Members of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) are tasked with protecting state secrets, but a review of violators of the 2023 State Secrets Protection Law revealed that many violators were these very same MSS officials and their families. Over 100 violations of the law were uncovered in South Hwanghae Province alone.
The year-end evaluation found that over 30 of these cases had resulted in warnings, severe warnings, transfers, dismissals, demotions, or other punishments. The results of the review have created a tense atmosphere inside the MSS, which serves as the country’s secret police agency.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in South Hwanghae Province told Daily NK on Dec. 19 that the results of the review were presented to municipal and county-level MSS members at a year-end training session held by the province’s MSS branch on Dec. 9.
The training session covered a wide range of topics, including how lectures are conducted, the management of internal instructions and other secret matters, protocols for handling and storing documents, regulations related to the transport of documents in and out of facilities, along with responsibility over the collective punishment of ordinary citizens who mishandle sensitive documents. The discussion also included a review of MSS officials who had violated and been punished under the State Secrets Protection Law in 2023.
The origins of the law can be traced back to Kim Jong Un’s remarks at an expanded meeting of the Workers’ Party Secretariat on June 27 last year. While presiding over the meeting, Kim called for a discussion on the issue of “improving the system for managing sensitive documents.”
Soon after, on Feb. 2, 2023, the 24th Plenary Meeting of the 14th Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly adopted an ordinance to protect state secrets.
Now armed with the legal authority to punish individuals who leak internal materials, North Korean authorities have shared examples of violators caught in the last year to stoke fear among MSS officials going forward.
It is interesting to note that the very people responsible for controlling and handling sensitive information – officials with the Ministry of State Security – appear to be the same people engaged in leaking information. The results of the recent year-end review suggest that internal discipline in the organization is not particularly robust.
“The provincial MSS branch informed the municipal and county branches about these violations with the intention to ‘awaken’ the lower branches [to the seriousness of the issue],” the source told Daily NK. “Likewise, agents were told that they must enforce strict adherence to the State Secrets Protection Law, starting with themselves, and thoroughly understand and take control of what people are thinking.”
Additionally, the provincial branch stressed that information regarding these violations must also be treated as state secrets, as well as “the actual concrete articles and punishments stipulated under the State Secrets Protection Law.” The emphasis on keeping this information secret appears intended to stymie public discontent.
Regarding application of the law to ordinary citizens, the source said that officials cautioned that “for the sake of control, before swinging around the club of law enforcement to blacklist and imprison people, [you] must first precisely evaluate the situation, the violators’ personal circumstances, and accurately analyze the overall situation before punishing violators.”
The source added that “officials emphasized that only then would officials be able to truly implement the law and stop the avoid creating a rift between the masses and the party.”
“In order to resolve the issues that arose during the implementation of the state secrets protection law this year, the key issue will be strengthening controls without throwing the public into a panic. To do so, officials suggested that ‘it’s advisable to refrain from making public who is being punished, how they are punished, and the specifics of their violations.’”
MSS officials appear to fear that going public with the violations might backfire and lead to skepticism rather than inspiring citizens to feel responsible for protecting state secrets.
The MSS training also emphasized several times that “ministry officials and their families should mingle with ordinary people and form close connections.”
Officials further announced that “MSS officials who worked hard over many years would be given a second chance and re-educated in 2024.”
However, officials at the training added that these individuals would need to submit a statement naming a guarantor to vouch for them with the understanding that if the individual committed a similar crime again, both parties would be “jointly held responsible.”
In spite of the regime’s shift to a reconciliatory attitude toward violators, the atmosphere among MSS officials is gloomy, with many worried that “they will end up having to spy on each other next year,” the source said.
Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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