Agents of North Korea's State Security Agency are empowered to stop a running train and board it, if and when it's deemed necessary to execute their investigative assignments. They are authorized to get berth tickets automatically and all the agents have to show railroad officials and conductors on such occasions is a "special investigator certificate." When they travel by car, they are eligible to have their cars refueled free of charge anywhere in North Korea. Such extensive power of the SSA stems from the fact that the intelligence service is tasked with maintaining the socialist system of the North.
The SSA is comprised of 27 bureaus and has a strength of some 70,000. Among bureaus that have been confirmed are the Guard Bureau, responsible for guarding Kim Jong Il and his family members; the Investigation Bureau, investigating anti-state cases; the Consolidation Bureau, gathering and analyzing domestic information; the Counterintelligence Bureau, ferreting out espionage activities; the External Information Bureau, gathering and analyzing external information; the Farm Guidance and Control Bureau, administering concentration camps; and the Bureaus of Rear Area, Materials and Construction. Bureau names are subject to whimsical changes at any time.
Whether North Korea maintains its system depends largely on how successfully the Investigation and Counterintelligence Bureaus function. It is these two bureaus that crack down on dissidents and spies by deploying operatives not only in party, administration and military organizations but all sorts of places such as universities and business firms. Kim Chaek Integrated Steel Mill, with a strength of over 40,000, for example, has about 40 SSA operatives assigned to it.
To catch dissidents and other undesirable elements, the two bureaus keep potential suspects under surveillance by planting two undercover agents in each section of an organization involved. Once potential suspects are identified, they let most intimate friends of theirs watch them closely and arrest them when physical evidence is collected. An operative controls between 15 and 30 undercover agents. Since they are organized under a cell system, undercover agents don't know each other and sometimes even check on each other. The state intelligence service covers citizens' every movement under such a setup. Citizens called in by the SSA for questioning belatedly find that all their utterances and deeds have previously been reported to the agency.
The SSA leadership consists of a director, first deputy director and a large number of deputy directors. The directorship has long been vacant, presumably because Kim Jong Il supervises the agency in person. Deputy directors take charge of particular fields like internal and external investigations. Kim Jong Nam, 31, the eldest son of the North Korean leader, is the deputy director in charge of external intelligence and the issue of how to keep North Koreans from defecting and is said to virtually control the SSA. Some reports say that Kim Jong Il asked Deputy Director Kim Yong San, a Kim Il Sung University classmate of his, to help the junior Kim cement his base in the intelligence service.
Leading posts of each SSA bureau are director-general, department head, section chief and guidance officer. Sections are strictly cut off from each other and do not know what individual ones are engaged in. Anyone found inquiring about other sections or showing excessive interest in them is subject to self-criticism at a party meeting. Section chiefs allocate assignments, to whom operatives file reports.
There are 70 SSA branches in provinces and cities, under the jurisdiction of the central government, and are headed by department chiefs who direct office heads, section chiefs and guidance officers. Those in cities, special city districts and counties have a similar strength and setup, minus the rank of office head.
The SSA's power to control is thought to have waned in the face of public grievances since perennial food shortages gripped the nation in the mid-1990s. Until the 80s SSA agents remained aloof to bribes, however deprived of a comfortable life from financial difficulties, nowadays they tend to be bribed into overlooking potential criminal cases. No small number of SSA agents are thought to have been murdered by residents in cities such as Shinuiju, North Pyongan Province; Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province; and Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province.
(Kang Chol-hwan, nkch@chosun.com)
