A remittance broker in his 50s in Hoeryong was recently arrested by North Korean state security agents on espionage charges, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Monday that the broker is being harshly interrogated on espionage charges following his arrest on July 20.
The broker was arrested by the Ministry of State Security following an unsavory episode involving the family of a North Korean defector.
In April, the broker met with a defector’s family in Chongjin to pass on a remittance of USD 1,000. The broker let the defector’s family members hold the cash long enough to take a photograph to confirm its safe delivery and then took the cash back.
The broker then asked the defector’s family what they planned to do with the money and whether they were running a business. Then he told the family that if they entrusted the money to him for one month, he would pay them the principal back along with USD 300 in interest.
Since the defector’s family did not have a business and were just using the money to cover their expenses, they were intrigued by the broker’s offer of USD 300 in interest and put the USD 1,000 in his charge.
But after a month had passed, the broker asked for another month, playing for time. He held onto the family’s remittance until early July, when he flatly refused to give it back, claiming that the money was tied up in property.
The defector’s family began demanding that the broker at least return the principal, and before long their argument had escalated into a brawl that aroused the neighborhood.