North Korea holds first police officials meeting in 12 years amid drive to tighten social control

North Korea holds the fifth national conference of heads of branch public security stations from April 30 to May 1 in Pyongyang in this photo provided by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, May 2. Yonhap

North Korea has held a meeting of chiefs of branch public security stations earlier this week, state media reported Thursday, in an apparent move to tighten the country's grip on social discipline.

North Korea held the fifth national conference of heads of branch public security stations in Pyongyang from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It marked the first time that the North has convened such a meeting since November 2012.

North Korea's branch public security stations are the lowest-tier organization under the Ministry of Public Security and similar to South Korea's police substations.

The North's organizations are tasked with maintaining public safety and protecting people's lives, but they actually carry out surveillance on anti-regime activities.

At the conference, Public Security Minister Ri Thae-sop called for the enhanced role of such organizations as the "main bases" for social security.

He underscored the need to "stage uncompromising struggle against all illegal activities that could hamper economic development and an improvement of people's life," according to the KCNA.

North Korea is stepping up its campaign to tighten social discipline to block the inflow of outside information amid deepening economic difficulties.

The country adopted laws aimed at strengthening internal control in recent years, including the law enacted in 2020 to "reject the reactionary ideology and culture" and the act adopted in 2023 to protect the Pyongyang dialect and culture.

In particular, the anti-reactionary ideology law calls for sentencing up to 10 years of hard labor for people who bring and distribute outside culture and information. Punishment is known to be tougher in cases of those watching and spreading South Korean dramas, movies and music.

Seoul's unification ministry said the North apparently held the meeting of public security officials to elicit their loyalty toward leader Kim Jong-un and tighten social control.

"This indicates that lots of deviant behaviors and unlawful activities have occurred (in North Korea)," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity. (Yonhap)