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SEOUL, March 11 (UPI)—North Korea has recently tightened state control over its hunger-hit population amid U.S.-led pressure over its nuclear weapons program and human right conditions, sources here say.
South Korean officials and analysts interpret the move as part of efforts to prevent mounting outside threats over the nuclear standoff from triggering internal threats or opposition to the Stalinist leadership.
..In the face of growing cracks in the system, North Korea amended its criminal code last year increasing penalties for expressing criticism of the government and other “anti-state” crimes. The revision, the fifth since 1950, also calls for tougher regulation on new crimes caused by infiltration of outside information.
North Korea also postponed its legislative session, which was due to open this month, in an apparent bid to tighten domestic control over the people by fanning a sense of crisis across the country.
...So far this year, North Korea has executed more than 60 citizens to warn its people against committing any “anti-republic” behaviors, such as illegal border crossing and information leakage, according to a Seoul-based relief group.
“North Korea executed in public 60 people sent back from China in January,” said the Headquarters for Protection of North Korean Defectors. The victims were repatriated to the North after failed attempts to find political asylum by forcing their way into a diplomatic compound in Beijing.
The open execution was the first one reported since 1998, according to North Korea watchers in Seoul. “The North’s regime may have needed a scapegoat to warn the people against committing any deviation behaviors,” a defector said.
The influence of the outside world is considered destabilizing to the oppressive dictatorship of Kim Jong Il:
In its New Year message, North Korea put top priority on preventing the influx of any capitalist culture into the closed society. Under the message, North Korean security agents have launched aggressive crackdown on “anti-socialist” behaviors in border areas since January.
...How to maintain the closure of the society in this globalized world community? This is a huge dilemma for North Korea to keep the hermit kingdom afloat.
But information is getting in—via cell phone:
...North Koreans are using Chinese telecommunication networks to reach South Korean phones, intelligence sources here say. Chinese communication firms, which have rapidly expanded their cell phone services, recently installed relay stations along the border with North Korea, which has kindled a cell phone boom in North Korea.
The Chinese devices are charged using pre-paid phone cards, and cost some 400 Chinese yuan (less than $50) for three month’s use.
Despite the strict measures, mobile phones have served as conveyer belts of information from the outside world to help combat decades of state-sponsored propaganda and misinformation, defectors say.
