Archive for the ‘Ministry of State Security (MPSS, NSA, SSD)’ Category

North Korean state security agents fine Chinese visitors for making phone calls abroad

Thursday, August 9th, 2018

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Daily NK:

North Korean Ministry of State Security (MSS) agents have been ramping up the issuance of monetary fines for Chinese business people and drivers in the country for various infractions.

“Chinese business people and truck drivers are being fined for taking calls from China while they are in North Korea,” a source in China close to North Korean affairs told Daily NK on August 7. “A surveillance agent stationed near the Wonjong Border Customs Office is stopping vehicles driven by Chinese business people and truckers who are detected receiving calls and issuing them with fines.”

“Chinese tourists have their phones confiscated by travel agencies so they cannot make calls, but business people and truck drivers are under no such restrictions and could previously receive calls from China without issue,” he continued, adding that international calls to China are permitted within a radius of one kilometer of the customs office.

Chinese nationals affected are responding with incredulity at the 1,000 yuan fines for taking calls from China but “they are forced to pay the fine, however, because they depend on good relations with the North Korean authorities to conduct cross-border business.”

MSS agents have long forced North Koreans to pay bribes in exchange for letting them off the hook for making international calls. But these agents are now more pressed than ever to find ways to earn money and it appears that Chinese nationals are now in their crosshairs.

The North Korean government keeps a watchful eye over the activities of its agents, but corruption has such deep roots within the MSS that agents have no qualms with taking advantage of Chinese nationals.

One of the driving forces behind the push to earn more money is the nationwide requirement to pay “loyalty funds,” which is aimed at supporting development of the Wonsan-Kalma marine tourist zone and the Samjiyon area.

On top of their surveillance of cellphone users, MSS agents are also fining Chinese vehicles that carry North Korean passengers.

‘There are cases where Chinese truck drivers take on North Korean passengers to make a little extra cash, but MSS agents are cracking down on this activity and fining the drivers 500 KPW for each male passenger and 1,000 KPW for each female passenger. Chinese drivers are now increasingly ignoring hitchhikers on the road,” a source in North Hamgyong Province added.

“The fines are causing Chinese business people to be more watchful of their activities in North Korea. Some are even questioning whether they should even be doing business in the country.”

Article source:
MSS agents fine Chinese nationals for infractions to earn money
Mun Dong-hui
Daily NK
2018-08-09

Share

DPRK strengthens travel restrictions along Chinese border

Sunday, April 28th, 2013

…More signs of “forward to the past”?

Last week the Daily NK reported that the DPRK had been distributing enough rice to lower the price. It is still unclear if this practice will continue.  This week the Daily NK reports that the DPRK has stepped up travel restrictions along the Chinese border:

The North Korean authorities are operating enhanced controls on transit through the region of the country closest to China, including close checks on the documentation of travellers passing through in the direction of the Sino-North Korean border.

Part of the process means it has become more difficult to obtain travel permits. Although the issuance of such permits was recently resumed following months of combat mobilization and other activities that limited movement, the process of traveling through the border is making life difficulties.

A North Hamkyung Province source told Daily NK on the 26th, “The issuance of travel permits resumed on the 21st of last month, but the procedure when moving in the border region has gotten more demanding than ever. Travel permits need to be approved with not just the signature but also the seal of a person’s local PSM (Ministry of People’s Safety), relevant security agency and workplace, and if the trip is for a traditional ceremonial occasion such as a funeral then they must get a further confirmation letter saying so.”

“In the past, they did not ask for the confirmation letter, or the seal of the local security forces and NSA (National Security Agency, the state security organ) for that matter. But now they are asking for this and that certificate; it’s as if travellers are criminals,” the source said, recalling, “We used to be able to easily get travel permits by bribing people or having close associates in certain positions.”

Even for those with a permit there are still multiple layers of security and checks on the way to the border.

“Even after you get a travel permit by paying bribes, there are still the PSM agents on the trains and railway staff doing hourly checks,” the source said. “People say it is worse than the customs checks on the border.”

“Stations are being locked down by soldiers and then intensive body and baggage checks are taking place at Gomusan (the station before Musan and Hoiryeong on the Musan Line (train 9-10) and Sariwon-Rajin Line (train 113-114)) and at Huchang (the station before Rajin on the Pyongyang-Tumen River Line (train 7-8)),” the source noted. “They even have magnetic detectors for the body checks.”

Travellers ensnared by the checks are supposed to be detained locally until a security agent from his or her area of residence arrives to deal with the case. However, payments of 50,000 to 100,000 Won are apparently sufficient to attain release for those who simply don’t have the right transit permits. The only ones whose release cannot be obtained so easily are those caught with South Korean materials in their baggage; they face re-education or labor camp sentences, sources say.

Read the full story here:
Strain on the Border Trains
Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2013-4-29

Share

ROK arrests 25 DPRK spies in last five years

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

According to the Korea Herald (Yonhap):

More than two dozen North Korean spies have been arrested in the past five years of South Korea’s outgoing government of President Lee Myung-bak, officials said Sunday, a nearly 40 percent rise from the previous administration.

A total of 25 spies have been arrested in South Korea since the Lee government was launched in early 2008, officials said. That represented a 39 percent increase from 18 spies caught in the previous government of President Roh Moo-hyun.

By year, two of the 25 were caught in 2009, 10 in 2010, five in 2011, and eight between 2012 and January this year. In particular, 14 of the spies came to South Korea posing as defectors, officials said.

Last week, intelligence sources said they arrested an official of the Seoul city government for spying charges. The 33-year-old came to South Korea in 2004, disguising himself as a North Korean defector. In 2011, he was hired by the Seoul city government as a two-year contract official.

Yoo’s job at the city government was helping North Korean defectors, and he has been charged with passing to Pyongyang sensitive information about thousands of North Korean defectors living in Seoul.

Read the full story here:
25 N. Korean spies arrested in past 5 years
Korean Herald (Yonahp)
2013-1-27

Share

New Kim Jong-il statue at MSS/SSD headquarters

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

KCNA ran the following headline on 2012-10-2: “Statue of Generalissimo Kim Jong Il Erected at KPA Unit [10215]“.

According to Ken Gause, KPA Unit 10215 is the military cover designation of the 국가안전보위부 — the Ministry of State Security (MSS) [a.k.a. State Security Department (SSD), National Security Agency (NSA), State Political Security Department (SPSD)].

Checking the Google Earth imagery, we can in fact see the statue under construction at the MSS headquarters in front of the General Bureau Building.

Pictured above (Google Earth:  39.074311°, 125.767690°): Tarps covering the newly unveiled Kim Jong-il statue. Image date: 2012-6-20.

You can see a video of the unveiling on North Korean television below. This is the first time, of which I am aware, that the MSS headquarters has been shown on television:

(UPDATE) NK Leadership Watch also covered the unveiling and provides additional information.

In related news, the Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung statues on Mansu Hill have been covered up for renovations. In his latest at 38 North, Ruediger Frank also publishes a photo.

All images of the Kims are produced by the Mansudae Art Studio in Phyongchon District, Pyongyang.

Share

Coercion, control, surveillance, and punishment: An examination of the North Korean police state

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

Today The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) is releasing “Coercion, Control, Surveillance, and Punishment: An Examination of the North Korean Police State” (PDF) by Ken Gause.

Here is the table of contents:

Part I: The Internal Security Agencies
–State Security Department (SSD)
–Ministry of People’s Security (MPS)
–Military Security Command (MSC)
–Neighborhood Watch Units (In-min-ban)
–Ad Hoc Social Monitoring Organizations
Part II: What the Internal Security Agencies Do
–Surveillance of North Korea’s Citizens
–Investigation and Detention
–The Role of Internal Security Agencies in Trials
–The Role of the Internal Security Agencies in Prisons
Part III: History of the Internal Security Apparatus
–Formative Years (1945 and 1950)
–Purging the Enemies of the State (1950s and 1960s)
–Kimilsungism and the Monolithic Guidance System (1970–1980)
–Kim Jong-il as Heir Apparent (1980–1994)
–Intrigue Following Kim Il-sung’s Death (1994–1998)
–Kim Jong-il Regime
–Laying the Groundwork for Kim Jong-un’s Succession
–Kim Jong-un Regime
Conclusion
–Appendix I: Biographies of Key Internal Security Officials
–Appendix II: An Example of a North Korean Ministry of People’s Security Decree.180
–Appendix III: An Example of a North Korean Arrest Warrant

Additional Information:
1. Here is coverage in Yonhap

2. Here is coverage in the AFP

Share

Border Security Goes Back to NSA

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

According to the Daily NK:

Information from inside North Korea suggests that jurisdiction over border security has been moved from the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces to the National Security Agency(NSA), in a special order given by new leader Kim Jong Eun which has seen border security units undergoing an administrative switch to the NSA on April 16.

Read more below:

(more…)

Share

Pyongyang seeing more inspections

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

According to the Daily NK:

With the border area enveloped in ‘Storm Trooper Unit’ inspections, operations against South Korean goods have been stepped up in distant Pyongyang, according to a man from the city who talked to the Daily NK in Dandong, China on Tuesday.

“Inspections by ‘Group 109’, which has been around for a while, have gradually become more intense,” the man, Kim, explained. “Worst of all, they are showing up in the middle of the night without warning to search for CDs, DVDs and recorders, and if there are any materials such as pornography or South Korean merchandise, then the offender is taken away. There are no exceptions.”

“In the past when the National Security Agency or People’s Safety Ministry came to inspect, people would pay them to let it slide, but nowadays the authorities send an agent from both of those agencies and the Defense Security Command as a team, which makes it hard to get out of it if you get caught,” he added.

A Daily NK source from Pyongyang confirmed the story, saying that as recently as July one could escape Group 109 punishment for watching South Korean or American DVDs with a bribe of $100 in central Pyongyang, or less in the surrounding areas.

Group 109 is an organization set up by the Chosun Workers’ Party to crack down on illegal media including CDs and DVDs. The group is one of a number of ‘Gruppas’, as they are locally known, currently operating in the capital, with others including Group 622, which handles juvenile delinquency, and Group 27, actually a branch of the Defense Security Command, which deals with mobile phone usage.

The various groups have been conducting their assorted inspections to weed out myriad ‘anti-socialist’ behavior for some time, but bribery has always provided an escape route, albeit while those without money or connections were made an example of. However in recent times, allegedly since successor Kim Jong Eun ordered more intense inspections and punishments, the ‘Gruppas’ have had to take their tasks more seriously.

The volume of South Korean goods trading in the market has contracted due to the recent crackdowns, but their popularity is undiminished; evasion of inspections is apparently being achieved via house calls to trusted clients. Kim says that the preference is only getting stronger for South Korean goods amongst cadres, a group which has always been safe from inspections.

“The traders go around the city knocking on people’s doors, quietly asking whether the residents would like to buy some South Korean merchandise. For this reason the nickname ‘knock-knocker’ is sometimes used to refer to them,” Kim explained.

Read the full story here:
Pyongyang Seeing Tighter Inspections
Daily NK
Lee Seok Young
2011-8-24

Share

Daily NK on anti-socialist activities

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Part 1: The Illogicality of Anti-Socialist Policy
Lee Seok Young
2011-6-22

In North Korea today, those actions which are subject to the harshest oversight and most excessive punishment are those deemed anti-socialist, an expression of the extent to which such actions are seen as a threat to the regime.

Yet these very actions have already taken deep root in people’s lifestyles, spreading rapidly as a result of chronic economic difficulties, food insecurity, endemic corruption and the inflow of information from abroad.

First of all, every North Korean and defector the Daily NK meets says much the same thing; that if people had not followed an ‘anti-socialist’ path during the mid-90s famine, they could not have survived. The power which maintains North Korean society through the hardest times is that derived from anti-socialist actions, and it is those actions which the authorities would like to put an end to.

The blocking of these so-called ‘anti-socialist trends’ nominally began with Kim Jong Il’s 1992 work, ‘Socialism Is a Science’, issued following the fall of the Eastern Bloc. A time of great fear for the regime, ‘Socialism Is a Science’ expressed a determination to block out anti-socialist phenomena.

However, a famine exploded nationwide shortly after the publication of the thesis, placing these very anti-socialist modes of behavior at the core of the lives of almost everybody in the nation.

Having completely replaced Kim Jong Il and the Chosun Workers’ Party as the alpha provider of sustenance, money is now uppermost in the minds of the people. If they can, they are moving away from the collective farms, factories and enterprises to become more active in the market.

“At a time when the state didn’t provide rations and workers were not even receiving their monthly wages, the ones who started trading early on were all best able to avoid this predicament,” said one defector, “Others followed after their example and, rather than trying to find work, went straight into the market.”

Money, then, is the fundamental toxin that now threatens to shake the very basis of the Kim regime, completely undermining the ‘let’s work the same, have the same and live well’ lifestyle that the regime has long been demanding from the people.The authorities, as part of a losing battle to halt this slide, ‘educates’ the people with the mantra, “Don’t become a slave to money,” but it makes no difference.

People are growing more and more money-oriented. What simply began as a desperate rearguard action to survive extreme poverty has become a preoccupation with accumulating wealth. The many who don’t have the capital to start a business are keen to work with those who do.

One interviewee, a woman hailing from North Hamkyung Province, told The Daily NK, “They have to keep trying, but they can’t eliminate it. How could they, when the state itself is actually encouraging its spread? Everywhere you go, they demand bribes, and people with money never get punished even when clearly guilty, because everyone is desperate to earn money.”

Given that the central authorities demand Party funds from regional bodies, and regional Party and military cadres in turn work with smugglers, and the cadres charged with inspection turn a blind eye to criminal acts in exchange for bribes, the whole system is, as the interviewee said, rotten from the top down.

One defector who left his position as a cadre in a Yangkang Province enterprise agreed, recalling, “The Party periodically collected money from our factory, but since all the machinery had long since stopped running, they made us work in the market and give 30% of the profits to the authorities. It was the state that promoted anti-socialism in consequence.”

Another defector originally from North Hamkyung Province said in a similar vein, “The National Security and People’s Safety agents stationed on provincial borders stop people without the right permit to travel, but let them pass in exchange for a few packs of cigarettes. Some even ask for your wrist watch. It’s not just the people; the whole nation is busy being anti-socialist.”

Increasing exposure to foreign materials is also influencing the situation somewhat. Such things are especially popular with students and women working in the markets, two groups which are more up-to-date than most.

South Korean and Western culture is being transmitted quickly via DVD, and materials that are brought into the state from China by traders and smugglers are also pushing forward new trends such as the ‘Korean Wave.’

To the North Korean people, who once lived in near complete isolation from the rest of the world, the introduction of foreign materials has intensified their yearnings for a new life style. The stricter the regulations become, the thirstier for something else the people become.

Part 2: Crackdowns Enhancing Anti-Socialist Cycle
Mok Yong Jae
2011-06-23

‘Anti-socialism’ in North Korea is a destabilizing force disturbing the foundations of the system. For that reason, the authorities place a great emphasis on rooting it out. Inspections are frequent and their targets varied. But the fact is that this has done little to stop the growth of such activities; in fact, quite the opposite; some believe that targeted inspections actually increase instances of smuggling, for example.

These focused inspections are handed down in the name of the ‘Party Center’ in other words Kim Jong Il. The latest inspections over anti-socialist trends in border areas have been being carried out by Kim Jong Eun’s direct instruction. First people are educated about and warned against ‘anti-socialist behavior’, then provincial Party and military cadres launch an inspection.

If a concerted inspection is to be unleashed on a given area, an inspection unit is set up, and it does the work. In the case of recent inspections targeting drugs and defection, the inspection units have even been sent from the Central Committee of the Party. The makeup of the unit can differ slightly depending on the target of the inspection, but usually includes agents from the National Security Agency (NSA), People’s Safety Ministry and Prosecutors Office. Precise search sites are usually selected at random and the searches conducted without warning, while ‘criminals’ are flushed out in part by getting citizens to report on one another.

However, the effectiveness of this system has a limit. This is primarily due to an overwhelming degree of official corruption at nearly all levels.

The Spread of Bureaucracy and the Limits of Inspections

The primary agents conducting the inspections, agents from the NSA and PSM, collude with smugglers for their own benefit. Anti-socialist activities are not a new means of survival, and the more commonplace the inspections become, the more focused the agents doing it become on their own self-interest; i.e. rent seeking rather than uncovering instances of wrongdoing.

For example, agents seek out big smugglers only in order to offer them an opportunity for their actions to be ignored, something they will do for a price. A source from Yangkang Province explained to The Daily NK, “Hoping not to lose their goods, also so as to avoid prison, in many cases smugglers try to win over agents. They talk to the official for a while, and if they think ‘this guy can be won over’ then some even gently encourage them to find a way to forego any punishment.”

Then, when the inspecting agents begin dropping heavy hints about expensive merchandise, electronics or a piano, for example, the smugglers say, “I’d be delighted to buy that for you,” and for that receive their freedom.

Thus, it is rare for money to change hands directly; goods are bought in China and handed over when the inspection period has come to a close. The smuggler also obtains a permit to import a certain amount of other goods without penalty in the future. By winning over agents in this way, assistance in future times of trouble can also be secured.

In addition, as Lee Jae Won, the former chairman of the Korean Bar Association Committee on Human Rights in North Korea and someone who has interviewed a great number of defectors as author of the 2010 White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea, concludes, “Anti-socialist activities are extremely common for North Korean cadres in public positions such as prosecutors and judges.” The bribing of prosecutors and judges in exchange for leniency or to escape conviction is a daily occurrence, as much as bribing the security forces and cadres.

What Anti-socialist Counteroffensive? Officials are the source of Antisocialism

Now much more so than in the past, cadres and agents are directly involved in the antisocialist activities.

A Chinese-Korean trader who often goes between Dandong and Shinuiju told The Daily NK, “There are so many drugs in North Korea that even the officers supposed to be policing it are taking drugs themselves. Some of them even asked me to take opium to China and sell it. I go back to North Korea every year to visit relatives, and I’ve seen officers there doing bingdu (methamphetamines) with my own eyes.

It is also said that the families of cadres are the main source of South Korean movies and dramas on DVD. Party cadres are, in effect, the very source of the Korean Wave that their bosses in Pyongyang ban on the premise of defending the state from the ‘ideological and cultural invasion of the South Chosun reactionaries’.

A source from Pyongan Province confirmed the story, telling The Daily NK, “These DVDs and VCDs come from the houses of cadres who travel overseas a lot. The children of cadres love watching them. The families of traders have a lot of them, too, but it’s the cadres they’re spreading from.”

Thus, while the central Party single-mindedly attacks anti-socialist behaviour, the cadres and agents who are meant to be carrying out the orders are deeply involved in the ‘anti-socialism’ themselves. The more crackdowns that occur, the more contact there is between the elite and security forces on the one hand and smugglers and traders on the other, offering more opportunities for symbiosis. It is for this reason that some claim the inspections are actually catalyzing the anti-socialism.

Meanwhile, An Chan Il of the World North Korea Study Center pointed out to The Daily NK that the whole thing is completely inevitable, saying, “These inspection teams are not receiving proper rations from the state, so of course they take bribes instead when sent out into the field. Administrative irregularities and corruption are at the very heart of these anti-socialist inspections. The only way for the families of inspecting agents to survive is for the father to be a part of this anti-socialist behavior.”

Choi Yong Hwan from the Gyeonggi Research Institute agreed, adding, “These inspections are intensifying social inequality. The fundamental cause of this is the collapse of the state rationing system due to economic difficulties. It’s a situation where even the agents are hungry, so there is a permanent pattern of them attempting to guarantee their own survival via corruption. There is a vicious cycle repeating here, whereby those who are able to ingratiate themselves with the inspecting agents and cadres survive, and those who do not or cannot get punished.”

Share

Younger cadres gaining security posts

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

According to the Daily NK:

Recently, younger cadres have started being posted to city and county units of the National Security Agency (NSA) and People’s Safety Ministry (PSM), according to sources.

One such source from North Pyongan Province explained on Sunday, “NSA and PSM cadres are being rapidly changed for younger men, who are now playing a pivotal role. There are now two or three men in their late 20s and early 30s in the case of an NSA office, and among the ten men in a PSM office, five or six are in their 30s.”

“The change to younger agents began last year, making men in their mid-40s who should be at peak capacity start looking over their shoulder,” the source added.

A source from Yangkang Province concurred, adding, “Just now in the local NSA, prosecutors’ office and PSM, early- to mid-30s people have been stationed in almost all posts. These early- and mid-30s people are even taking places as high as vice director of the city or county NSA.”

The NSA and PSM represent the domestic force behind the Kim dictatorship, the tools of both policing and intelligence functions. As such, experts assert that if people loyal to the Kim Jong Il system are being replaced, that is another telling sign that North Korea is edging towards a system led by successor Kim Jong Eun.

Cheong Seong Chang of Sejong Research Institute explained, “This looks like generational change to facilitate the Kim Jong Eun succession system. To increase Kim Jong Eun’s ability to secure the system, they are changing existing cadres for younger men at a rapid pace.”

Even as late as the early 2000s, to become an NSA or PSM agent required an individual to have ten years of military service and two years of civilian work under his belt, and to have passed through a political college dedicated to the respective service.

Having gotten a foot in the door, an individual needed at least three to five years to gain promotion through local agent, vice section chief, section chief, vice director and then director positions, and as a result one would often be in one’s 50s before reaching the vice director’s chair. Of course, family background and political conditions also had to be met.

However, now there is an alternative course, with viable candidates being plucked from military service of only five or six years to enter an ordinary civilian college, and thereafter being stationed with the security forces.

After which, following two or three years as an entry-level agent, those who enter via this foreshortened route are sent for six months of political education, graduating whilst still in their late 20s or early 30s. It is these individuals who are now emerging early into mid-level positions in the security forces.

While it is claimed that this process is open to all soldiers with good backgrounds and represents an example of “Kim Jong Il’s consideration” of his subjects, the reality is that only a minority of young people, noticeably the children of cadres, can benefit from it, according to sources.

Regardless of which, the Pyongan Province source said that this policy change is causing problems, with the younger men speaking disrespectfully to people who are below them but who society traditionally views as their elder.

The Yangkang Province source explained, “Because they got pushed down the pecking order overnight, got hurt or feel betrayed, many are driven to drink. These older men are complaining at getting nagged by younger people.”

Alongside this, recently most new placements are far from an individual’s home.

A Shinuiju source commented, “In the past, prosecutors or People’s Safety agents were people born locally, but since August they have been coming from other provinces or counties. This seems to be a policy handed down to combat the many cases of agents turning a blind eye to the actions of family and friends.”

However, “These days, if you have money you can solve anything, so the interpersonal connections of these people make no difference,” the source concluded.

Read the full story here:
Younger Men Taking Over Security World
Daily NK
Lee Beom Ki and Lee Seok Young
2011-6-21

Share

NSA agents in Hyesan under greater scrutiny

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Pictured above (Google Earth): Hyesan City’s Kanggu-dong (강구동), Wiyon-dong (위연동), and Songpong-dong (송봉동) mentioned in the Daily NK story below.

According to Daily NK:

A source from Hyesan revealed the news yesterday, saying, “On the 11th, an NSA agent responsible for the Kanggu area of Hyesan committed suicide at his office. In one soldier’s testimony during the process of an investigation into the border guard unit, it came out that he had aided smuggling and defections, and had taken bribes. Out of fear of punishment, he killed himself.”

According to the source, there has recently been one other similar case in the city. In that instance, an NSA agent responsible for the Wuiyeon area killed himself at his house during April, apparently during an NSA investigation centering on the fact that an abnormally large number of defector families were there.

In another instance, NK Intellectuals Solidarity recently reported a case from February, where an NSA agent covering the Songbong area of the city killed himself at the time of his arrest by smashing his head into a wall. In that case, however, the NSA investigation was focused around the sale of 1kg of narcotics.

This is causing tension in the city, the source went on, explaining, “They are warning people not to gossip to others about issues related to the National Security Agency. The rumor now circulating is that there will be an in depth investigation by the central Party soon, so the feeling here is uneasy.”

In North Korea, a local NSA agent is responsible for roughly 1,000 households or less. Through roughly 40 or 50 people’s unit heads and Women’s Union cadres, the agent obtains information on the activities of local people and passes on instructions to them, thus playing a key role in the preservation of the system.

For smugglers and defectors, stepping outside this surveillance net is both important, and also hard. For that reason, smugglers commonly buy off NSA agents. Sources and defectors both agree that abetting defection is rarer, since it is punished more harshly, with whole extended families facing extreme consequences.

Ordinary city residents, meanwhile, are not sad to see the back of any agent who takes his own life, the source added, pointing out that they are one of the most hated groups in North Korea.

Hyesan is an ideal location from which to stage a defection.  Though it is the capital of Ryanggang Province (Yangang, 량강도) , it is both geographically and administratively remote—on the Chinese and DPRK sides of the border.  The border itself is a very shallow, sometimes dry, Yalu River basin which is lined in both directions with railway service.

Read the full story here:
Spate of NSA Agent Suicides in Hyesan
Daily NK
Lee Seok Young
2011-6-17

Share