North Korea recently lured two Korean-Chinese civilians in China back to North Korea and forcibly transferred them to Pyongyang, Daily NK has learned. It is alleged that Korean-Chinese families remaining in North Korea are being used to entice specific targets, who are suspected of Christian proselytizing, back across the Sino-North Korean border so that they can be detained.

A source from the border city of Sinuiju in North Pyongan Province reported the news to Daily NK on March 2nd, explaining, ��Recently, two Korean-Chinese were captured and taken off to Pyongyang. The word among traders is that evidence emerged that the two had been introducing [North Koreans] to churches.��

��The authorities already stated that anyone who comes into contact with a church will be treated as a counter-revolutionary. Accordingly, they figured they shouldn��t leave alone the people who introduce them to the churches,�� the source went on. ��It��s neither here nor there that they are in China; if Korean-Chinese can be lured to Sinuiju or somewhere else [in North Korea] then they can be seized, so this will probably happen again.��

The case looks like an extension of recent policy in other areas of border security. Some North Koreans in China on legal family visit permits have been repatriated and investigated on suspicion of making contact with South Koreans or Christian churches. This kind of allergic reaction to Christianity indicates how destabilizing the circulation of external information inside North Korea is for the regime, and this explains why the authorities are so keen to limit it.

According to the Sinuiju source, the regime uses hwagyo [Chinese-Korean] families still in North Korea to help lure back their arrest targets with talk of urgent matters to attend to back home. In general, the regime does not arrest people inside China, as this brings the threat of a diplomatic rift with the Beijing government upon which Pyongyang is economically reliant.

However, this is not the only tool in the armory of the security forces. There are even signs of attempts to get traders with hwagyo acquaintances to bring them back to North Korea with trade as a decoy.

Although Daily NK could not confirm the specific case of the two men, news from secondary sources inside China appears to corroborate it. One source explained, ��Some hwagyo who had not been in China for very long did suddenly disappear. I heard that they had been caught and taken back to Chosun.�� 

��As a result, other hwagyo here have been avoiding South Koreans, and avoiding contact with them, too,�� the source in China added.

��We��ve received word that additional Ministry of State Security personnel have been deployed [to China] to help with the surveillance of people on family visit permits and hwagyo,�� he went on. ��They��re lingering in restaurants and the like; apparently, the aim is to watch out for hwagyo meeting Southerners to pass on information.��