In the weeks prior to major political events like the second US-DPRK summit and the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) elections, the North Korean authorities typically strengthen repressive measures against ordinary North Koreans. This has led to widespread frustration, and in some cases, even sporadic conflict with the authorities.
Recently, the authorities have been busy listening in on phone calls to foreign locations and conducting raids on houses in the border region. In North Korea’s major cities, they are arresting homeless children near markets and railway stations, and cracking down on the viewing of South Korean movies and dramas.
A 27-year-old woman living near Pochon County in Ryanggang Province got into an argument with sentries at a tunnel entrance near the border with China after her passage through the tunnel was blocked. She ultimately went home and committed suicide, according to sources based in Ryanggang Province.
While her identity is not known, she had been ill and was registered as a patient at her local district office. On the day of the incident, she had reportedly planned to go through the tunnel and across a nearby bridge to get to a relative’s house.
The increased security at the tunnel, however, meant that only preschool, elementary and middle school students were allowed to pass through due to the potential for an “outbreak of violence or the spread of pamphlets or graffiti by impure elements,” a source in Ryanggang Province said.
Recently, an incident involving anti-regime graffiti was rumored to have occurred in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province; a similar incident occurred in Hoeyeong in the early 2000s.
If the woman had been able to use the tunnel, it would have taken just 10 minutes to reach her destination. If not, she would have had to take a longer route that would have taken 1 hour and 10 minutes.
“In her condition, this would have been difficult. She was heading to her relative’s house to borrow money to buy medicine, but when her passage was blocked by the sentries, she fell into deep depression,” a separate source in Ryanggang Province explained.
“When her relatives found her, she was already past the point of being revived. The police recorded that she suffered from mental illness and that her death was due to ‘disease.’”
Suicide in North Korea, regardless of the reason, is considered an act of treason against the state. The authorities likely blamed illness for her death because any news of a suicide in such a sensitive period before the SPA elections would have damaged the atmosphere of the important political event, according to the sources.
“There were no actions taken against the sentries who blocked the woman’s entrance into the tunnel,” said the initial source. “An innocent woman met an unfortunate end because she was blocked from walking to where she needed to go.”
