Sinuiju take Two?
It seems that Kim Jong Il’s visit to China has, once agian, inspired him to once again, take a crack at turning Sinuiju into a “Special Administrative Region” of some sort. no doubt, this time, Beijing is on board with his plan, unlike last time.
From the report:
- They are planning to move the Shinuiju residents of about 7,000 families (25,000 to 30,000 people) to close cities and rural areas. Their plan is to strictly sort out those from “bad families” and those who have committed political errors (wrongdoings) and move them to Chulsan-gun, Donglim-gun, Yomju-gun, and Taechun-gun of North Pyongan province. There have been rumors about moving those people with unclear backgrounds out of the region every time they talked about making the Special Administrative Region.
- Starting February 1, revised laws regarding use of cellular phones apply. Before, cellular phones were managed by the National Security Agency, but now under the new law, they are managed by security offices (police offices). The sources report that the security offices have posted phone detectors here and there to detect cellular phones. In January, a number of Chinese-descendent Koreans were caught using cellular phones in Ryongchon and were fined 500 USD each.