Soldiers of the 25th Brigade of North Korea’s border guard based in Ryanggang province have gone on a rampage of crop theft this harvest season, leaving their ill-gotten gains at the homes of acquaintances or selling them outright, while authorities conduct surprise nighttime raids of civilian homes to crack down on those who participate in the scheme.
“Border guard soldiers nowadays have been busy stealing rice, corn, beans and other crops during their duty hours rather than standing watch at guard posts,” a Daily NK source in Ryanggang province said recently. “The soldiers leave their stolen crops at private homes they frequent or sell them.”
Most border guards form close friendships with people living near their posts of duty. They leave their belongings at their friends’ homes and sometimes sneak away during duty hours to eat or drink with them.
With the recent harvest season, it has become increasingly common for border guards on night patrol to strip grains from rice stalks stacked at farms, stuff them into sacks, and leave them at friends’ homes or sell them outright for money.
“People either receive storage fees from the soldiers or sell the rice to market merchants for a profit,” the source said. “Basically, the soldiers and civilians form a sort of symbiotic relationship.”
Civilians punished for hiding soldiers’ loot
At farms in Pungyang and Sinsang villages in Kimjongsuk county, several instances of harvested crops disappearing have occurred. Amid strong suspicions that border guards are involved, the county police have joined forces with the farms to launch surprise nighttime searches of civilian homes.
In early October, one Kimjongsuk county resident was sent to a forced labor camp for involvement in the thefts. During a search of the individual’s home, the county police found a sack filled with grain, and when it was revealed that a soldier had stolen the grain, the homeowner was sent to a forced labor camp for concealing stolen goods.
“The person told the police that he couldn’t refuse the grain, which had been stolen by a soldier—who was like his son—just to survive, but this simply earned him a stronger rebuke,” the source said. “People who heard about the incident said it was strange that the man was being punished for simply taking the grain when it was the soldier who stole it.”
Even now, border guards continue to steal corn, beans and other harvested crops.
“When private smuggling was rampant, border guards would buy food with the money they earned from bribes to look the other way at contraband, but now they can’t do that with smuggling stopped, so they have begun stealing,” the source said. “Farm workers are losing sleep every night because of the soldiers.”
“Some people sympathize with the soldiers, saying they must be doing it because they have nothing to eat since the military’s food situation is terrible, but many also criticize that their superiors can’t do anything to control them despite the collapse of military discipline,” the source said.
