{"id":66287,"date":"2026-02-06T07:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=66287"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:37:12","slug":"north-korea-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea cracks down on corrupt prosecutors shielding elite students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">North Korea&#8217;s Supreme Prosecutor&#8217;s Office issued an emergency order Jan. 19 activating a long-dormant legal provision that allows the replacement of corrupt prosecutors at major universities, a Daily NK source in Pyongyang said recently. The order targets prosecutors who accept bribes from powerful parents to shield their children from investigation for anti-socialist behavior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">When university students whose parents are officials are implicated in crimes, prosecutors often take bribes to look the other way. The latest order demonstrates the central government&#8217;s firm intention to use the legal system to end this phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">In particular, the order included North Korean leader Kim Jong Un&#8217;s angry demands that &#8220;rotten buds be pruned&#8221; and that &#8220;the children of officials be revolutionized if their ideology is rotten.&#8221; In North Korean parlance, &#8220;revolutionized&#8221; means reeducated through prison or forced labor. People thus view the order not as a simple administrative directive but as a declaration of war demanding that prosecutors get their house in order.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold\"><strong>Kim&#8217;s fury sparks legal crackdown<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">According to the source, the order was sparked when a Central Committee inspection discovered that the prosecutor handling an incident at a university in Pyongyang tried to minimize the case, excluding the children of senior officials from investigation while framing powerless students.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Kim Jong Un was reportedly irate when he received a report of the inspection, saying that &#8220;young people were the future ranks of the party, and that prosecutors responsible for universities were ruining the future of the revolution for a few coins rather than pruning rotten buds.&#8221; He ordered that the &#8220;right to apply to change investigators&#8221; in the country&#8217;s codex &#8220;must not be a mere decoration,&#8221; and that people &#8220;should be able to replace prosecutors who smell rotten immediately.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">North Korea&#8217;s Criminal Procedure Law includes articles concerning applications to change litigation parties and the processing of these applications. According to a copy of the country&#8217;s Criminal Procedure Law \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-criminal-justice-reform-control-under-cover\/\">amended<\/a> in February 2025 \u2014 obtained by Daily NK, people can apply to change litigation parties on specific grounds as stipulated in law, or because they violated their appointed duties (Article 20), and that investigator, prosecutor or prosecutorial agency manager who receives such an application must process it within three days (Article 21).<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;Before, individual prosecutors had so much power that it was impossible to demand their replacement \u2014 even if you applied, it was often ignored. But the order demanded that the legal system be strictly implemented going forward,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;Particularly striking is that the right to apply to replace prosecutors was granted not only to parties to a case, but also to university party committees and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">In other words, university party committees and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League can now point to the law and apply for the immediate replacement of a prosecutor who appears to be covering for a particular student.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;The order seeks to use the law to root out the practice of giving passes to the children of officials when the authorities view young people&#8217;s anti-socialist and non-socialist behavior as a threat to the regime,&#8221; the source said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">After the order was issued, prosecutors in charge of universities went on a state of high alert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">More than ever, prosecutors feel they must handle incidents involving students by the book, since they never know when somebody will apply for their replacement during the investigation or indictment. Prosecutors who have survived on bribes are devastated, complaining that they must now &#8220;fear even taking a carton of smokes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20260206-1\/\">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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The order targets prosecutors who accept bribes from powerful parents to shield their children from investigation for anti-socialist behavior. When university [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":66289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[273,274,705,724,1656,3243],"class_list":["post-66287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-corruption","tag-pyongyang","tag-universities","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-dprk","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>North Korea cracks down on corrupt prosecutors shielding elite students - 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-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"North Korea cracks down on corrupt prosecutors shielding elite students\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Korea&#8217;s Supreme Prosecutor&#8217;s Office issued an emergency order Jan. 19 activating a long-dormant legal provision that allows the replacement of corrupt prosecutors at major universities, a Daily NK source in Pyongyang said recently. 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When university [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-05T22:16:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-07T04:37:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/openverse-b1e43239-5432-4571-880d-1584437e8002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeong Seo-yeong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeong Seo-yeong\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korea-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korea-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeong Seo-yeong\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9efe4479c399c25bb2d44c871b14e851\"},\"headline\":\"North Korea cracks down on corrupt prosecutors shielding elite students\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-05T22:16:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-07T04:37:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korea-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":598,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korea-cracks-down-on-corrupt-prosecutors-shielding-elite-students\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/openverse-b1e43239-5432-4571-880d-1584437e8002.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"corruption\",\"pyongyang\",\"universities\",\"kim jong un\",\"dprk\",\"Crime &amp; 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