By Yi Whan-woo
North Korea's Ministry of State Security has ordered military units on the North-China border to facilitate government-run smuggling, according to sources familiar with Pyongyang.
They said the ministry, which reports directly to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is breaking the country's laws as part of efforts to raise cash for the ruling Workers' Party and ultimately, Kim.
They speculated that the party has been lacking cash since China began supporting international sanctions aimed to put economic pressure on the North.
"A senior ministry official recently visited military units in Ryanggang Province (in the country's north) and ordered them to help with smuggling involving government-run trading companies," a source said last week. "Among the companies were ones run by Office 39 and the Mirim Shipping Co."
Office 39 is the party's secretive organization responsible for generating revenue for Kim, while the Mirim Shipping Co. has been blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council for funding Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Another source speculated that Kim himself was behind the smuggling, saying "the ministry's order would have been impossible without his instruction."
The military units in Ryanggang Province are usually tasked with cracking down on smuggling and preventing people from fleeing the impoverished regime.
"Now the soldiers are driving trucks to transport smuggled goods and are also protecting smugglers, because otherwise, their lives would be at risk," a third source said.
A fourth source said the ministry is encouraging those who have relatives in China to travel there and bring in foreign currencies when they return _ a measure believed to be aimed at countering international efforts to restrict North Korea from sending workers abroad. The wages of those sent overseas are pocketed by the Kim regime for the country's nuclear weapons development.
"The ministry officials publicly ask those who are capable of bringing in foreign currencies through their relatives in China to travel as often as possible," the source said.
