Reports|

Photo: BTS | By Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Min Joo Kim, The Washington Post | Lee Suk-jeong made good money as a smuggler across the North Korea-China border, bringing in items coveted in North Korean black markets: gold, cigarettes and popular South Korean television shows, movies and music.

That made her a frequent target of surveillance, and her home would be searched without warning. Once, she was held at a detention center for more than a year, said Lee, 49, who defected to the South in 2019.

Those who pursued Lee worked for a shadowy surveillance operation inside North Korea called the Non-Socialist Groups, which use a network of informants to crack down on a wide range of behaviors deemed “nonsocialist” or against the principles of the nation by the Kim Jong Un regime.

The enforcers rely on fear, bribery and extortion to help Kim maintain his grip on society, and can be quickly mobilized to quash activities deemed problematic, according to a report by the Seoul-based Database Center for North Korean Human Rights that was first provided exclusively to The Washington Post.

The violations pursued by the groups include possessing or consuming South Korean media; singing, dancing or speaking in a manner that is not considered North Korean; attempting defection; or criticizing the regime. Those who are found in violation may be sent to labor camps or in extreme cases, publicly executed, researchers found.

The report, which will be released publicly Thursday, offers a rare in-depth look at the inner-workings of this network and highlights its pervasive human rights violations, ranging from aggressive inspection to physical and psychological abuse. The report is based on interviews with 32 former enforcers and victims, many of whom defected from North Korea between 2018 and 2020, just before it closed its borders due to the pandemic.
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“All those who breathe in the society do it,” said one anonymous escapee quoted in the report. “First, to make a living, second, to eat better than others, and third, to solve problems from work and be successful. Because you need money for all that.”

Go here to read the full story:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shadowy-groups-trying-keep-north-222735248.html

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