◆ Even the Faintest Contact with South Korea Condemned as "Betrayal"
The reporting partner said that a climate of public criticism and ideological struggle began taking shape around the time of the Supreme People's Assembly session mentioned above.
"From late March, meetings and ideological struggle sessions were held with the message that the collective spirit must be strengthened. People living well through illegal activities — private trading and the like — and especially those receiving remittances from South Korea or China, are being harshly criticized as 'corrosive to the socialist spirit.'
Until now, families with defector relatives were envied almost as much as the donju [the new wealthy class], and they had good credit in the jangmadang markets. Now they're keeping their heads down. Informants are everywhere, and some people are moving to places where nobody knows they have defector family members."
※ Ideological struggle session: A meeting in which a person deemed to have acted against socialist ideology is surrounded by a large group and subjected to intensive criticism and denunciation. The stated purpose is for the individual to be remolded into a politically and ideologically sound person.
The COVID-19 pandemic served as a turning point after which the Kim Jong-un regime significantly tightened its overall control of the population, and it became especially vigilant against speech and behavior reflecting the influence of foreign information and ideology — particularly from South Korea. According to a reporting partner in Ryanggang Province, all individuals who have returned from overseas labor assignments in countries such as China or Russia are being subjected to mandatory re-education, and those who speak about what they saw or heard abroad face punishment — including being sent to a labor discipline unit (short-term forced labor) on charges of "spreading information about decadent capitalist society."
Even the most minor contact with South Korea is now treated as a betrayal of socialism. The Kim Jong-un regime's policy of "severing ties with South Korea" has not only been enshrined in the constitution — it is being strictly enforced in the realities of everyday life.
※ ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.
