A remittance broker was recently found to have been cooperating with the Ministry of State Security (MSS) to report on the families of defectors, Daily NK has learned.
In a phone call with Daily NK on Monday, a source in North Hamgyong Province said that “the MSS arrested a person surnamed Choi in Hoeryong on Mar. 11,” adding that “the person was suddenly arrested because the MSS found out he had received money from his daughter who has settled in South Korea.”
The North Korean authorities have been inciting against “users of Chinese cell phones concentrated in the Sino-North Korean border region” who they say “must be ruthlessly struck down in the name of the revolution.” The move appears aimed at preventing people from crossing over the border, conducting smuggling activities, or attempting to defect as part of broader disease control efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.
North Korean officials have also been applying pressure on people either using or in possession of a Chinese cell phone to surrender these phones to the authorities. However, according to the source, “barely anyone has followed this order because no one trusts the authorities.”
According to the source, because the MSS needs to produce results, the security agency’s agents have started “wooing the brokers and arresting the families of the defectors [who send money].” He further noted that “MSS officials have told the brokers they will not ask questions about their criminal use of Chinese cell phones.”
Daily NK understands that Choi, who would have been unaware of the broker’s collusion with the MSS, was arrested by security officials who were waiting for him to leave the broker’s house after he had talked to his daughter in South Korea on the phone and received the money.
The source said that “the MSS confiscated the cash received by Choi, which amounted to RMB 8,000 [approx. USD 1,230], and he is currently imprisoned and undergoing investigation at the local MSS branch.”
“The MSS have transformed money changers into [regime] collaborators and sent them to re-education [camps],” the source said, adding, “It will be difficult for Choi to avoid harsh punishment since the MSS has discovered that his daughter is in South Korea.”
Meanwhile, according to the source, local residents aware of the story have started talking about it amongst themselves, saying that “it is becoming a scary world where people are turning against each other after threats and blackmail from the MSS.”
*Translated by Vilde Olaussen
