This article is part of a series written by Daily NK journalist Kim Jeong Hun entitled “North Korea’s Secret Stories.”
Amid growing complaints among people living near the China-North Korea border about the continued border closure, around 100 soldiers gathered in the assembly hall of Yanggang Province’s provincial party committee in the early morning of Aug. 25 of last year.
The soldiers were part of the 11th Corps, also known as the “Storm Corps,” a special forces unit of proven ideological soundness and loyalty, that was sent to the border in the summer of 2020 — at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic — on direct orders from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The soldiers, along with the border patrol, slammed the border shut in accordance with a government proclamation establishing a buffer zone along the frontier and a curfew. The Storm Corps immediately established a “shoot first, report later” system, mercilessly shooting at anyone who approached the border, including those suspected of trying to defect or conducting smuggling activities.
In the early morning of Aug. 25, 2022, Storm Corps soldiers who had rendered distinguished service during operations to close the border gathered to receive awards. The event was attended by the commanders from the General Political Bureau and General Staff Department, as well as secretaries from provincial party organizations.
The soldiers who rendered the most distinguished service were awarded with “frontline admission to the Workers’ Party,” while others were given Orders of Korean Labour, Medals For Military Merit and Korean People’s Army commendations, as well as commendations from the corps or headquarters political bureau.
“Frontline admission to the Workers’ Party” is a term that began with Kim Il Sung’s practice of convening party cell meetings at the front line during the Korean War to immediately admit soldiers into the party to boost morale and enthusiasm for the fight. As it suggests, it means the immediate, on-the-spot granting of party membership.
The award was initially intended for people who stood in front of enemy guns or rendered some other brilliant service, but at this ceremony, most of the recipients were Storm Corps personnel who mercilessly shot and killed people while carrying out operations to seal the China-North Korea border.
The recipients of the other awards were Storm Corps soldiers who turned over everyone they busted at guard posts along the border to law enforcement agencies.
Border guard troops also took part in the ceremony, but none of them received “frontline admission to the Workers’ Party” or other commendations. The border patrol troops at the event were simply spectators to applaud the Storm Corps troops as they received awards.
The deployment of Storm Corps personnel to the border, despite the presence of the border guards, to completely shut the frontier — with even the authority to summarily fire upon and execute people approaching the border — was quite exceptional.
Government orders also instructed the border patrol to fire upon people or animals illegally approaching the buffer zone. However, members of the border patrol have been unable to bring themselves to cruelly shoot at people living near the border because they regard these people as akin to family who treat them to meals. When faced with a situation requiring the firing of a weapon, border patrol soldiers simply fire into the air using blanks.
Meanwhile, the Storm Corps soldiers who fired on people without much thought received awards for rendering brilliantly meritorious military service, with the government lionizing them as so loyal to the state that it could dispatch them anywhere and at any time whenever the nation is struggling most. To people living along the border, however, the Storm Corps are nothing more than murderers and objects of fear.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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