The North Korean authorities have followed up ongoing efforts to stamp out remittance flows and the making of outside phone

calls with an investigation of the security forces themselves.

“Inspectors from the

Central Party showed up in the middle of July, and now officers from all over the province have been targeted

for investigation and summoned to the provincial security bureau,” a source in

Yangkang Province reported to Daily NK on August 5th. “In Hyesan alone, dozens

of officers went in for investigation.”

The source surmised

that the focus of the investigation is on: (a) persons who aid and abet smuggling

and communication with the South, to which officers have long turned a

blind eye in exchange for inducements; and (b) the question of whether members

of families within the remit of a given officer or unit may have defected.

“Even some officers in

counties to the east of Hyesan like Baekam, Daehongdan, and Bocheon have been called

in,” the source revealed. “No-one knows how long it will last, but it feels as

if they want to completely root out [corruption among security officials].”

However, she alleged, “The smart ones among them will have already dealt with

the bribes they received, and so the investigators will be left with nothing.”

Nevertheless, the public is unsettled: “Although the investigation only concerns

security officers, it could pose a problem for anyone who has ever used bribes

to evade punishment. Obviously people are a nervous.”

Since corruption is a

ubiquitous cost of doing business in contemporary North Korea, almost anyone is

susceptible to the ramifications of an investigation of this sort. “The majority

of security officers have received bribes at some point; it would be much

faster to investigate the ones that are clean.”

“Some people are

saying that it’s like they mustn’t have gotten anything out of giving us the third

degree so now they are going to fight with one another; others that it will

at least be good to see punishment meted out to security officers who used to

give them such a hard time,” the source said.

Article 60 of North Korean criminal code

was amended early this year to include five new items that are now officially seditious: ▲ Illegal phone contact with foreigners, including South

Koreans; ▲ Viewing South Korean dramas or

DVDs and listening to [foreign] radio broadcasts; ▲ Using or dealing in drugs; ▲ Transnational human and sex

trafficking; and ▲ Aiding and abetting defectors

and leaking state secrets.

The source said it constitutes an attempt by the Party to regain its grip on the

population. However, doubts over efficacy linger. “Telling residents not to participate in illegal

activities and then turning right around and committing even graver offenses

means that the law is as corrupt as it can get,” she pointed out. “Just watch,

they’ll use bribes to end this investigation, too.”