According to a source in Hamgyongbuk-do, NK Times on the 31st, portable radio detectors were recently replaced with the latest models to security officers in the North Korea-China border area, including Hoeryong City and Musan County.
The portable radio detectors that were replaced this time were carried out as part of a project to identify users of Chinese mobile phones. Instructions on how to use them were provided from the 10th to the 13th, and they were distributed to security officers in the border area from the 15th to the 25th.
In particular, the newly replaced portable radio detectors were found to have the ability to detect signals from Chinese mobile phones more quickly and accurately. With the existing machines, the location of communication within a 30-meter radius was identified within 5 minutes of a Chinese phone call, but with the newly distributed machines, the range was narrowed to 5 meters within 3 minutes of a call, allowing for quicker arrests.
As a result, residents using Chinese mobile phones are reportedly reducing the time spent on calls with the outside world from 5 minutes to 2 minutes or trying to make calls while moving to areas that are not affected by radio wave detection.
A source said, “Before the new machines were distributed, calls were made deep in the mountains or in places where detection was possible, but now even that is not easy,” and “As news of the performance of the newly distributed detectors spreads, people using Chinese mobile phones are drastically refraining from making calls with the outside world.”
He continued, “Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many people have been caught by the detectors and sent to political prison camps,” and “Therefore, residents using Chinese mobile phones are likely to refrain from making contact with the outside world until the actual performance of the new machines is confirmed.” North Korea has supplied portable radio detectors to security units along the North-China border in October 2022 to strengthen border security and block illegal communications.
***This article is a translation by Google and may differ from the Korean version.
