Follow-up meetings were held for neighborhood watch unit chiefs throughout North Korea after the Third National Meeting of Active Neighborhood Unit Leaders, Daily NK has learned.
A Daily NK source in Ryanggang province said recently that the Samjiyon people’s committee “held a meeting on Friday to instill in neighborhood watch unit heads the key ideas and tasks from the Third National Meeting of Active Neighborhood Unit Leaders as a follow-up measure to thoroughly implement the spirit of the national meeting.”
The meeting, led by the deputy head of the Samjiyon people’s committee, focused on strengthening the role of neighborhood watch units and their leaders.
According to the source, the deputy head stated that the key task from the national meeting in Pyongyang was to modernize neighborhood watch units in line with contemporary demands and embody socialist patriotism in daily life, transforming these units into “patriotic groups.”
He emphasized that neighborhood watch units were not merely administrative organizations but important bases for implementing state policy within communities, and that strengthening these units was their critical mission.
The deputy head designated a “period to foster a patriotic atmosphere” to bring people closer together and ordered ideological indoctrination activities across all neighborhood watch units during this period.
He also urged units to actively collect unused materials as part of a “patriotism in daily life” movement and to lead efforts in maintaining local safety and public order by organizing “autonomous inspection teams” to eliminate illegal activity.
The meeting also emphasized the roles and responsibilities of neighborhood watch heads. The Samjiyon people’s committee threatened to replace any neighborhood watch heads who failed to follow party policy in the city, described as a “revolutionary holy place.”
A similar meeting of neighborhood watch unit heads was held in Sinuiju, North Pyongan province, on Saturday. This meeting also stressed the vital role of neighborhood watch unit heads as figures closest to the people.
The meeting called on unit heads to actively participate in political and ideological activities and urged them to monitor and report local activities, paying close attention to everything people say or do.
However, some neighborhood watch unit heads reportedly complained about these directives.
“The core demand of the meeting was to closely monitor and report public tendencies to root out anti-socialist and non-socialist behavior, but several neighborhood watch unit heads complained that people already treat them like official spies and that the government was telling them to do even more things people will hate them for,” a source in North Pyongan province said.
Some neighborhood watch unit heads even scoffed when the meeting referenced how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told participants during a photo session that “there are many jobs serving the people in our society but rare is the title of neighborhood unit leader, most closely and intimately linked to the people.”
“Some neighborhood watch unit heads said it was all talk with no substance,” the source said. “This is because people hardly think of neighborhood watch unit heads as figures ‘most closely and intimately linked’ to them, but instead lock their doors when they hear them outside and avoid eye contact.”
Daily NK journalist Jeong Seo-yeong contributed to this report.
March 28, 2025 at 01:44PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)