There is an ongoing battle to stem the tide of defection near urban areas along the Sino-North Korean border, Daily NK has learned from a handful of different borderland sources. Although the number of defectors reaching South Korea is in decline these days, there is still a significant number of border crossers making it out of North Korea.

A source from Hoeryeong in North Hamkyung

Province told Daily NK on the 16th, “There’ve been several cases of

people who were planning to go to South Korea getting arrested in Hoeryeong by

the State Security Department after they got tipped off by defection brokers. Even worse,

there was one family who got seized after being ratted out by one of their own

relatives.”

“There has recently been a surge in the number of arrests here due to one (38-year old) woman

acting as a snitch for Hoeryeong municipal Security Department,” the source went on. “Defectors from the city must

exercise caution when making contact with their families or sending money back. That woman reported her sister-in-law’s family to the

Security Department and they got sent to a prison camp.”

“Lately, the Security Department has been trying varied ways of stopping people from leaving,” the source asserted. “They’re making informants out of brokers and people caught attempting to defect. I’m aware that the Security Department has

such informant groups in those border cities that are often used for defection.”

A source from Yangkang Province added, “Before,

people thought that the most secure way to defect was by asking a relative,

preferably one doing some smuggling, for help. But now you can’t even trust your own flesh

and blood.”

“Some unbelievable things are happening,”

the same source went on. “Like this broker who someone asked to help them

defect; the two of them even set a date, time and place for it at that person’s house. But

then the broker just went ahead and reported it to the Security Department so the would-be

defector was arrested.”

“If defectors who have already settled in

the South send money back home via brokers, they could report it to the Security

Department and extract the remitted money that way,” she warned.

It is common knowledge that physical border

security has been tightened up under the transitional Kim Jong Eun regime. This

has been buttressed with incentives; reporting a defection, for example, has the potential to earn the border guard in question expedited membership of the Party and/or extra

holiday time.

“Despite the ‘benevolence politics’ of the

Kim Jong Eun regime, saying they will not hold re-defectors responsible

for their original decision to leave and will forgive them, for example, defections have not

stopped so they are trying to stop it in other ways,” the source concluded. “Going

forward, it looks like they will keep enhancing border controls and arresting would-be defectors

through those they ask for help. Internal propaganda featuring re-defectors

will also keep on coming.”