More from Hoeryong
Daily NK reports two items of interest today. The first is purportedly the text of the judgments against those executed and imprisoned by the North Korean authorities there. Although it accuses most of the condemned of trafficking in North Korean women, treat that characterization with extreme caution; putting a sexual taint on a dissenter is an old trick that China has used pretty shamelessly against Korean underground railroad activists. It could be true, too. But then, why add this language?
It is the counter-revolutionary crime that daringly breaks through the isolationist policy against anti-Republic people, that challenges the grandiose march of our people to build a powerful nation in spite of the hard situations, as we have to overthrow the imperialism reactionaries’ isolate pressure maneuvers which became severe these days. . . . The situation our nation is facing today demands us of a high level of tension to completely prevent the ideological and cultural infiltration of the imperialism which enters through illegal transgression, anti-socialist phenomenon and protest against law. Furthermore, unless we completely seal the border thoroughly, it will be accepted as we permit the anti-socialist criminal activities, thus we will not be able to protect our way of socialist regime and in the end, we will be preyed as slaves by the enemies.
The authorities apparently mean it, because they seem to be conducting a thorough purge in Hoeryong, evidently fearing that it could become a center of dissent or resistance. The story also reports (the usual cautions apply, of course) a mass uprising at Camp 22 before it was closed down. That suggests a grim answer to the question I asked at the end of this post.
It may be years before we know the real story about those executed at Hoeryong, but consider this: if the North Korean regime were less intent on hoarding its scare resources for its elite and its weapons programs (which, in turn, costs North Korea trade and aid), there wouldn’t be a human trafficking problem there.