North Korean state security officers have recently been using remittance brokers to squeeze money out of the families of defectors, a reporting partner in South Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Security agents in the province’s cities and counties “frequently use remittance brokers to extort money from the families of defectors,” the reporting partner said, adding that the families “can’t use one cent of the money they receive and even suffer legal punishments.”
According to the reporting partner, North Korea has restricted interprovincial travel since the COVID-19 pandemic began, severely restricting travel to border regions in particular. This has made travel from interior parts of the country to the border more difficult.
Given these circumstances, it is complicated to transfer remittances to the families of defectors who live in interior parts of North Korea.
If people have phone numbers, remittance brokers in the border region can call and tell them the address of a broker in the interior region where they can pick up the money. However, if they do not have phone numbers, remittance brokers in the border region tell relatives or acquaintances who live in the interior to bring the families their money.
Amid these transactions, some remittance brokers in the interior are colluding with local state security agents to extort money from the families of defectors.
The reporting partner said state security officers in the interior were worse off than their counterparts in border regions to begin with, and with their situation worsening following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been busy finding prey.
“Their first targets are the families of defectors,” he said.
In January, the state security department in one county in South Hamgyong Province took all the money sent to the family of a defector, the reporting partner said.
The reporting partner told Daily NK that the remittance broker visited the home of the family and handed over the remitted money, saying it had been sent by family members living in South Korea. The broker received confirmation of the transfer and left, but security agents barged into the family’s house immediately after.
The security agents seized all the money the family had received, and one member of the family was given six months of forced labor. The reporting partner told Daily NK that the family member is still at the labor camp.
What’s more, the remittance broker who transferred the money visited the family again and said he could get their kin out of the forced labor camp for RMB 10,000 (around USD 1,450).
“With times growing tougher, people are turning into heinous wolves wearing human skins,” the reporting partner claimed.
That being said, while some brokers harm the families of defectors with bad intent, others cooperate with state security agents under duress, he pointed out.
“If remittance brokers don’t do what the state security agents ask, they themselves become prey, so they have no choice but to do what they demand.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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