North Korea orders shoot-to-kill at border, coordinates defector tracking with China

North Korea’s State Information Bureau, the country’s primary domestic intelligence agency formerly known as the Ministry of State Security, has issued sweeping new directives to border security units ordering them to shoot defectors on sight and coordinate with Chinese police to track North Koreans who have already fled. The orders have sent fear through border communities in Ryanggang province.

According to a Daily NK source on Thursday, authorities conducted household registration surveys of border-area populations through the end of April. When the results showed that the number of people gone missing had not fallen significantly compared with the previous year despite tight controls, they issued the hardline directives.

The core instruction sent to border security units in mid-May reads: crossing the border for any reason is to be treated as an attempt to reach South Korea and dealt with accordingly.

Shoot-to-kill order and coordinated tracking

The directives spell out harsh treatment for anyone caught attempting to cross or found to have made plans to do so. Those detained are to be subjected to sleep deprivation and high-intensity torture until they give a full account of their intended route and any accomplices. More strikingly, the directives authorize security personnel to shoot and kill those attempting to cross without any legal procedure. Incidents are to be classified as “acts of border defense,” and border-area populations are to be kept strictly silent about them.

The State Information Bureau also designated North Koreans who have already defected as “the most vicious elements” and ordered that their family members still inside North Korea be punished under the country’s guilt-by-association system, which holds relatives collectively responsible for the perceived crimes of a family member, or placed under heightened surveillance.

Authorities further instructed security personnel to cultivate the families of defectors known to be in China and extract information from them about other North Koreans abroad.

Going a step further, the directives call for information-sharing with Chinese police to track the whereabouts of North Koreans in China and use the threat of forced repatriation to pressure those considering onward travel to South Korea.

The broader aim, as stated in the directives, is to instill in border-area populations the message that crossing the border means heading to South Korea, and heading to South Korea means death.

Security personnel have also been ordered to work with neighborhood watch unit leaders to verify the number of household members daily and monitor their movements at regular intervals. Surveillance is to extend even to those who show sympathy toward anyone suspected of planning to defect.

The source said border-area populations are describing their situation in stark terms. “People are lamenting the bleak environment where everyone watches everyone else,” the source said, “and complaining that ‘this is not a place fit for human beings. It’s no different from hell.'”

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