North Korea’s crackdown on smuggling along its border with China has cut off a key source of side income for state security agents who once profited from looking the other way.
North Pyongan province security agents who built personal ties with smugglers to earn extra income are now seeing their standard of living slip, a Daily NK source in the province said Monday. Smuggling activity has sharply declined in border areas including Uiju county, and the downturn has hit not only the North Korean people who once made a living from the trade, but also the agents who profited alongside them.
“Police officers are directly involved in public security and administrative affairs, so they have plenty of opportunities to make money on the side, but security agents don’t have that,” the source said. “In border areas especially, a large share of their livelihood came from money and goods tied to managing smugglers and smuggling bases. Now that smuggling has been cut off, security agents are taking a direct hit.”
From motorcycles to bicycles
A security agent assigned to a village in Uiju county and his family were frequently seen riding motorcycles or taking taxis just a few months ago, the source said, but lately they have increasingly been spotted on bicycles instead.
Villagers have noticed the shift, saying things like, “It’s completely different from when the smugglers were paying him off,” and “You can tell smugglers aren’t operating anymore just by watching him ride a bike now.”
The village was once home to several smuggling bases and the people connected to them, making it a coveted posting among security agents, the source said. Competition for the assignment was so fierce, given the financial upside, that agents reportedly called in personal connections to secure it.
But as authorities have tightened their crackdown on smuggling over the past two to three months, agents in these once-prized postings have been forced into a far more frugal lifestyle, whether they like it or not.
“In the past, they would casually pull out and smoke good cigarettes, but these days that’s rarely seen,” the source said. “People around them say there’s a clear difference between when smuggling was happening and when it isn’t.”
“Even though living standards here have generally improved compared to the past, there’s a big difference in daily life between people who rely solely on rations and those who bring in occasional side income,” the source added. “That gap shows up everywhere, from a single cigarette to a meal to a means of transportation.”
As Kim Jong Un’s government moves to block smuggling along the border and bring all foreign trade under centralized state control, the long-standing symbiotic relationship between smugglers and security agents appears to be unraveling.
“When smugglers were making money, the security agents connected to them had it easy too, but now that link itself is being severed,” the source said. “It’s not just smugglers who are losing out from this crackdown.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
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August 25, 2026 at 05:51AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)