Ministry of Social Security drastically tightens control over the people
Tightened control is fostering a growing atmosphere of mistrust. (Image: iStock/Omer Serkan Bakir)
The Ministry of Social Security, the main law enforcement agency in North Korea, is significantly beefing up its remit and intensifying control over the populace.
In the past, officers would mostly stick to stopping people on the street to check IDs and belongings, but now they are reportedly conducting more intrusive surveillance and monitoring of people’s private lives.
According to a source in North Hamgyong Province, the Hoeryong city branch of the ministry is currently forming security teams comprising neighborhood unit leaders and secret informants to more thoroughly monitor the daily lives of citizens.
Neighborhood heads use the pretext of delivering government instructions to conduct home visits, while informants approach people under the guise of personal errands to get closer to people so that they may observe their day-to-day activity.
For instance, they may casually suggest starting a business together or drop by claiming they’re just passing through, all to gain access in a natural way. These informants are not limiting themselves to surveillance of those designated high-risk, but are monitoring what ordinary people are eating, thinking and talking about.
Security officers assigned to each “dong” (neighborhood) patrol several times a day under the pretext of inspecting the security status of the regular neighborhood inminban association, which functions for surveillance. As a result, even those who have done nothing wrong feel treated as criminals which causes significant psychological stress and anxiety, according to the source.
The tightening of control has been building for some time. It appears to have been prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the government revised numerous laws and regulations, and passed new ones, significantly expanding the legal basis for surveillance.
According to documents obtained, the overall control system was reorganized at the 3rd Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party in June 2021. In particular, security officers across provinces, cities, and counties were ordered to implement a “single-room responsibility system.” This required them to patrol their assigned areas up to 100 times a day. At first glance, this may seem like a public safety measure, but it was in fact a drastic move aimed at suppressing public dissatisfaction.
In October 2022, revised criminal procedure law education was conducted across all levels of public safety institutions and military security units to further reinforce surveillance and control activities. Then, in December of the same year, a directive titled “On Decisively Improving and Strengthening Substation Security Work” laid out in detail the roles of social safety institutions, ordering thorough implementation. This was understood to be a significant matter, beyond just a legal or organizational adjustment and directly impacting the fundamental human rights and daily lives of the North Korean people.
Such measures seem to be an effort by the regime to use the Ministry of Social Security to suppress discontent and unrest among residents and maintain regime stability.
Now this organized surveillance system has taken root, people feel increasingly intimidated, and mistrustful of one another.
When security officers, neighborhood leaders and security team members make regular visits to people’s homes, they gather meticulously detailed information on family members’ activities, contacts with outsiders, and changes in household goods. All of this is reported to higher-ups.
This is fostering a heightened level of mistrust among neighbors and serves as an effective control mechanism to preemptively block dissent and defections. The environment is such that dissatisfaction and potential resistance to the regime are extinguished before they begin.
Sewon is the North Korean-born founder and CEO of NK Times, a Seoul-based media outlet focused on North Korea. Drawing on his personal experience living there, he strives for transparency and accuracy in reporting, working to inform readers worldwide about the realities of North Korea.
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