North Korea is set to hold elections to provincial, city and county people’s committees in June, sources have revealed to The Daily NK.
North Korea undertakes such local and provincial committee elections every four years, with the most recent occurring in July, 2007, and before that in August, 2003.
A source from Hyesan in Yangkang Province revealed the news to The Daily NK yesterday, saying, “A decree ordering that local elections be held across the country next month, June, has been handed down. In order to complete voter lists before that, an investigation has been started to establish the exact composition of the populace.”
However, while the investigation is partly a necessary voter registration procedure, it is also partly an opportunity for the security services to threaten families whose members have defected or are illegally residing in China.
The source explained, “On the subject of the election, during a people’s unit meeting a National Security Agency official gave a lecture with the title, ‘Let’s take part in every provincial, city and county election and vote ‘yes!’’
“He said, ‘We will punish or exile families who either fail to take part in or miss it because they are not here. Contact people who have gone to China for trade or gone to live there illegally and tell them to come back without fail,’” the source added.
“The official delivered the education about getting people to take part in the election for about an hour and a half, saying ‘Were you to persuade your families well, so they take part in the election and are not caught and punished in the investigation, it would be good” and so on.”
“As the election overlaps with societal controls getting stricter, it is expected that they will get even stricter,” the source predicted. “Their intention to bring the system under control is shown by the strengthening and heightening of checks on the people prior to unveiling the Strong and Prosperous State next year, 2012.”
“There are also rumors about a new ID card being issued next year. There are many worries because people who have defected or gone illegally to China to trade will not know about it,” he also explained.
In many cases, security officials will be pursuing the policy zealously so as to earn bribes from the families of absent persons, and this is causing families set to be caught in the net to call for emergency funds from overseas relatives.
In the 2007 elections, 26,635 delegates were elected to various committees.
The elections cover all local administrative organs, but not the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), which is made up of persons dispatched by local committees.
