N. Korea intensifies crackdown on defectors after successor designation

SEOUL, May 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has intensified its crackdown on defectors to tighten social discipline since leader Kim Jong-il's designation of his youngest son as successor late last year, sources here said Sunday.
The move comes as Kim Jong-un, who was named a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party and a four-star general last year, has become deeply involved in the country's police and security affairs starting this year, they said.



"I understand Kim Jong-un is involved in security affairs in the method of directly receiving reports and handing down instructions though he does not have any formal titles of related offices," a source told Yonhap News Agency. "He is especially showing a lot of attention to the issue of defectors."
Kim is also thought to be behind Pyongyang's persistent demand for the return of four North Korean residents who sought asylum in South Korea after their fishing boat drifted across the tense western sea border into the South in February.
The four were part of a larger group of 31 North Koreans. Seoul sent 27 of them back to their homeland in March, but the other four remained after they expressed their desire to defect. The North has since called for their repatriation, a demand that Seoul has spurned.
Kim allegedly instructed related government offices to bring the four people home by all means in order to prevent similar recurrences.
The heir-apparent's strong commitment to resolving the incident pushed the North's public security agencies to produce a tangible result in dealing with the matter, according to the sources.
Some speculate that the intensified crackdown is driven as part of Pyongyang's efforts to strengthen Kim's role in its power hierarchy.
Experts here view the move as an attempt to tighten the country's social system, which has become weakened by years of food shortfalls, a weak economy and energy shortages. They, however, are skeptical about its effectiveness.
"North Korea may be desperate to clamp down on defectors in an effort to tighten loosened social discipline as it tries to bolster successor Kim Jong-un's power, but it will not be able to find a fundamental solution without solving the economic crisis," one of the experts said requesting not to be named. "The move will only end up increasing public sentiment against him."
More than 20,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce. Most of them have arrived here via China as the Koreas are divided by one of the world's most heavily fortified borders.
sshim@yna.co.kr
(END)