{"id":322995,"date":"2026-02-20T09:34:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=322995"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:37:11","slug":"n-korea-freezes-investigations-ahead-of-party-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korea-freezes-investigations-ahead-of-party-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea freezes investigations ahead of party congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">North Korea&#8217;s Ministry of State Security suspended all investigations and custodial proceedings on Feb. 8, ordering provincial bureaus onto emergency footing ahead of the Ninth Party Congress scheduled for late February, leaving detainees stranded in custody until normal operations resume.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">A source inside North Korea who requested anonymity for security reasons told Daily NK recently that the ministry issued the emergency order to all provincial bureaus, pausing outstanding cases and forcing suspects and detainees to wait indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;Since state security bodies are in emergency mode, all work on outstanding cases has been suspended. That means that anybody who has been wrongfully detained will have to cool their heels at least until the Party Congress is over,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;The families of detained people are horrified that their loved ones will have to remain in those bitterly cold cells for at least two more weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Alongside the suspension of proceedings, the ministry ordered provincial bureaus to rigorously inspect the maintenance of propaganda articles and items associated with the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family. Teams of inspectors were dispatched to public spaces, institutions and enterprises to check on statues, monuments, mosaic murals, portraits of the leaders, and plaques bearing their sayings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;People are very nervous about these inspections because even trivial mistakes in the maintenance of propaganda articles can have unpleasant consequences not only for institution and enterprise managers but also for state security agents on duty and municipal or county state security departments,&#8221; the source said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">In North Korea, such items are regarded not as mere artwork but as sacrosanct emblems of the leader&#8217;s &#8220;supreme dignity,&#8221; making their preservation a core responsibility of the security apparatus.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold\"><strong>Ideological conformity check before congress opens<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The ministry also instructed provincial departments to verify that updated maps of the Korean Peninsula distributed last year have been properly displayed. The maps depict South Korea in gray, in keeping with leader Kim Jong Un&#8217;s framing of &#8220;two hostile states&#8221; \u2014 a narrative that erases the North&#8217;s former concept of unification. The directive appears designed to ensure the regime&#8217;s new line on South Korea has filtered down to the lowest institutional levels before the congress convenes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;Judicial procedures have stopped, and all resources are being devoted to inspections. An anxious mood will probably pervade both state security bodies and local communities until the Party Congress is over,&#8221; the source said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The Ninth Party Congress was announced in the Rodong Sinmun on Feb. 8, which reported that the politburo of the Eighth Central Committee had held its 27th meeting the previous day with Kim Jong Un presiding, at which the decision to hold the congress at the end of February was made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20260212-5\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<!-- Daily NK \u2014 A Note to Readers \u2014 End of Article Pattern -->\n<div style=\"background:#1a1a1a;border-top:3px solid #cc0000;padding:0;margin-top:32px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;\">\n  <div style=\"padding:20px 24px 24px;\">\n\n    <!-- Header row -->\n    <div style=\"display:flex;align-items:center;gap:12px;margin-bottom:14px;\">\n      <span style=\"background:#cc0000;color:#fff;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:9px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.15em;text-transform:uppercase;padding:3px 8px;flex-shrink:0;\">A Note to Readers<\/span>\n      <div style=\"flex:1;height:1px;background:#333;\"><\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <!-- Intro line -->\n    <p style=\"font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:15px;color:#fff;font-weight:normal;line-height:1.4;margin:0 0 12px;\">Reporting from inside North Korea<\/p>\n\n    <!-- Body -->\n    <p style=\"font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:13px;color:#bbb;line-height:1.75;margin:0 0 16px;\">\n      Daily NK operates networks of sources inside North Korea who document events in real-time and transmit information through secure channels. 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Daily NK serves as a bridge between North Koreans and the outside world, documenting what&#8217;s happening inside one of the world&#8217;s most closed societies.\n    <\/p>\n\n    <!-- CTA row -->\n    <div style=\"border-top:1px solid #333;padding-top:16px;display:flex;align-items:center;gap:16px;flex-wrap:wrap;\">\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/how-we-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\n         style=\"background:#cc0000;color:#fff;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;padding:9px 16px;text-decoration:none;flex-shrink:0;\">How We Report<\/a>\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/830d12539ead\/dnkweeklybriefing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\n         style=\"background:transparent;color:#cc0000;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;padding:9px 0;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #cc0000;flex-shrink:0;\">Subscribe to Our Weekly Briefing<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- End Daily NK \u2014 A Note to Readers -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korea&#8217;s Ministry of State Security suspended all investigations and custodial proceedings on Feb. 8, ordering provincial bureaus onto emergency footing ahead of the Ninth Party Congress scheduled for late February, leaving detainees stranded in custody until normal operations resume. A source inside North Korea who requested anonymity for security reasons told Daily NK recently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":61666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,681,1360],"tags":[135,162,724,786,862,2367],"class_list":["post-322995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","category-society","tag-propaganda","tag-ministry-of-state-security","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-ideology","tag-rodong-sinmun","tag-ninth-party-congress"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korea freezes investigations ahead of party congress - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korea-freezes-investigations-ahead-of-party-congress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. Korea freezes investigations ahead of party congress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Korea&#8217;s Ministry of State Security suspended all investigations and custodial proceedings on Feb. 8, ordering provincial bureaus onto emergency footing ahead of the Ninth Party Congress scheduled for late February, leaving detainees stranded in custody until normal operations resume. 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