North Korea has bolstered the number of surveillance and patrol agents in the northeast area of North Hamgyong Province devastated by recent floods, as it mobilizes an unprecedented 100,000 people to the region to aid in recovery efforts. The increased surveillance is thought to reflect the state’s concerns that general disorder in the area may increase cross-border escape attempts and instability.
“Ministry of People’s Security personnel (police) from the provincial, city, and county offices have been mass deployed to areas adjacent to the Tumen River, which are rife with chaos,” a source from North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK in a telephone conversation. “They’ve been tasked with preemptively thwarting any defections by mobilized workers and are carrying out intensive surveillance and monitoring.”
State Security Department units with equipment to monitor mobile phone signals have also been deployed to crack down on people placing illegal calls outside of the country. The source believes the state is looking to aggressively seal off the border area to ensure no information leaks out to other countries.
While the leadership has mobilized a huge workforce in a bid to win over public support, the accompanying mass deployment of surveillance agents underscores its concerns about large-scale defections and the spread of undesirable information.
Complaints from local residents have already surfaced, as the same officials that would normally be policing the streets where recovery work is taking place are instead assigned to border surveillance instead, leaving local residents vulnerable to robbery and other crimes.
Another Daily NK source in the area reported that five shock troops dispatched to Sinhakpo in the city of Hoeryong recently broke into someone’s house. “At night, these recovery workers turn into thieves, but the state hasn’t acknowledged the problem,” the source said.
Shock troops are also said to be defending their own actions. “They say they have no choice because the state provides nothing and tells them to fend for themselves,” the source said. “Upon hearing the news that so many workers would be deployed, local residents considered it to be an arrival of 100,000 thieves and that an impending battle for survival was looming.”
There are also widespread complaints that the fifth nuclear test was carried out nearly ten days after the flooding, leading to outrage at the lack of assistance and concern for the general safety of the people.
“Numerous casualties arose after heavy rain pummeled the region for days, but the government instead focused on keeping the areas sealed off, worried that instability would spread,” the source said. “On September 9, people heard about the nuclear test announcement, and that made residents in the flooded areas furious.”
Residents have criticized state policies and the monumental costs for nuclear development, which would have been better spent on flood recovery. The source points out that the government has likely mobilized such a large number of workers out of fear of the rising public discontent.
