just a formality — and decide whether to repatriate him based on the outcome.
Another Daily NK source in Russia said Moscow has yet to decide whether to convene a trial for Choe or let the North Korean authorities take him right away. He said the North Korean authorities are preparing to repatriate Choe with several possibilities in mind.
Choe — an IT cryptology specialist with Unit 563 of the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau — was preparing an asylum application to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Moscow after attempting to defect in July. However, he disappeared after he was arrested by five Russian police officers in Razdol’noe, a town near Vladivostok, on Sept. 20.
Voice of America recently reported Choe was detained at the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok, a fact confirmed by Daily NK sources.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
