Crackdown on travelers in border area… Officials carrying confidential documents arrested
Agents are especially focused on officials traveling carrying documents who are traveling in border areas. (Image: iStock/CornishPhotography)
North Korea’s main law enforcement agency is currently conducting an intensive crackdown on people traveling to border areas for business trips.
According to a report in NK Times at the end of last month, the Ministry of Social Security issued an order on March 10 instructing provincial, city, and county security departments nationwide to strengthen surveillance of business travelers. The report quoted a knowledgeable source in the country, who was unnamed for obvious reasons.
The directive strictly prohibited ordinary citizens from accessing or moving within border areas. It particularly emphasized the need to thoroughly check officials carrying confidential documents in these regions.
As a result, city and county security departments nationwide are now undertaking large-scale surprise inspections targeting regional road checkpoints, inns, and hotel parking lots.
Since March 13, security departments in Hyesan city and Pungso and Samsu counties, which are all in the northern Ryanggang Province, have deployed agents at major checkpoints leading to border areas.
On March 17, a party official from Hamhung City, identified as Han, was stopped and searched at a checkpoint designated as No. 10, as he was on his way to Hyesan for identity verification work. After prohibited documents were discovered, Han was arrested on the spot.
He has reportedly been handed over to the city’s Ministry of State Security, where he is undergoing an intense investigation.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, officials traveling to border areas have been prohibited from carrying documents containing confidential information, computers, memory devices, or other electronic equipment.
“Han was fully aware that he was not allowed to carry confidential documents when entering a border area, yet he still brought them,” the source said. “Authorities believe he intended to pass the documents to an enemy.”
Han will be dismissed from his position and most likely charged with spying, the source said.
“Recently, the authorities have been taking extremely strong measures to strengthen discipline among officials and tighten control over internal information,” he said. “The level of scrutiny on confidential documents and electronic devices has become way stricter than before, so much so that even party officials like Han get arrested on the spot.”
Han was born in 1989 in Taehongdan county, Ryanggang province, North Korea. She graduated from Hyesan Teacher's College in 2012, after which she worked as an elementary school teacher. She defected to South Korea in 2016 and works as a reporter at NK Times in Seoul.
Latest posts by Han Eun-su (see all)
- Crackdown on travelers in border area… Officials carrying confidential documents arrested - April 3, 2025
- Ministry of Social Security investigating people over inflation and Russian war complaints - February 3, 2025
- Ministry of State Security and Defense Security Bureau crackdown leads to rise in remittance fees, up to 50% - January 24, 2025