A resident of Hyesan, in North Korea’s Ryanggang province, lost their only source of income in 2026 after a neighborhood watch leader reported their illegal liquor-making operation to police. The report capped off a dispute that had begun over a mandatory labor assignment.
The individual had run a home distillery for more than a decade, brewing and selling alcohol discreetly to make a living, and word of the liquor’s quality had spread through the neighborhood, drawing a loyal customer base over the years, according to a source in Ryanggang province recently.
That changed after a recent falling out with the neighborhood watch leader, known as an inminban leader, who reported the resident for illicit brewing to the officer in charge. Officers soon raided the home and confiscated the equipment, cutting off the resident’s livelihood in the process.
“The argument started when the resident refused the leader’s demand to join a riverside cleanup mobilization, and the leader, feeling slighted, then reported to the officer in charge that the resident was distilling alcohol at home,” the source said. “Other residents in the inminban actually saw officers carrying the still out of the house.”
Crackdowns often hinge on personal ties
North Korean authorities classify unlicensed grain alcohol production and sales as an “anti-socialist act,” arguing that it wastes food and disrupts economic order, even as the practice remains widespread across the country.
Police officers patrol their assigned areas mainly checking homes that smell of alcohol or that have drawn a report, the source said. But because so many residents depend on brewing and selling liquor to survive, the crackdowns have failed to stamp out the practice entirely.
Officers generally understand that residents distill alcohol just to make ends meet and tend to look the other way, with enforcement usually following only a formal report or a nationwide crackdown ordered from above, the source said. Some officers have even privately voiced discomfort with the state’s tight grip on residents’ means of survival.
Other officers, however, aggressively pursue brewers for personal financial gain, sometimes citing the accusation that they are “eating away at the country’s rice stores” as a pretext to extract bribes, the source said. That inconsistency has fueled complaints among residents, who say enforcement depends more on personal ties with police officers and inminban leaders than on any consistent standard.
“There are plenty of households making and selling alcohol, but the compliant ones are overlooked while those who fall out of favor with a leader get reported instead,” the source said, adding that residents describe enforcement as coming down to personal feelings and relationships rather than the rules.
In the wake of the incident, police in Hyesan have intensified household to household inspections targeting illicit alcohol production across the city, the source added, though the stepped up enforcement appears to be a short-term campaign rather than a lasting policy shift.
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September 9, 2026 at 07:25PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)