A North Korean soldier reportedly went on a rampage against a police officer after returning from a decade of service to find his family “destitute” and starving despite their loyalty to the communist regime, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Tuesday.
Sources on the ground in North Korea told RFA that the police officer in question had to be hospitalized following the beating he received from the retired soldier. The soldier, whose name the source did not provide, was sentenced to eight years of labor at the Kaechon concentration camp, believed to hold 15,000 prisoners, most considered anti-regime dissidents.
Cases of assault against government and law enforcement officials are rarely reported from North Korea, widely considered the world’s most repressive country. Yet this latest report follows over a year of increasingly stories of defections and dissatisfaction among even the highest levels of governance with the rule of dictator Kim Jong-un.
According to RFA, the incident occurred in September, though sources only recently revealed that it happened. The imprisoned discharged soldier is allegedly in his 20s and had served ten years in the North Korean military. His family appears to have respectable caste rank, or songbun, as he served in the military and his parents “are members of the [Korean Workers’ Party] and they devoted their lives to working at a state-run farm.”
“But they were destitute because they didn’t always receive their pay, and they were not allowed to sell anything in the market,” RFA’s source said.
Their son reportedly “lost control” when he came home to find that, despite their loyalty, the family was suffering.
“When the soldier returned home, he was incensed that farmers were struggling, but government officials had no trouble making ends meet. This shocking reality manifested itself by causing him to have rebellious thoughts,” the source told RFA. “Angered [by his family’s living conditions], he went out into the street and snatched a smartphone from a merchant. The police officer then tried to gain control of the situation but the man lost control and hurt him badly.”
Another source told the outlet that locals in Sukchon County, South Pyongan, where the incident reportedly occurred, were shocked that he was sentenced to eight years in a concentration camp for assault. The typical sentences for assault crimes are between 6-12 months. As the victim was a police officer, however, and the reason for the assault was anger at the communist regime, North Korean officials chose to make an example out of the individual in the event that any other young outraged soldiers felt similarly.
The parents, meanwhile, have seen their lot in life descend further, as North Korea punishes dissent generationally. “Now the guy’s parents are also resentful because they can’t even buy frying powder for him to eat in the camp to avoid malnutrition,” an unnamed source told RFA. A rebellious act by any one member of a family can destroy that family’s songbun, which may also be weakened by records of how supportive or hostile of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung ancestors were two or three generations ago.
Reports have documented an increase in cases of North Korean soldiers becoming disenchanted with the regime in the past several years, though few cases involving such violence. More commonly, soldiers stationed to protect the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with South Korea or the border with China have taken to attempting to cross into the south despite the high chance of being shot to death, with increasing success.
In 2015, a teenage North Korean soldier ran through the border, the first such incident in three years. Two years later, multiple similar incidents occurred. Six North Korean soldiers crossed into China in March after deserting.
“Since the 2000s, worsening food shortages seems to be pushing North Korean soldiers into deserting their posts,” a source told the South Korean outlet Yonhap at the time. “North Korea seems to be suffering from more food shortages since massive flooding hit the country’s northeastern region in late August.”
As China returns North Korean defectors, some have attempted to cross the heavily armed DMZ instead. One such defector was caught on video in November, seen running into South Korea as his fellow troops shot at him. South Korea took the soldier in and helped him recover medically from symptoms of malnutrition and, in the process, found evidence he had suffered radiation exposure.
A month later, another soldier did the same. Reuters reported that, at the end of 2017, 15 soldiers had defected either by running into South Korea or attempting to make the trip by sea, triple the number in 2016.