This directive issued on September 23, 2024 was confirmed to contain the content of organizing and conducting intensive training on the ‘Criminal Procedure Act’ revised and supplemented by Decree No. 510 of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly on January 20, 2021 for all security personnel and security forces of the Social Security Ministry as a project to thoroughly implement the Supreme Commander’s approval task.
In terms of actual safety, the directive clearly stated the participating departments and targets, stating, “The newly revised and supplemented criminal procedure law training will be conducted for two days at all levels of social safety agencies, safety unit commanders, and staff offices,” and “The training will be conducted without exception by all safety personnel and safety soldiers from 30 countries, including the Inspection Operations Bureau, the Defense Security Bureau, the Investigation Bureau, the Preliminary Trial Bureau, the Military Industry Safety Bureau, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the 713 Bureau, and the Military Dog Training Bureau.”
He continued, “During the training period, all personnel except working personnel must participate in the training at all levels of social safety agencies, safety unit commanders, and staff offices,” and emphasized, “In the case of branch offices, the training will be conducted in two shifts, with the principle of not leaving the area of responsibility.”
It is interpreted that this training is intended to help safety personnel and safety soldiers understand legal procedures, clarify their authority and responsibility in applying and enforcing the law, and increase their ability to minimize and resolve problems that may arise during the process of law enforcement.
In this regard, a source said, “Recently, the province issued an order to strengthen personnel control and management in the relevant departments to prevent any undisciplined phenomena such as participants skipping, falling asleep, or being late for the training session due to their busy schedule.”
The directive also emphasized, “During the training period, security agencies and security forces located in the border area will organize and conduct supervision and control operations to prevent printing and information technology service units from installing printing recording devices on computer printers or illegally printing confidential printed materials.”
He continued, “During the training period, the secret supervision departments of the security bureaus of each province will go to road inspection checkpoints, inns, hotels, and parking lots at random times to conduct supervision and control operations in a planned and tactical manner to prevent business travelers from illegally carrying confidential documents and portable computers to the border area,” emphasizing once again the need to thoroughly establish secret management order.
This emphasizes the thorough management and supervision of the security agencies in the border region, and is interpreted as a criticism of the fact that most of the internal data and trends on North Korea’s politics, economy, and culture that have been known domestically and internationally are leaked through the border region.
In addition, the directive also emphasized the role of the Information Command Office. In the actual directive, regarding safety, “The Information Command Office will conduct layered linked tests from social security to branch offices in close collaboration with technical personnel in charge of video conferencing networks at each level of units to ensure that no slight bias appears in the training.”
A source said, “Since the newly revised and supplemented ‘Criminal Procedure Act’ came out, we have been conducting related training every year, and every time we do this, we especially emphasize the leak of confidential information,” and “In particular, the confidential information is leaked through employees of the security agencies in the border region, so we especially emphasized it this time.”
He added, “The reason we are teaching the criminal procedure law, which has been revised every year in recent years, is because there are still many security officers and security soldiers who do not know the contents of this law,” and “That is why I understand that the province plans to provide training until the security officers and security soldiers learn this law to a certain extent.”
North Korea’s criminal procedure law was adopted at the 5th session of the 1st Supreme People’s Assembly on March 3, 1950, and was revised and supplemented in 1976, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, and October 2006 to become what it is today. This North Korean criminal procedure law is being used to indiscriminately oppress the people under the pretext of protecting the socialist system, and in particular, the ‘Newly Revised and Supplemented Criminal Procedure Law’ (No. 510), which is the core topic of this training, is evaluated to have achieved notable results in blocking the distribution and spread of external culture, including Korean movies and dramas.
*** This article is a translation by Google, so it may differ from the Korean content.
