Mick Hartley

The latest from the Daily NK on North Korea's "anti-reactionary thought law", and its determination to expunge any hint of South Korean culture:

North Korean authorities have placed the entire family of a high-ranking cadre in a political prison camp for violations of the law to eradicate “reactionary thought and culture.” The authorities are apparently bolstering their “politics of fear,” punishing cadres if they do not adhere to the law.

In a telephone conversation with Daily NK on Thursday, a source in Pyongyang said party officials had received a notification that the entire family of a cadre in Pyongyang had been dragged off to a political prison camp on Jan. 29 for violating the law on reactionary thought and culture.

According to the notification document, the cadre — a chief official with the Ministry of State Security in Pyongyang — was sentenced to time in the camp because his child — a person in his 20s identified as “A” —  continuously watched South Korean TV programs and distributed illegal storage devices to people he knew.

North Korean authorities forcefully discharged another of the cadre’s children from the military and sent him to the camp, too.

“A” allegedly watched South Korean TV programs with his friends. The case apparently broke after one of the friends got caught talking about the plot of one of the shows.

The sending of the whole family to a prison camp is of course standard DPRK practice, in keeping with the "genetic determinism" idea that there must be something tainted in the family heredity. And, though it's against all decent principles of justice, it's also no doubt a fairly strong deterrent.

The investigation found that “A” first came into contact with foreign videos through a market merchant who specialized in illegal storage devices with South Korean TV programs and films. Around 50 people allegedly watched foreign videos through “A.”

North Korean authorities put out a wanted notice for the merchant, but he has already disappeared.

Wise man.

Meanwhile, the family was sent to Camp 25 in Susong-dong, Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, a place so notorious that being sent there is regarded as a death sentence.

With the authorities not only sending an entire family to a political prison camp, but also distributing to other cadres notifications about the sentence, some North Koreans believe the authorities have begun trying to bring cadres in line using the law to eradicate reactionary thought and culture. 

North Korea sentenced the child of a Ministry of State Security official — a university student — to 15 years of forced labor early last month because he allegedly watched foreign videos, including South Korean TV programs and news. The family, meanwhile, was exiled to a remote area.

That North Korea is not only continuing to punish cadres, but also announcing during time devoted to “ideological training” that the family of a high-ranking cadre was sent to a political prison camp, suggests that the authorities are trying to put cadres on edge.

Another high-ranking source in the country told Daily NK that North Korean authorities are bolstering their ideological education, as well as inspections and crackdowns, to ensure that there are no cases of political corruption or “unsightly incidents” during the period between late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s birthday on Feb. 16 and the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean army on Apr. 25.

The authorities have designated the period the “the greatest celebration period of the nation.”

Oh yes.