{"id":48529,"date":"2021-05-24T12:48:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T03:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=48529"},"modified":"2021-05-24T13:25:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T04:25:07","slug":"north-korean-authorities-ferret-out-traders-involved-smuggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-authorities-ferret-out-traders-involved-smuggling\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korean authorities ferret out traders involved in smuggling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While North Korea has been making moves to reopen trade with China, it appears hesitant to lift the border blockade between the two countries. A Daily NK source recently reported that the authorities have been ferreting out and punishing traders involved in smuggling. This crackdown could be an attempt to encourage trade workers to be cautious until the authorities open the border.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFrom the beginning of this month until recently, the authorities have been arresting anyone who engaged in smuggling and those who did not submit their \u2018loyalty fees\u2019 to the party on time. [The authorities] have exiled some of them to remote areas, or sentenced them to re-education through labor or even death,\u201d a source in North Pyongan Province said on May 18. \u201cThey are being punished because they misappropriated trade profits for their own personal gain and not for the benefit of the country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hunt for those who participated in or abetted smuggling and those who failed to pay party \u201cloyalty fees\u201d reportedly came to a close in late April. North Korean authorities also investigated traders and firms applying for new <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">waku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (trade certificates) during the same period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean authorities accepted new <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">waku <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">applications from Apr. 12 and Apr. 14. After receiving the applications, the Central Committee\u2019s Department of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and the Ministry of State Security began screening them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTwenty people ended up being targeted for punishment,\u201d the source said. \u201c[The authorities] arrested all of them at the same time and their punishments were meted out immediately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_42643\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42643\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-42643 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"suspension\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/\uc870\uc911\uc6b0\uc758\uad50_\ubd81\ud55c\ud2b8\ub7ed.jpg 741w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-42643\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">North Korean trucks can be seen heading to the Chinese side of the border on the Sino-North Korean Friendship Bridge. \/ Image: Daily NK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The majority of the 20 trade workers sentenced to punishment were involved in official state trade or carried out their own personal smuggling endeavors through official trade networks. The authorities accused them of selling minerals, including iron ore and gold, to China in Nampo, Cholsan, Ryongampo, and Chongju.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, some of the traders received punishments because they had simply failed to pay \u201cloyalty fees\u201d to the party.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the traders was caught in the Yellow Sea near Zhuanghe, a city in China\u2019s Liaoning Province. The individual was attempting to cross into China to sell a large volume of high-end North Korean cigarettes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trade workers who had participated in state-authorized trade but who had failed to pay their \u201cloyalty fees\u201d received sentences of re-education through labor or deportation to undesirable areas. Those who the authorities confirmed had participated in smuggling, however, received harsher sentences, including execution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The authorities appear to have moved to arrest and punish the smugglers under the assumption that smuggling will flourish once full-fledged Sino-North Korean trade resumes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was speculation that North Korea would finish issuing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">waku <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and resume trade with China earlier this month. However, it appears that the authorities are not proactively moving to open up the border.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">waku <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will likely be issued by around May 20. Multiple sources in\u00a0 North Korea have predicted, however, that even after traders receive their <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">waku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, they will not be able to immediately engage in trade activities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All this suggests that North Korean authorities are proceeding with considerable caution in their efforts to open the border and resume trade. State officials will also likely continue to exert strong controls over trade and meticulously inspect imported goods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean officials are likely to accept the import of permitted goods as long as they go through an inspection process. However, it may take longer for the country to begin exporting goods even after issuing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">waku <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and partially resuming trade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThings that the government needs like agriculture-related goods and construction materials are on the list of permitted import items. However, consumer goods like soybean oil and flavor enhancers, for which there are already substitutes being sold in markets, have not received priority status,\u201d the source said. \u201cDepending on [the government\u2019s] assessment of the COVID-19 situation, the resumption of trade could get pushed back even further.\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\/%ea%b5%ad%ea%b2%bd-%ed%95%b4%ec%a0%9c-%eb%af%b8%ec%a0%81%eb%8c%80%eb%8a%94-%eb%b6%81%ed%95%9c-%eb%ac%b4%ec%97%ad-%ea%b3%b5%ec%8b%9d-%ec%9e%ac%ea%b0%9c-%e5%89%8d-%eb%b0%80%ec%88%98-%ea%b0%80%eb%8b%b4\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While North Korea has been making moves to reopen trade with China, it appears hesitant to lift the border blockade between the two countries. A Daily NK source recently reported that the authorities have been ferreting out and punishing traders involved in smuggling. This crackdown could be an attempt to encourage trade workers to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":44025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,649],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-china-north-korea-border"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>North Korean authorities ferret out traders involved in smuggling - 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-korean-authorities-ferret-out-traders-involved-smuggling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"North Korean authorities ferret out traders involved in smuggling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While North Korea has been making moves to reopen trade with China, it appears hesitant to lift the border blockade between the two countries. 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