In early October, the North Pyongan Province branch of North Korea’s state security agency conducted surprise raids on the homes of people suspected of having secretly watched the Hangzhou Asian Games, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Oct. 13 that the provincial branch of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) “received tip-offs that many people in Sinuiju and Uiju were watching the Asian Games on TV in secret. The MSS responded by announcing internally that they would carry out a week of surprise home raids starting on Oct. 8.”
According to the source, as soon as the Hangzhou Asian Games kicked off, many people in Sinuiju, Uiju and other cities along the Chinese-North Korean border secretly watched the games on TV channels unapproved by the government. Soon after, debates about the games broke out and discussion of the games entered the broader public. Tips began to pour into the MSS from various areas of North Korean society, including neighborhood watch units, workplaces, and schools.
Some of the tips passed along to the ministry included comments about matches between the two Koreas, including: “Our women’s basketball team lost to South Korea, but I heard the South Korean team is even good at shooting three-pointers”; and, “the South Korean female table tennis athletes are great and they smile while they play.” Others commented on the rough play from the North Korean men’s soccer team, saying “our men’s football team was all over the place.”
“Different local branches of the MSS compiled the tips and sent them to the provincial headquarters, which presented a report to the provincial party committee. Orders then came down instructing the provincial headquarters to team up with the unified command on non-socialist and anti-socialist behavior to conduct a week of surprise inspections starting on Oct. 8.”
The searches began as planned on Oct. 8, and agents went house-to-house checking whether people’s TV channel dials were properly fixed in place or showed any traces of tampering.
The tips compiled by the MSS also suggested that people had used concealed mini-TVs to pick up signals from China, so inspectors left no stone unturned as they combed through houses looking for hidden devices.
The first two days of the dragnet led to the arrests of dozens of people in Sinuiju and Uiju. As the crackdown continued, a pile of confiscated LCD TVs began to stack up at the local MSS office, the source said.
“North Pyongan Province’s MSS branch knows that people even outside of Sinuiju and Uiju tune into Chinese TV signals, so they are also carrying out surprise household searches in other places like Cholsan and Sakju. They’re not only looking for hidden unregistered TV sets, but also for computers and cell phones. People are terrified.”
He added: “There are some people who watched the entire games, right up through the closing ceremony. Some of them have said that it was lucky the authorities waited to conduct the crackdown until after the competition was completely over.’”
Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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