{"id":43868,"date":"2020-02-19T17:14:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T08:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=43868"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:50:24","slug":"north-korea-uses-military-law-punish-smuggling-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-uses-military-law-punish-smuggling-border\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea uses military law to punish smuggling on border"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently ordered that smuggling in the border areas as well as the abetting or concealing of such activities will be subject to punishment under military law, Daily NK has learned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOn Feb. 15 the Ministry of State Security [MSS] issued an order to each border patrol unit directing them to apply military law in dealing with all acts of illegal smuggling, trafficking, and trading,\u201d a military source based in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Feb. 17. \u201cThey were also told that this was an order straight from the commander-in-chief of the armed forces [Kim Jong Un].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to sources in the country, the MSS has warned that these orders mean that all smuggling that doesn\u2019t have state approval will be treated as \u201canti-socialist activity\u201d or as \u201cbenefiting the enemy.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The orders appears to underline yet again the concerns North Korean authorities have about the leaking of &#8220;internal information&#8221; to the outside world.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interestingly, the order emphasized that border guards are at the \u201cfrontline\u201d facing the \u201cenemy.\u201d The &#8220;enemy&#8221; referred to in the order is not China but COVID-19, sources said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFollowing the decision to shut the North Korea-China border entirely, border patrol units are being reminded to take on the task of defending the border to make the country an impenetrable fortress,&#8221; one source explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A &#8220;STATE OF EMERGENCY&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The North Korean border areas are now in a \u201cstate of emergency\u201d following the issuance of the order, sources reported.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere was some hope that state-sanctioned smuggling and maritime trade would restart after Feb. 15,\u201d one source said. \u201cInstead, the border patrol is just fed up with [Kim Jong Un\u2019s] order to severely punish those involved in such activities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Officers and low ranking soldiers are reportedly resisting the new order, instead of their commanders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBorder guards have lived in increasingly poor conditions, and it was only through smuggling and trafficking along the border that they have been able to maintain their basic livelihoods,\u201d the source explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Private traders in the border region are also feeling increasingly anxious, Daily NK sources reported.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere\u2019s been an outcry from market merchants who expected to be able to restart their imports from China [from Feb. 15]. They are saying that [the government] is cutting off their life lines,\u201d one source explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Koreans that Daily NK sources spoke to have complained that the government is no longer turning a blind eye to private smuggling, as it usually tends to do, and that this is hurting their business prospects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, however, an atmosphere of fear over being punished &#8211; even executed &#8211; for smuggling has fallen over the border region, Daily NK sources said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere\u2019s no soldiers along the border who will help smugglers anymore following the order to deal with infractions through military law,\u201d one source told Daily NK.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPeople are saying that it\u2019s best to just keep an eye on the state of affairs the rest of this month [before doing anything],\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>*Translated by Alek Sigley<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/%EA%B9%80%EC%A0%95%EC%9D%80-%E9%9D%9E%EC%8A%B9%EC%9D%B8-%EB%B0%80%EC%88%98-%EA%B5%B0%EB%B2%95%EC%9C%BC%EB%A1%9C-%EC%B2%98%EB%A6%AC-%EA%B5%AD%EA%B0%80%EB%B3%B4%EC%9C%84%EC%84%B1%EC%97%90-%EB%AA%85\/\"><em>Read in Korean<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently ordered that smuggling in the border areas as well as the abetting or concealing of such activities will be subject to punishment under military law, Daily NK has learned.\u00a0 \u201cOn Feb. 15 the Ministry of State Security [MSS] issued an order to each border patrol unit directing them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":43024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,649],"tags":[100,162,222,295,717,735],"class_list":["post-43868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-china-north-korea-border","tag-markets","tag-ministry-of-state-security","tag-border","tag-crime","tag-smuggling","tag-trade"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korea uses military law to punish smuggling on border - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"North Korea recently ordered that smuggling as well as the abetting or concealing of such activities will be subject to punishment under military law.\" \/>\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\/north-korea-uses-military-law-punish-smuggling-border\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. 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