A new mother in North Hamgyong province is drawing sympathy from her neighbors as North Korean authorities have ordered her back to a labor training camp just months after she gave birth.
The woman, a resident of Onsong county, was caught in May 2025 speaking by phone with family members who had defected from North Korea. An intelligence agent burst in on her unannounced and caught her in the act, the source said. The agent belongs to North Korea’s National Intelligence Agency, renamed from the Ministry of State Security in a recent reorganization.
The agency had long monitored the woman because she had relatives who defected, though she avoided trouble until last May. That month, a signal detector picked up her call and exposed her location to the agent. He allegedly pressured her into asking her relatives abroad for 5,000 Chinese yuan (about $745), then confiscated the entire sum. She was later brought to trial and, in August 2025, sentenced to one year in a labor training camp.
At the time of her sentencing, the woman was seven months pregnant. Authorities suspended her sentence that November, as her due date approached, and released her temporarily to her husband’s home. She has spent the roughly 10 months since then raising the child and is now expected to return to the labor training camp soon to serve out the rest of her term.
“Enduring hard labor in prison will be difficult enough on its own,” the source said. “But imagine the pain of a mother who has to leave her newborn with her husband.”
Return to labor training camp stirs sympathy
The woman’s husband is struggling as well, worried that his wife, weakened by food shortages since giving birth, will have to return to the camp. He also fears being left to raise their child alone.
Neighbors familiar with the family’s situation have expressed sympathy too. Onsong county sits along North Korea’s border with China and is home to many families with relatives who have defected. People there have been outspoken in their criticism of the case. Some have reportedly asked why a single phone call counts as such a serious crime. It is, after all, a crime that sends a pregnant woman to prison and then pulls her back into custody after she gives birth. Others have remarked that it feels as though the baby served the sentence too, alongside its mother, while still in the womb.
Even the police agents assigned to monitor the woman during her temporary release are said to feel sympathy for her. They visit her home daily to check on her circumstances.
“Even the agents who visit her home every day can hardly find the words to say anything,” the source said. “They’ve seen firsthand just how much the family is struggling these days.” Some watch her with clear sympathy, the source added, recalling one agent’s remark: “The baby’s mother needs to eat well so she can endure it and come home when she goes back in.”
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September 6, 2026 at 11:55PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)