A radiologist in his 30s at the Munitions Factory No. 26 Clinic in Kanggye, Jagang province, recently lost his home, his fortune and his wife in a tragic series of events. The troubles began when the newly married doctor invested 10,000 Chinese yuan to buy a house in mid-September.
According to a source in the province recently, the original owners of the house, located in the Kangso district of Kanggye, were a couple in their 40s who had put the house up for sale to raise funds for their planned defection. Unaware of the couple’s plans, the doctor bought the house with the intention of living there with his new bride.
But when the couple’s plan to defect was reported by another member of their neighborhood watch unit, who was an informant for state security agents, the doctor was caught up in a defection attempt of which he was completely unaware.
The doctor and his wife were detained by the provincial state security bureau on Oct. 4 and questioned about their alleged involvement in the couple’s defection attempt. In the end, the authorities punished them for helping the would-be defectors by confiscating all of their possessions.
In effect, the authorities were sending a stern warning message by harshly punishing not only the people who attempted to defect, but also anyone associated with that attempt, even if that association was unintentional.
“After a week of interrogation, the doctor was finally released, but without a cent. The authorities had confiscated his house and furniture, which he’d bought with his savings and wedding gifts earlier in the year,” the source said. “On top of that, his wife had already left him, filing for divorce. In effect, the doctor had lost his home, his possessions, and his wife, all in one fell swoop.”
Locals were horrified to hear the doctor’s story. “Everyone was shocked to hear about this former soldier who had lost everything he’d worked so hard for after graduating from college because he was being treated as the financial backer of an attempt to defect to South Korea,” the source said.
The couple who sold their house to the doctor and attempted to defect are awaiting transfer to a political prison camp run by the Ministry of State Security at the end of this month.
“While people in Jagang province receive more rations from the government than in other areas because of the large number of munitions factories there, more and more residents are trying to defect because of their economic hardships,” the source said.
“People think the authorities went too far when they confiscated the belongings of the innocent doctor at Munitions Factory No. 26, who had nothing to do with the attempted defection.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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