Fears for Kim Jong Un’s safety rock North Korea: Police are ordered to boost security nationwide amid crumbling loyalty towards dictator
- Korean peninsular is currently experiencing a period of heightened tensions
- But while the North presents a united front, it would seem not all is well within
- Kim has ordered local police to ‘eliminate’ all potential leadership threats
- Officers have also been ordered to monitor the spread of rumours in their region
- However, sources have also said police are growing tired with their workload
North Korean police have been ordered to boost security nationwide to ensure dictator Kim Jong Un is protected and to ‘eliminate’ threats to his party’s leadership, amid reports of crumbling loyalty towards him.
The news comes at a time of increased tension on the Korean peninsular, where analysts fear the isolated country is preparing for another nuclear test.
In the past two months, North Korea’s strategy of brinkmanship has appeared reinvigorated. Kim introduced a new law that allows for preemptive nuclear strikes, and has launched a series of test missiles – including one that flew over Japan.
North Korean police have been ordered to boost security nationwide to ensure dictator Kim Jong Un (pictured during a visit to a school on October 17) is protected, amid reports of crumbling loyalty towards him
But while North Korea presents a united front to the world, it would seem Kim has been spooked by dissent from inside his own locked-down borders.
Local officials have been ordered by North Korea’s highest authorities to get their houses in order, and to take out all potential threats to the leadership from within, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has reported – citing a judicial source.
The Ministry of Social Security – a law enforcement agency overseen by the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, which is headed up by Kim himself – has ordered the police and social safety agencies to create a tight network of surveillance.
Its goal is to identify people considered problematic to the regime, and to keep tabs on their activities, and ultimately ‘eliminate’ them, the source told the news outlet.
On October 12, the Ministry ‘sent down a project agenda for protecting the safety of the Chief of the Revolution (an honorific used for Kim),’ the source said. ‘This is in response to the recent increase in political tensions upsetting social stability.’
He continued: ‘Police were ordered to find and eliminate factors that could be maneuvered by impure hostiles among the residents … in their jurisdiction within this month.’ Impure hostiles refers to people whose loyalty to North Korea’s supreme leader may have wavered – and who might influence others to take the same path.
The source also said that police have been ordered to ‘remove all subjects who have illegally entered their jurisdiction’ and to prevent ‘problematic subjects from leaving their jurisdiction to other areas’.
North Koreans are not allowed to move freely and and live where they please in the country without permission from the powers that be.
Local officials have been ordered by North Korea’s highest authorities to get their houses in order, and to eliminate all potential threats to the leadership from within, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has reported – citing a judicial source. Pictured: Kim poses with graduates in military uniform
Pictured: Kim Jong Un pats the face of an uncomfortable-looking graduate in military uniform
If they are permitted to move, they must then register with local authorities, and living outside their designated area is illegal.
The judicial source told RFA that police have been ordered to carry out daily ‘search and patrol checks’ for such problematic citizens.
This will be done in cooperation with ‘security forces, special agencies, and the Worker-Peasant Red Guards’, he said. The Worker-Peasant Red Guards is a North Korean paramilitary group, and forms the country’s largest civil defence force.
Police have also been tasked with keeping tabs on and reporting ‘rumours’, and told to work to prevent their spread among those in their jurisdiction.
‘They must thoroughly control and report on the trends and public sentiments of the residents under the pretext of recent political tensions,’ the source told RFA.
However, officials are growing tired with the workload, he said, with some complaining of fatigue thanks to being made to work late into the night.
‘Some of the officials complain that the central party’s orders ignore the reality of provincial areas and they keep sending more and more,’ a second source told RFA.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center in white, inspects military exercises at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Oct. 6
Pictured: Kim Jong Un stands on a hill overlooking a missile test launch in North Korea
News of the crackdown came days after a terrified North Korean graduate was pictured looking at the floor while Kim embraced him in his latest propaganda stunt.
The despot was visiting a school in Pyongyang, possibly just days after launching a series of missiles in the direction of Japan, escalating tensions in the region.
The leader was shown grinning as he put his arm round the young man, wearing military uniform, and cupped his face with his other hand.
The graduate looks at the ground, clearly uncomfortable with the sudden embrace from one of the world’s most infamous dictators.
Pyongyang fired 100 more artillery shells off its west coast on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, just hours after it launched hundreds of shells into the sea off its east and west coasts in what it called a grave warning to South Korea.
North Korea has been carrying out weapons tests at an unprecedented pace this year, firing a short-range ballistic missile and hundreds of artillery rounds near the heavily armed inter-Korean border on Friday.
On Monday, South Korean troops kicked off their annual Hoguk defence drills designed to boost their ability to respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
Pyongyang has angrily reacted to the South Korean and joint military activities, calling them provocations and threatening countermeasures. Seoul says its exercises are regular and defence-oriented.
Pyongyang fired 100 more artillery shells off its west coast on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, just hours after it launched hundreds of shells into the sea off its east and west coasts in what it called a grave warning to South Korea
North Korea fired the latest shots at around 12.30pm, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, urging Pyongyang to halt acts threatening peace and security in the region.
In Washington, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name: ‘We are aware of these reports. We call on the DPRK to cease all provocative and threatening actions.’
Earlier, a spokesman for the General Staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) said the latest move was in response to South Korea’s firing of over 10 shells of multiple rocket launchers near the frontline between 8.27am and 9.40am.
‘Our Army strongly warns the enemy forces to immediately stop the highly irritating provocative act in the frontline areas,’ the KPA official said.
Wednesday’s exchange of firings comes shortly after the North fired some 100 shells into the sea off its west coast and shot a further 150 rounds off its east coast on Tuesday night.
North Korea said later the shots were designed to send a ‘serious warning’ and ‘powerful military countermeasure’ to South Korea.
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