Crackdown on foreign videos catches North Korean military officers — Radio Free Asia

North Korea has actually punished more than 10 military authorities after they were caught in belongings of “impure” video files– South Korean TV shows, Japanese pornography and Hollywood films– as a crackdown on prohibited foreign media moved to focus on high-ranking men in uniform, military sources told RFA.
Residents of North Korea are prohibited to view or listen to media from outside the country, foreign Television programs, music, and motion pictures are smuggled in on easily concealable SD cards and USB flash drives. They are then dispersed commonly among the people through the black market.
Worried about all this exposure to outside info, Pyongyang in December 2020 passed the draconian Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture Law, which carries an optimum penalty of death for viewing, keeping, or distributing media from capitalist countries, especially from South Korea and the U.S.
To implement the law, it entrusted a strike force called Surveillance Bureau Group 109 with seeking out and jailing lawbreakers.
Many civilians caught by Group 109 over the past year have actually been sentenced to difficult labor, life in jail, or even death, however now the strike force is turning its eyes on high-ranking military officials.
” Since the start of January, the General Political Bureau of individualss Army started an intensive examination on the usage and ownership of impure video media,” a military source in the capital Pyongyang informed RFAs Korean Service Feb. 14.
” Some of the military officers were found to be in ownership of impure videos after an assessment conducted by the 109 Joint Inspection Team, comprised of members of the General Staff Department, the Ministry of Defense and the State Security Department, under the direction of the General Political Bureau,” stated the source, who asked for privacy for security factors.
The inspection targeted senior officers who own computer systems or have access to them as part of their duties, and those who have mobile phones, the source stated.
” A member of the 109 Joint Inspection Team, to who I am close, stated that about 10 officers who stored impure recordings and saw them from time to time have been penalized, so the military command is getting nervous,” the source stated.
” An official of a trading business straight under the Ministry of Defense was caught with 3 South Korean films, 10 Japanese adult films, and seven South Korean dramas, consisting of Crash Landing on You, and Descendants of the Sun, and 5 American motion pictures … he was punished after the assessment,” he stated.
The two South Korean TV shows named by the source are of particular concern to North Korean authorities due to their subject matter. “Crash Landing on You” is about a South Korean female who mistakenly crosses the border into North Korea and falls for a North Korean soldier, while the main protagonist of “Descendants of the Sun” is a South Korean Special Forces soldier.
The trade authorities remained in a high position in the Ministry of Defense, and this was not the very first time he had been caught with foreign media.
” Three years back, they caught him with South Korean dramas, Japanese porn, and other foreign motion pictures, but they kindly forgave him. He was provided clemency due to his outstanding performance in foreign trade for the ministry, however this time he will be badly punished in a military trial, with the brand-new Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture law in effect,” the source stated.
” The evaluation likewise captured a military officer who was the adjutant to the general of the Ministry of Defense. He had three South Korean adult publications and 20 South Korean superstitious materials on his laptop,” the source stated.
The officer was put under the investigation by the Military Security Command of the Korean Peoples Army, according to the source.
” His exceptional, a general, was even benched and dismissed from his position. He is now in a lower-level battle system.”
The crackdowns turned its attention to senior military personnel after a whistleblower told the General Political Bureau that there were banned videos amongst the totality of the military command structure, a military source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA.
” During the examination, a military officer operating in the communication unit straight under the Command Information Bureau of the General Staff Department was captured with an SD card including one South Korean film, 27 South Korean dramas and 40 South Korean songs,” said the 2nd source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
” After they captured him, they started a large-scale inspection of the mobile phones on senior system officers under the Ministry of Defense and General Staff Department,” stated the second source.
The military authorities were ashamed and anxious after the inspection revealed many officers with impure videos at the higher-level systems in Pyongyang, the 2nd source said.
” In an internal instruction, the General Political Bureau talked the political departments of each unit to take responsibility and cooperate with the 109 Joint Command,” the 2nd source stated.
” All units fidget as they reveal that the 109 Joint Command will start random assessments … of all the systems where somebody was caught in the crackdown this time.”
An August 2019 Washington Post report recorded how specific South Korean media are thought about hazardous by North Korean authorities because they motivate people to leave. K-pop and American popular song has actually had a critical role in undermining North Korean propaganda, it said.
It likewise cited a study of 200 North Korean escapees living in South Korea, in which 90 percent stated they took in foreign media while residing in the North, with 75 percent saying they understood of someone who was penalized for it.
More than 70 percent said they thought that accessing foreign media became more unsafe since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, stated the survey by South Koreas Unification Media Group.
Translated by Leejin Jun. Composed in English by Eugene Whong.
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