Gangs of teenagers and young adults are terrorizing women in Hamhung, mugging them in alleyways and sparking community fears about escalating violence.
The gangs, dubbed “black shadows” by locals for their sudden appearances, target young women in Hamhung walking alone, following them to side streets where they demand money and valuables after making unwanted romantic advances. If refused, they resort to force.
“These young men have made a practice of mugging young women in alleyways,” a source in North Hamgyong province said recently. “The gangs can pop up at any time. Women are particularly afraid of them, and not just because they’ve been mugging people. The young men try to flirt with women and when things don’t go their way, turn to stalking and harassment.”
In one incident on Oct. 15, six young men cornered two teenage women, stealing 30,000 North Korean won from their purses and harassing them for an hour. Three days later, another woman barely escaped with her mobile phone near Sapo Market when confronted by five men.
“Well-to-do parents are less concerned about robbery than the possibility of their children being raped in one of these encounters,” the source said. “It would be nice if the police would do something about this. But reports haven’t led to action, so citizens are just getting more and more worried.”
The rise in street crime reflects deeper economic troubles in North Korea, with food shortages pushing desperate youth toward criminal behavior.
“Young people who go hungry at home are banding together in the streets and committing these crimes as a way of getting by,” the source said. “This isn’t the matter of a few delinquent individuals, but a social issue resulting from the difficulty of making a living.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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October 29, 2024 at 05:30AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)