The COVID crisis changed the way the State Security Department (SSD) conducts its investigations in a major way.

Freedom Chosun learned from Mr. Choi (counterintelligence informant in China) on July 20 regarding the changes the State Security Department has undergone.

The State Security Department handles cases concerning political crime in accordance with Articles 60 to Article 73 (Anti-State and Anti-people crimes), Chapter 3 of (DPRK Criminal Law).

From mid-1990, the number of defectors increased, followed by group defections that families in South Korea financed. So, the SSD’s anti-state crime investigation effort was focused mainly on the families of defectors and those residents in areas bordering China.

Prior to the COVID shutdown, the SSD mobilized a great number of officers to arrest thousands of defectors annually and imprison them in political prisons as violators of (anti-state crime) per Article 63.

With the advent of the complete border shutdown due to COVID, the number of defectors decreased. Arrests inside China became more difficult. The SSD couldn’t return the defectors back to North Korea even if they apprehended the defectors in China, anyway. Thus, the SSD needed to change its direction to maintain its importance in the hierarchy.

Mr. Choi suggests that the SSD has focused on a new target based on anti-reactionary rules and national secret protection laws, thereby rooting out anti-state cartels that import external information from abroad and those who engage in international communication.

Mr. Choi added that the SSD’s new targets for the past three years involve mostly the wealthy class and government officials in Pyongyang and other cities. In other words, the SSD is waging a war against the powerful cartel that trades in national secrets and outside information.

Mr. Kang, a former counter-intelligence officer in the SSD until he defected to South Korea in 2018, said, “The SSD detects Kim Jong-un’s intention and inner feeling the fastest and acts on it. They are Kim’s bodyguards.”

Kang added that “the purging of high officials that devote to Suryong (Kim) on the front line seems excessive. So many high officials are shaking in fear. That has never happened before.”

Jang Se-yul

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