Daily NK obtained the full text of the crowd reporting law that North Korea revised in 2022. North Korea is further strengthening its citizen-wide reporting system by revising its laws and urging citizens to voluntarily report crimes and illegal acts. In particular, the addition of reporting items regarding personal threats to the supreme leadership attracted attention.
First of all, the revised law expanded the scope of reporting from the existing ‘anti-socialist phenomenon’ to ‘all kinds of abnormal phenomena that appear in the area of social life.’
In relation to this, Hwang Hyun-wook, a researcher at the Daily NK AND Center, said, “By expanding the scope of reporting from anti-establishment elements to general daily social life, it can be said that the intention is to encourage residents to report even trivial problems in their daily lives.” He added, “All areas of society are subject to reporting.” “The scope of surveillance has been expanded to include.”
Researcher Hwang said, “Through this, the North Korean authorities are more thoroughly monitoring elements that could pose a threat to the system and are asking residents to fulfill their role as voluntary monitors of the system,” adding, “We are establishing an omnidirectional surveillance system to ensure the stability of the system.” “The goal is to further strengthen it,” he explained.
North Korea’s Crowd Reporting Act aims to protect national sovereignty and socialist system by establishing a reporting system for the entire people. The revision of the law is interpreted as reflecting the North Korean authorities’ strong will to strengthen the reporting system and block elements that could threaten the system or impede the maintenance of the system.
In fact, North Korea appears to have paid considerable attention to strengthening reporting obligations and establishing a reporting system in the revised law.
Article 4 of the revised law states, ‘Education programs must be strengthened to deeply recognize that reporting is an obligatory action to be taken as a citizen,’ and ‘By properly informing the reporting system, method, and means of reporting, a wide range of people will actively participate in the reporting project. It clearly states that it shall be done.
This can be interpreted as the purpose of emphasizing the obligation of reporting and making it clear that reporting is a basic responsibility. This means that residents are being encouraged to actively participate in the reporting project.
Researcher Hwang said, “North Korea aims to establish a reporting culture by making residents aware that reporting is an important civic duty to maintain national security and order,” and “by encouraging residents to take on the role of voluntary monitors.” “It is an intention to increase the strength of system control.”
In addition, North Korea has ▲established a reporting system for the People’s Unit (Articles 10 and 11) ▲reporting through regional division and patrols (Article 13) ▲reporting system through a computer network (Article 14) to expand the scope of surveillance between the People’s Unit and the People’s Unit. The law stipulates that a multi-layered monitoring and reporting system will be established by expanding to regional areas and expanding reporting methods online.
In fact, an application called ‘Report’ is installed on North Korean mobile phones, so it is understood that the online reporting system is expanding from intranet networks to mobile devices.
In addition, it was confirmed that North Korea added reporting items by revising the law. These include ▲threats to the personal safety of the country’s top leadership, ▲inflow of reactionary ideology and culture, ▲illegal border crossings, ▲contact with unusual objects, birds, and wild animals, and violation of quarantine regulations.
Among these, ‘threat to the personal safety of the country’s top leadership’ was placed at the forefront of the reporting items, emphasizing that reporting to protect the system is the top priority.
Researcher Hwang said, “The revised law classifies various threats essential to maintaining the North Korean system into specific items to encourage residents to clearly recognize the priority of reporting and cooperate in protecting the system.” He added, “Through this, North Korea is able to “It contains a clear intention to exercise strong control in areas such as purity, borders, and quarantine regulations,” he said.
Crowd reporting law specialist
Source: www.dailynk.com
