North Koreans continue attempts to smuggle across the China-North Korea frontier despite their government’s efforts to build barriers on the border, Daily NK has learned.
“The construction of border barriers has made it tougher to approach the border, but people continue to attempt smuggling activities,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK last Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Because the electrified fences aren’t always electrified, you can deal with the surveillance cameras by making deals with the soldiers on patrol, and you can dig holes in the earth under the walls.”
North Korea is building so-called “barriers” along the border to prevent illegal acts such as smuggling and defections, including surveillance cameras and electrified fences.
However, since smuggling is directly tied to the livelihood of border residents, locals are continuing their attempts to smuggle, constantly searching for blindspots and bribing the border patrol so they can operate with its approval and assistance, the source said.
People feel sorry for the many young soldiers forced to build the border barriers in terrible conditions. They believe that simply building the border barriers cannot put a complete stop to smuggling, defections and other illegal acts, the source explained.
“In fact, all this difficult construction work is for nothing. They can’t catch somebody who is determined to escape just because there is a barrier, and they can’t stop people who have made up their mind to smuggle.
“On the contrary, people feel bad that soldiers protecting the people are doing work like piling rocks at such a young age to stop defections or smuggling. After seeing such an ugly spectacle, parents who have sent their children to the military worry that their kids, too, might be struggling under similar circumstances.”
Barrier construction is dangerous work
In fact, local people have witnessed several accidents during construction of the barriers that have resulted in casualties, the source said.
“Engineering troops working on border barriers in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province and Pochon, Yanggang Province were hit in the head with cement pillars. Even though the injured soldiers were bleeding profusely, [their commanders] just dilly-dallied at the scene and the soldiers died without even going to the hospital. Their bodies were buried on a nearby mountain.
“That’s the rule for dealing with fatalities. The system informs the parents at the end of the year, so even the parents of the soldiers who were killed this time will learn of their deaths at the end of the year.”
North Korea is operating several organizations to build the border barriers and prevent smuggling and defections.
“There are several commands dealing with the border,” the source said. “There’s the Aug. 4 Unified Command, the Defense Ministry’s Command 725 and the Unified Command of the Defense Ministry’s Bureau 1215, among others.”
The Aug. 4 Unified Command is composed of provincial branches of the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Social Security, provincial Ministry of Social Security patrol teams, mobile strike forces and the security departments of local military units. It manages and supervises the patrols along the border and reports back to Pyongyang, as well as verifying and inspecting the border lockdown in accordance with orders from Pyongyang.
The Defense Ministry’s Command 725 organizes and commands the intensive restrictions placed on public access to the border to stop defections, illegal entries into the country and smuggling. It also compiles and files general reports on the border closure according to rule changes when they happen to the Military Politics Guidance Bureau.
The Unified Command of the Defense Ministry’s Bureau 1215 specializes in building the border barriers. It gives army units mobilized for construction their building tasks, provides guidance on the state of construction and technical matters, repairs and strengthens the barriers and inspects their state of operations.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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