{"id":4451,"date":"2020-01-23T10:55:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T01:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.01.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/?p=4451"},"modified":"2020-01-24T13:52:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T04:52:41","slug":"rearmament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2020\/01\/recommendations\/rearmament\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cInside N. Korea\uff1e New Year, Same Problems: Regime Stresses Mental Rearmament, not to Succumb to Economic Blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Photo) A police officer inspects residents passing by on the street. Photographed outside Pyongyang in January, 2011 by Kim Dong-cheol (ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

For the first time since Kim Jong-un took power, the regime has not broadcasted a \u201cNew Year\u2019s Day address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, from December 28-31, the Central Committee of the Worker\u2019s Party held a 4-day plenary session and decided to require all citizens to memorize the report produced by the session. Citizens would be required to memorize and recite this report in the same manner as which they memorized the \u201cNew Year\u2019s Day address\u201d in previous years.<\/p>\n

The plenary session report was mass-produced and distributed to workplaces, administrative agencies, and the Socialist Women\u2019s Union of Korea as well as other organizations. These organizations then held lectures and contests for reciting the material and answers questions on the content.<\/p>\n

According to a reporting partner in Ryanggang Province, who spoke with ASIAPRESS on January 9, \u201cThe content of the report was, predictably, focused on \u2018self-reliance.\u2019 Though, what is worth paying more attention to and, frankly, quite nerve wracking, is the emphasis on \u2018mental rearmament\u2019 at the lectures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lectures conducted at organizations or workplaces are presided over by party officials. \u201cSome of those party officials\u201d, the reporting partner said, \u201ccriticized others in the party for being mentally or ideologically weak, or for succumbing last year to the hardships of the imperialist\u2019s economic blockade. These officials stressed the need for a \u2018mental rearmament\u2019 within the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plenary session report, as released through the North\u2019s state media, begins with the words \u201cIn a head-to-head struggle with unprecedented challenges and difficulties...\u201d This preamble can be interpreted as an admission by the regime that the domestic economy is in a very difficult situation due to the international sanctions.<\/p>\n

The term, \u201cmental rearmament,\u201d referred to by party officials at lectures and emphasized by the plenary session report, suggests that the regime\u2019s instructions to party, military, and administrative officials were insufficient and failed to resolve the economic situation.<\/p>\n

Regarding the emergence of this term, a North Korean defector with strong knowledge of the regime\u2019s power structure gave the following analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they are direct orders from Kim Jong-un himself, those impossible demands cannot be carried out. Therefore, the officials who were simply ordered by the regime to achieve objectives through \u2018self-reliance,\u2019 without receiving any specific instructions, will have been replaced by other officials who will also fail to execute the orders.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018mentally rearmament<\/span>\u2019 means to follow with absolute obedience to the policies put forth by the party and Kim Jong-un. In other words, the order reins in officials and escalates <\/span>the tension among them. I am sure that many officials will now be punished and purged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next page :Massive social control commences\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25c6 Massive social control commences<\/h2>\n

While organizations are focused on memorizing and reciting the new plenary session report, the authorities are continuing last month\u2019s push to \u201cstrengthen the fight against anti-socialist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid worsening economic conditions, there are reports of multiple breakdowns of the social order. This includes desertion from work, vagrancy, illegal commercial activities, drug trafficking, prostitution, and corruption among officials. To make matters worse for the authorities, the strengthened crackdown on South Korean dramas and other foreign media has been largely unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

A reporting partner living in Hyesan said, \u201cThe crackdown has been in full swing since the end of last year, with the government mobilizing all public security agencies and employing a specific agency called the \u2018109 Division\u2019 to combat anti-socialist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u203b The \u201c109 Division\u201d is an organization that is specifically charged with cracking down on foreign media distribution. It is a jointly formed organization which includes officials from the party, military, police, prosecution, and security departments.<\/p>\n

The crackdown is particularly stringent in regards to the illegal use of Chinese mobile phones. According to the reporting partner, \u201cOrders have been given to find the source of the Chinese mobile phones and Military Security Command officers from Pyongyang have even been dispatched to the border region. Because they may come to search our houses, I have hidden my phone elsewhere and turned it off. A lot of people have been caught.\u201d (Kang Ji-won)<\/p>\n

\u203b The Military Security Command is an agency in the Korean People\u2019s Army tasked with monitoring the activities and political loyalties of military officers.<\/p>\n

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