The North Korean Ministry of State Security has recently informed senior officials at provincial bureaus about the punishment given to people arrested in connection with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia last September, Daily NK has learned.
“Political departments at state security bureaus in North Hamgyong Province received classified material from the Ministry of State Security and distributed that to bureau officials at the rank of department head and higher at a Saturday study session on the morning of Apr. 13,” a source in the province told Daily NK on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to the source, this classified material contained a full disclosure of cases of disloyalty that turned up in connection with Kim’s visit to Russia last September and stated that people implicated in those cases were severely punished in keeping with an internal decision by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Ministry of State Security.
According to the material, the stationmasters at four stations on the railroad that Kim Jong Un rode on in North Hamgyong Province and South Hamgyong Province on his way to Russia were arrested on the spot for failing to demonstrate their loyalty to the North Korean leader.
The stationmasters were quietly executed or sent to political prison camps on Apr. 12, seven months after their arrest, in line with the Central Committee and the Ministry of State Security’s internal decision that the legal procedures should be completed before the Day of the Sun (Apr. 15, birthday of Kim Il Sung).
“Two of the stationmasters were arrested and executed in private for failing to be in the proper spot when the Marshal’s [Kim Jong Un] train passed by. The other two stationmasters were arrested and sent to political prison camps after the Marshal raised concerns about the dilapidated state of the railroad and surrounding areas while riding on the train,” the source said.
The classified material from the Ministry of State Security also said that the stationmasters’ families were notified of their fate and then whisked away by local state security departments early in the morning on Apr. 13.
“The material from the Ministry of State Security stated that these measures had been taken according to legal procedures and strongly emphasized the idea that even the slightest negligence in projects involving the Marshal was completely unacceptable,” the source said.
The Ministry of State Security asked its bureaus in each province to diligently fulfill their duty of maintaining ongoing supervision and oversight to safeguard the government and preserve the physical safety of Kim Jong Un.
The ministry also reminded bureau officials that the position of the party and the government is that anyone subject to Kim’s personal criticism should be targeted and investigated without mercy, the source said.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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April 25, 2024 at 08:16AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)