A/HRC/25/CRP.1 in all letters that they were living well thanks to Kim Il-sung, and that all letters they received appeared to have been opened before they received them.246 • One witness spoke of the 10th Chamber which falls under the Department of Organization Guidance under the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee that is responsible for monitoring and carrying out surveillance on those who interact and fraternize with relatives of the Kim family. It was necessary to submit a report to the 10th Chamber about all interactions with the Kim family. Passing the second son of the second wife of Kim Il-sung in the corridor and being acknowledged by him was sufficient interaction that a report was necessary. The witness also related how one official who had been running errands for a similar relative of Kim Il-sung while posted abroad was reportedly admonished and returned to the DPRK following a surveillance report from the 10th Chamber.247 236. In addition to crackdowns against foreign items such as DVDs described above, there are also central inspection groups set up to regularly carry out inspections targeting specific crimes and wrongdoings including on activities deemed to be anti-socialist, such as drug abuse, and dealing with homeless people and vagrants.248 At a lower level, groups of citizens are also mobilized to crack down on what are referred to as morality violations. These are violations of decrees that are handed down from time to time like the prohibition against women wearing trousers or riding a bicycle.249 One crackdown in 2009 on gambling in the parks of Pyongyang led to those caught being sent to an ordinary prison camp (kyohwaso) and their families exiled from Pyongyang.250 237. In the rare event that political criticism is publically voiced, this is considered a major event and is harshly punished. • The Commission was informed by a witness of a young worker who had hung up a few dozen hand-printed posters in the city of Nampo that called for the overthrow of Kim Jong-il in June 2001. This was considered a major political incident and KPA Security Command, MPS and SSD formed a joint taskforce to investigate the case. Kim Jong-il was notified and he apparently personally issued orders to track down the suspects and persecute them severely. Over the course of 5 months, the security agencies took writing samples from every inhabitant above the age of 10. The man was caught after he confided about his conduct to a friend who was an informant. Despite intense torture, the man did not implicate any co-conspirators and the investigators concluded that he had acted alone. For political reasons, however, the security agencies spread rumours that the man had been corrupted by viewing foreign movies and pornography and eventually agreed to commit the crime as a spy acting on behalf of the USA. Based on a conviction by the Military Supreme Court, the man was executed by hanging. His immediate family and the entire city population were forced to watch. The wife of the victim was forced to immediately 246 247 248 249 250 66 TSH011. TAP013. See Ken E. Gause, “Coercion, Control, Surveillance, and Punishment”, p. 60 where ‘Bureau 10 targets’ are discussed and appear to refer to those who are privy to the private lives of the Kim family and continue to be monitored as members of the exploiting class; Yun Tae-il, The Inside Story of the State Security Department (Seoul, Wolgan Chosun, 2002). Group 927 has been identified as the central inspection group dealing with the homeless and “vagrants”. See section IV.D for more on this i.e. the “927 retention camps”. TAP002; Ishimaru Jiro, ed., Rimjin-gang: News from Inside North Korea (Osaka, Asiapress Publishing, 2010), pp. 438-443; ICNK, “Introduction to North Korea”, p. 19. TJH004.

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