The death sentence has been imposed upon at least one person caught making phone contact with South Korea from a location near the Chinese-North Korean border, Daily NK has learned via detailed testimony from a source in the region.

“At the beginning of this year they amended the criminal code,” the source reported. “Then, in Hyesan, someone got executed as an example to the rest.”

According to the source, the execution came amidst an extensive campaign against mobile phone users, smugglers, and people aiding and abetting defections, which began last year and has continued into 2014. The source said the victim, a 49-year old stage lighting engineer called Ri Kyung-ho, was executed in March. His execution, though not public, was used as an example to others, and his family has been incarcerated in a State Security Department (SSD) facility, the source said.

“Ri Kyung-ho was caught out of town by an SSD agent with a signal detector. He’d been calling his family in South Chosun,” the source, who remains anonymous to protect her identity, said. “He probably didn’t have time to take the phone apart and hide it before SSD agents got to his house.”

Independent verification of events taking place inside North Korea is almost impossible due to the tight restrictions on travel into the country, the lack of any independent media, and strict controls on what information is made available.

In the course of Ri’s subsequent interrogation, it reportedly emerged that not only had he been making regular phone calls, but had also been involved in remittance transfers from South Korea and aiding and abetting defections.

He seems to have started by conveying money from defectors to their families, but then began to help people who asked him to send their families to China

“He seems to have started by conveying money from defectors to their families, but then began to help people who asked him to send their families to China,” the source said. “Some people are asking why he was killed just because of the money thing, but there are a few who were close to him and his wife, and they say it was because he had been helping defections.”



“In times gone by you could bribe your way out of this, but right now they’re sure to punish you. Nobody knows when or why they might get caught up in it, so everyone is nervous,” the source said. “Anyone who uses a cellphone to call ‘that way’ or ‘the other way’ [meaning South Korea or China] is scared.”

“The rumour now is that Ri Kyung-ho’s elder brother Ri Song-ho, who is deputy head of a children’s film production team, and his younger brother Ri Chang-keun, who is a senior member of a state merited chorus ensemble, are facing punishment too,” the source added.

The North Korean authorities recently added five extra clauses to Article 60 of the country's criminal code, which pertains to attempts to overthrow the state. The additional clauses codify harsh punishments for acts including illicit communication with the outside world, which could in principle now incur the death penalty.



A source based in North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK “a directive notifying us that the criminal code had changed was conveyed via workplaces earlier in the year. They said that five new clauses have been added to Article 60, and that punishments for each were similar or worse that they had been."

The newly re-codified offenses include:

Illegal phone contact with foreigners, including South Koreans



Viewing South Korean dramas or DVDs and listening to [foreign] radio broadcasts



Using or dealing in drugs



Transnational human and sex trafficking



Aiding and abetting defectors and leaking state secrets



In criminal code revisions made in mid-May last year, harsh punishments were decreed for a loose group of acts deemed to be seditious, including political agitation, rioting, and public demonstration. Sedition was one of a litany of charges thrown at Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang Song-thaek before his execution in December last year.



The nature of the revised punishments provides a stark reflection of the regime’s anxiety at the nature and scale of cross-border activities, the source explained. A minimum of five years “re-education” or the death penalty can be decreed for those caught communicating with the outside world, a minimum of 10 years re-education is the maximum punishment for simply watching South Korean media or listening to foreign radio, and a minimum of five years reeducation is possible for drug smuggling.

“These days they're working to arrest people calling the South by tapping their phones," the source pointed out, before reports of the death sentence in Hyesan emerged. "People do somehow doubt that they’d really execute somebody for calling South Korea, but everyone is still uncomfortable because there is the possibility of being made an example of. Investigations have increased along the border this year, and some people have already been sent off for reeducation as the result of the new amendments.”

People who speak to the South have to recognise they are now risking their lives

“People who speak to the South have to recognise they are now risking their lives. At the time of Kim Jong-il's birthday on 16 February, even people who had traded with China took apart their phones and hid them away; it was that bad.”



Caution is also being taken by those who used to lend out phones for others to use, out of the fear that they too could become a target for the security forces.

“People who had Chinese-made mobile phones used to occasionally grant people’s requests to use them, but now they are likely to reject any such request, saying, ‘I threw it away a long time ago,' and, ‘Don’t you value your life?” the source reported.

Daily NK revealed on 9 May that the authorities recently arrested and internally exiled around 100 people from Pyongyang for viewing or possessing video content produced in South Korea, further indicating the extreme sensitivity of the regime to potential threats to its grip on power.