{"id":48394,"date":"2021-05-07T11:00:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T02:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=48394"},"modified":"2021-05-03T14:30:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T05:30:25","slug":"north-korea-briefly-placed-under-state-alert-following-kidnapping-security-agency-official-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-briefly-placed-under-state-alert-following-kidnapping-security-agency-official-son\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea briefly placed under state of alert following kidnapping of security agency official&#8217;s son"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korea was recently placed under a state of alert after two people from Songchon County in South Pyongan Province kidnapped the local Ministry of Social Security (MSS) preliminary examination department director\u2019s son.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Apr. 30 that the &#8220;kidnappers were caught while attempting to escape towards the border. They were publicly executed by firing squad a week later near the riverbank in a Songchon County town.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two kidnappers were reportedly lovers. The female kidnapper held a grudge against the MSS preliminary examination department director because he sentenced her mother to serve time in a re-education camp. Her resentment drove her to kidnap the director\u2019s son as part of a plot to sell him to human traffickers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The local MSS office received information saying that the kidnappers were traveling northwards on Mar. 31 shortly after the director\u2019s son disappeared. North Korean authorities then issued an emergency alert to security agencies across the country. The alert lasted from Apr. 1 to Apr. 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_40937\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40937\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-40937\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Sunchon, South Pyongan Province\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1-1068x712.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\ud48d\uacbd_1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40937\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sunchon, South Pyongan Province. Image: Daily NK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c[The authorities] instructed officials at Songchong County checkpoints as well as train station crew members and those working at posts belonging to the Ministry of Social Security, the Ministry of State Security, and the military to thoroughly search any passengers traveling with children,\u201d the source said. \u201cBecause there were so many police officers stationed on the roads, the couple was caught at a guard post in Gilju, North Hamgyong Province. It was confirmed that the kidnappers had given money and cigarettes to soldiers in military vehicles passing in exchange for a ride. Then, they were arrested and transferred to the Ministry of Social Security.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The source claims that the kidnappers confessed their crimes during their five-day preliminary examination. The female kidnapper reportedly said that \u201cit was already hard to make a living after [my] business fell apart in the aftermath of COVID-19. Then, my mother, a woman in her sixties, was sentenced to do time in a re-education camp. I couldn\u2019t get over [my anger]. So, we decided to kidnap the MSS preliminary trial department director\u2019s son and sell him to human traffickers on the border. This way, we could pay off our debts and get revenge on the director.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe emergency alert was lifted as soon as the kidnappers were caught on Apr. 4,\u201d the source said. \u201cThey were publicly executed less than a week later at the side of a river in Songchon County. Local residents were in attendance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Koreans discussing the incident have reportedly said that they have never heard of a child abduction occurring in their lifetimes and that the incident was \u201cvery disturbing.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>*Translated by S &amp; J<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"td-post-header\"><em>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"td-post-header\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20210430\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korea was recently placed under a state of alert after two people from Songchon County in South Pyongan Province kidnapped the local Ministry of Social Security (MSS) preliminary examination department director\u2019s son.\u00a0 A source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Apr. 30 that the &#8220;kidnappers were caught while attempting to escape towards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":42799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[3243],"class_list":["post-48394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-crime-corruption"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korea briefly placed under state of alert following kidnapping of security agency official&#039;s son - 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\/north-korea-briefly-placed-under-state-alert-following-kidnapping-security-agency-official-son\/\" \/>\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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