With Pyongyang’s 7th Party Congress looming
on the horizon, the authorities are ramping up efforts to re-examine the family
ties and ideological leanings of each individual citizen closely. Considering
this particular Party Congress is an important stepping stone toward
further consolidation of the regime, expectations are that Kim Jong Un will
seek to control and restrict the population more stringently than usual prior
to the event.
Organization Departments of the
corresponding provincial WPK committees are working in tandem with the
provincial units of the State Security Department and the Ministry of People’s
Security to form an investigative body to carry out these investigations
nationwide, reported a source in South Pyongan Province.
Sources in Ryanggang Province and North
Hamgyong Province have also reported comparable developments in their
respective regions.
“Everyone is being newly re-categorized and
closely managed according to their ancestry and songbun [family political
background and history] and placed into one of the three categories: the core
class, who in times of emergency would be expected to support Kim Jong Un, the
wavering class, who must always be scrutinized, and the hostile class, who must
be placed under continuous surveillance,” the source explained.
Families who have been categorized as
wavering or hostile have already long suffered from restrictions on upward
mobility, limited engagement in community life, and tighter surveillance. “Some
of these citizens either cannot receive a [domestic] travel visa or, if they
must be given one, their travel visa is marked with a number that is easy to
track so that the Security Department can follow their activities.
“Some family members of defectors, fearing
political persecution from the regime as a result of the guilt-by-association
system, are desperately hoping that their relatives who made it to South Korea
will be content to live quietly,” the source said, explaining that anyone
related to a defector whose entrance into South Korea has been confirmed is
being relegated immediately to the “hostile class.”
“Even worse, if it is confirmed that a
defector [with whom they are related] has appeared in [international] media
criticizing the North Korean system, their families are labeled as political
criminals and are ruthlessly evicted from their homes.”
The current climate is such that for Party,
State Security Department, and Ministry of People’s Security personnel, the
discovery of a defector in the family (even if the relation is merely a first
cousin) warrants automatic dismissal from one’s post. Even having a second cousin
affiliated with the “hostile class” is grounds for termination.
Ultimately, the source explained, this
round of background investigations seeks to select a group of loyal members to
create a fresh, so-called “quintessential class” of members ahead of the 7th
Party Congress and rely on them to strengthen the regime by actively thwarting
members of the wavering class from succumbing to the “strong pressure of
international society while forming a solid core that is able to overcome the
current difficulties facing North Korea.”
