{"id":54783,"date":"2023-04-27T14:30:55","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T05:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=54783"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:33:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:33:57","slug":"lifting-veil-ministry-state-security-crackdown-china-based-trading-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/lifting-veil-ministry-state-security-crackdown-china-based-trading-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifting the veil on a Ministry of State Security crackdown on China-based trading officials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In early October 2022, North Korea\u2019s Ministry of State Security ordered its agents in Shenyang to \u201cquickly recall and make an example out of China-based workers harboring <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">subversive <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ideology.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ministry also issued a secret order for each agent to \u201cfind one or two workers who took advantage of the global COVID-19 pandemic<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> foster distrust in the motherland, an<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">submit evidence [of their wrongdoing],\u201d adding that the investigation should specifically target management level officials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result, North Koreans working as trade officials in China became anxious about possibly being summoned back to Pyongyang for an<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ideological review<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the same time, security agents deployed in China were particularly receptive to the new secret orders issued by their superiors and eagerly investigated the ideological trends of the trade workers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Korean authorities generally recalled trade workers to return to Pyongyang to undergo ideological reviews once or twice a year. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 created a three to four year period during which North Korean authorities could not recall any officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result, it appears the authorities decided to carry out the long-postponed ideological reviews of trade officials all at once and charged security agents in the region with the task.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>SUMMONED BACK TO PYONGYANG<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In late October 2022, a Shenyang-based trade representative in his 50s surnamed Cho was summoned to Pyongyang in the first round of recalls.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During his ideological review in Pyongyang, Ch<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">o passionately asserted that \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">everything reported about my public and private matters in Shenyang during COVID is incorrect. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The security agents are vicious, and I simply ended up getting entangled in their malice.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cho divulged that after he brushed off the security agents\u2019 demands for money, the agents<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">retaliated and began <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">antagonizing him. As a result, Cho\u2019s life abroad became incredibly difficult, and the security agents\u2019 behavior gave him the desire to escape.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the ideological review, Cho appealed to his interrogators, saying: \u201cI was commended for my good work when I met all my quotas and gave into demands from security agents for money. But when I couldn\u2019t get the [bribe] money together, [the security agents] claimed that the other laborers<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">listened to me more [than them] and accused me of being a factionalist.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the Ministry of State Security disregarded Cho\u2019s account and labeled him as someone who \u201coften complains about contributing party funds\u201d and \u201ca turncoat who would betray the fatherland if given the chance.\u201d He was branded ideologically problematic, and he and his family were exiled to a remote area of North Korea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having observed what happened to Cho, an official with North Korea\u2019s trade ministry expressed his<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">deep disillusionment with how the government had acted: \u201cIf you make enough money, they\u2019ll praise you and promote you, only to later turn around and call you a reactionary and arrest you. That\u2019s how they treat trade officials &#8211; they <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fatten and raise them for slaughter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trade officials in China who later heard the news of what had happened to Cho after his return to North Korea also expressed their disappointment. In describing the deplorable situation to a close Chinese friend, one trade official said: \u201cI\u2019m embarrassed to share the title of \u2018North Korean\u2019 with the group of thugs over at the Ministry of State Security. They take people who have pledged their loyalty to the party and state and have worked tirelessly to pay party funds. As soon as they start to gain any status, the [security officials] latch on to some made-up charge and devour them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, at the same time in Shenyang, rumors had circulated that \u201cwhen the security officers were out drinking, [someone overheard] them snickering about how they had dealt with that pain in the neck who had been acting so uppity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the incident involving Cho, distrust deepened between North Korean officials residing in China. Chinese people who worked alongside them expressed their astonishment at the way North Korea\u2019s system of control compels people to spy on each other and fight tooth and nail to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea and China. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/faq\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/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\/20230407-2\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In early October 2022, North Korea\u2019s Ministry of State Security ordered its agents in Shenyang to \u201cquickly recall and make an example out of China-based workers harboring subversive ideology.\u201d The ministry also issued a secret order for each agent to \u201cfind one or two workers who took advantage of the global COVID-19 pandemic to foster [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":40643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[735,759,1138,1656],"class_list":["post-54783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-analysis-and-opinion","tag-trade","tag-china","tag-overseas-workers","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - 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