Ryanggang Province’s Safety Bureau in Hyesan began conducting "mobile strike team drills" with about 150 personnel starting January 15. A reporting partner who witnessed the drills explained that authorities are preparing for potential civil unrest, and reported that the highly intimidating drills mobilized armored vehicles and armed motorcycles. (ISHIMARU Jiro / KANG Ji-won)
◆Authorities Explain It's to Prepare for Potential Civil Unrest
Hyesan is the provincial capital of Ryanggang Province, located on the upper Yalu River bordering China, and has been one of the major defection points in the North Korea-China border region for about the past 15 years. It's also a route for illegal distribution of goods, funds, and information with the outside world. The Kim Jong-un regime, which launched in 2012, completely sealed off the Yalu River banks with barbed wire fencing to block these "subversive activities." Along with the capital Pyongyang, it's a city with the strictest daily control over its residents.
What do these large-scale drills being conducted by the Ryanggang Province Safety Bureau in Hyesan look like? Reporting Partner A, who lives in the city, shared the following:
"Starting January 15, the Safety Bureau's mobile strike team began mobile deployment drills. About 150 people are participating, conducting lockdown drills, area control drills, and so on. They're mobilizing armored vehicles, combat vehicles, and even armed motorcycles.
Nominally it's winter training, but authorities say it's to prevent subversive activities and prepare for potential civil unrest, so I think it's training to monitor and control border crossings to China, smuggling, and public discontent. Even soldiers who were just recently assigned to the Safety Bureau through conscription are participating."
