As social deviance rises in North Korea, the SAND Institute Newsletter team exclusively obtained an educational video featuring a senior female judge from Pyongyang’s Central Court. The video offers a rare look into Pyongyang’s crime situation, an unusual move that underscores the growing impact of marketization and external cultural influences on North Korean society.
The video, produced by North Korean authorities in 2021, reveals that even the officials, such as People’s Unit leaders and local Socialist Women’s Union chairs, have been involved in criminal activities.
The People’s Unit leader of Singan 2-dong and the chairwoman of the Socialist Women’s Union in Singan 3-dong, Hyongjesan District, committed crimes and were imprisoned. Higher-level organizations, including the Workers’ Party and others in Hyongjesan, were reportedly unaware until the crimes were exposed. The video’s announcer criticized the officials, likening them to those who are ‘willfully blind’ and ‘deaf to the truth’ for failing to prevent even minor deviance through ideological control.
Next, a woman named Kang Kum-ju, introduced as a senior judge from Pyongyang Central Court, appeared in uniform to personally discuss recent criminal activity in Pyongyang. Criminal records listing these offenses were also revealed. In the past, North Korean judges and prosecutors did not wear uniforms, but under Kim Jong-un’s leadership, both now do.
Judge Kang stated, “Women are currently involved in a range of criminal activities, with property crimes being the most common. Women also make up a large portion of offenders in drug-related and impure acts, such as prostitution and watching South Korean dramas.”
She further remarked, “Women are even involved in crimes that endanger human life, and the severity of their offenses has reached a level unimaginable to men.” Since the economic collapse of the mid-1990s, North Korean women, who played a key role in marketization, have been exposed to external information, leading to shifts in consciousness and increased deviant behavior.
The video pointed out that such deviant acts harm the nation’s interests and foster social distrust, calling them “extremely dangerous acts of self-destruction, where individuals sow the seeds of disaster and destroy the lives and futures of themselves and their families.”
It stressed that social deviance erodes ideological consciousness, turning people into “spiritual cripples and monsters” who neglect their families, communities, and the state, urging political and class struggles to combat it.
It also depicted a young female student, publicly tried in front of a crowd for watching a South Korean drama, being handcuffed and dragged away by female officers from the Ministry of Social Security.
The appearance of a judge discussing crime and the public release of criminal records suggest that social deviance and various criminal activities are widespread even in Pyongyang, North Korea’s political and social core. @SAND
Add Comment