North Korea is strengthening surveillance of mobile phone calls made with China and South Korea in the Sino-DPRK border region, following the introduction of harsher penalties to prevent defections. The developments come in the wake of an arrest of a broker involved in delivering money sent from defectors in South Korea to their family members in North Korea.
In an effort to encourage Sino-DPRK trade, North Korea has historically handed out relatively lenient punishments to those caught making calls to China. However calls to South Korea generally result in detainment and a sentence at a labor camp, unless the case was particularly serious or there was a need to set an example.
Now, however, the Korean Workers’ Party (WPK) is informing North Koreans that they will take a hardline stance toward calls with South Korea and hand down punishments generally reserved for “spies,” according to multiple sources inside North Korea.
“The monitoring of mobile phone calls from North Korea has long been handled by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) and local police, but now the Party organs are stepping up and saying they will severely punish those making mobile phone calls to people outside the country,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK August 28.
“Many people need to conduct trade and business with China in the border region and there’s a lot of money at stake. The crackdown has led to lots of inconveniences.”
Mobile phones are a necessity for conducting trade and smuggling activities in the border region.
According to the source, Party officials in Musan, North Hamgyong province and Hyesan, Ryanggang province, and other border regions, are informing people directly about the severe punishments awaiting those using “illegal mobile phones.”
Primary Party secretaries (directors) from each class are visiting factories, enterprises and farm work units to inform laborers that “the use of illegal mobile phones to criticize the motherland and leak internal information is a traitorous act,” and that “those who communicate with the outside will be punished as spies,” a source in Ryanggang Province reported.
He added that the officials are telling laborers to “report any suspicious mobile phone ringing sounds that don’t sound like they are from North Korea” and are threatening to punish those who don’t report suspicious activities “even if the person in question is a relative or close friend.”
A separate source in North Hamgyong Province said that officials have also emphasized that those who report suspicious activities will be “forgiven” for any illegal phone calls they have made to those living abroad and even given a reward.
“The officials also emphasized that people pay special attention to those families who have defector relatives,” she said source, adding that “everyone must be careful when making calls to China for business.”
However, it is still uncertain whether the crackdown on mobile phones will be effective when North Koreans need to trade with China to survive, and there are ways to circumvent detection by smuggling.
In an effort to prevent defections, the North Korean state has recently called for active monitoring and reporting of “outsiders” heading toward the border with China.
Through these harsher measures, North Korea seems to be focused on preventing any activities that could taint the impending visit of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping for the events planned for September 9 (the 70th anniversary of the North Korean government’s founding) and the potential upcoming inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.
