North Korean freight smugglers arrested, then freed after paying massive bribes

Two young men in their 20s from Haeju city in South Hwanghae province built a lucrative illegal freight operation by smuggling goods aboard train cargo cars, only to be arrested by the Ministry of Social Security and then released after paying massive bribes to officials.

A Daily NK source in South Hwanghae province said Thursday that the two men had registered as “8.3 workers” with a youth work brigade at the Haeju Railroad Corps, a status that formally exempts workers from regular workplace attendance in exchange for paying a quota to their work unit. Rather than doing any actual work, they used the arrangement as cover to move freely in and out of freight cars, known colloquially as “bread boxes,” running hundreds of kilograms of goods including home appliances, Chinese clothing, and premium food items between Pyongyang, Sinuiju, Hyesan, and other major cities.

The men bribed railroad security officers and train engineers to gain access to the cargo cars, which are normally off-limits to ordinary citizens. By pocketing the difference between freight costs and what they charged customers, they accumulated wealth that reportedly surpassed that of many established donju (private money holders) despite their young age. According to the source, there was a saying in Haeju’s jangmadang (informal market) that virtually no goods changed hands without passing through them at some point.

Crackdown becomes a new opportunity for officials to collect bribes

The two came to the attention of authorities during a renewed campaign against youth unauthorized money-making activities that followed the 11th Congress of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, North Korea’s state-run youth organization, which declared a sweeping offensive against young workers who abandon their official posts to earn money privately. On May 4, the Haeju Railroad Corps held an emergency control meeting to conduct a full investigation into unauthorized absences from the youth work brigade, and the two men’s activities were exposed at that session.

They were subsequently arrested by the Ministry of Social Security. Using connections they had cultivated among officials who had previously received bribes to protect their operation, they reached out to those same officials for help. The officials agreed to quietly bury the case but demanded significantly larger payments than before. The two men reportedly spent nearly everything they had earned to secure their release.

“This case once again confirmed that no matter how hard the crackdown gets, money and connections always get you out,” the source said.

The outcome has fueled a cynical reaction among people in Haeju who heard about it. The prevailing view, the source said, is that the intensified enforcement following the Youth League congress has simply handed officials a fresh opportunity to extract large bribes rather than achieving any genuine change.

Read in Korean

A Note to Readers