A North Korean defector’s family member and a remittance broker were recently arrested in North Hamgyong Province while exchanging money, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, a reporting partner in the province told Daily NK on Apr. 24 that “the family member of a defector and a remittance broker in Hoeryong were arrested on Apr. 20 by security agents from the ministry after being caught conducting a monetary transaction.”
According to the reporting partner, the remittance broker had received a request from a defector living in South Korea to deliver money to their family in Puryong County. Following this, the broker reached out to the family using a secret code and made arrangements to meet a family member at a location in the border area of Hoeryong on Apr. 20.
Restrictions on movement implemented after the outbreak of COVID-19 has made it difficult for North Koreans to move around without the approval of inminban (neighborhood watch unit) leaders and security officials. Obtaining such approval requires bribery in the form of cigarette packets, and some North Koreans who use this method manage to avoid detection while crossing the national border.
The family members of defectors are main targets for surveillance by the state. If even one member of a family leaves their house without permission, they come under suspicion by the authorities.
In fact, the family member who was recently arrested obtained approval from their inminban leader and security agents under the pretense that they were feeling unwell and had to visit a local city hospital for a couple of days.
However, security agents secretly tailed the family member despite agreeing to their request to visit the hospital.
The family member, unaware of this fact, met up with the broker at the agreed location in Hoeryong, and was subsequently caught by the agents just as they were counting up the money they had received.
“Surveillance of defectors’ families in the county is intensifying,” the reporting partner said. “Security agents are keeping a close eye on these families because [they know] that the only places money emerges from are the families of defectors.
“From the perspective of the defectors’ families, none of them could have imagined that the security agents who granted them approval would end up tailing them. More of these families are suffering as a result of these agents’ increasingly underhanded tactics, which involve surveillance, arrests and extortions after intentionally approving their requests.”
Recently, the families of defectors have become the main target of crackdowns, and the brokers they work with face considerable repercussions as well, the reporting partner said.
“These brokers never reveal to these families where they live, so as to protect themselves from any danger in the situation where the families are caught. Even so, brokers like the one in this particular case become victims due to the many agents who are tracking the family members of defectors.”
The reporting partner also told Daily NK that “recently, agents are bent on lining their pockets by arresting not only these families, but also the brokers who are paid to help the families keep a lookout. Many people are unhappy about the agents’ actions.”
Translated by Marc Yeo Yi Fei. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea and China. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
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