Secret Police Moves, North Korea Executes Surveillance Violators, Detains Hundreds More

North Korean military illustration. (Wimedia Commons/PD-USGov-Military-Army)

JAKARTA - North Korea shot dead at least 10 civilians caught using China's cell phone network to communicate with the outside world, a report claims.

The executions are in line with Pyongyang's ban on its citizens using China's mobile phone networks to stop accessing outside information and talking to defectors.

This is part of a policy of imposing crackdown and covert surveillance that the North Korean government has implemented with the secret police since March. At least 150 people from four provinces have been detained under this provision. in the last three weeks.

A source said the executions were carried out in two separate locations, five people in Taehongdan County in Ryanggang and five in North Hamgyong Province. Implementation in public. Meanwhile, it is estimated that around 20 other people who were tried in public avoided the death penalty.

The report said the crackdown was expected to continue for months, as tall concrete walls and high-tension cables were built in an attempt to fortify the border.

North Korean military illustration (Wikimedia Commons/John Pavelka)

A source in North Korea said the raids were continuing and some of the perpetrators were publicly executed as a gruesome deterrent, it was reported.

Citing Mirror from Daily NK Japan Friday, June 25, this claim is based on sources in Ryanggang Province which borders China.

The arrests occurred during investigations into smuggling people and goods across the border, remittance intermediaries arranging calls and remittances, and those with links to defectors in South Korea.

Meanwhile, North Koreans rely on smuggled cell phones and SIM cards to stay in touch with family and friends and get help from the outside world. The four-year ban on cell phones was lifted in 2008, and domestic networks remain severely restricted.

State security officials are tasked with detecting telephone signals, eavesdropping devices, and arresting illegal cellular phone network users. Many arrested for the crime were sent to overcrowded political indoctrination centers as punishment, the report said.

"The detention center is full of people like a rabbit kennel. People are sitting next to the toilets. Family visits are denied and the prisoners are losing hope," the source said.

North Korea's border post with China. (Wikimedia Commons/Nicor)

This series of executions and detentions is not the first. In 2014, North Korea executed a 49-year-old man who was caught making phone calls to family members in South Korea from a location near the border with China, Daily NK reported.

He was caught by agents using signal detectors, and his entire family was imprisoned after he confessed to secretly receiving money from relatives in South Korea.

Several reports of executions have also emerged in recent weeks. In April, North Korea publicly executed a man in Wonsan who illegally sold CDs and USBs containing South Korean films, TV shows, and music videos. The executions were carried out in front of about 500 people, reports Daily NK.

Around the same time, an education official who complained about his job was also executed. Meanwhile, a number of violators of the COVID-19 lockdown were also executed