N. Korea perestroika watch

Following North Korea’s expansive crackdown on illegal mobile phone calls being placed to other countries – namely South Korea and China – some 30 residents of North Hamkyung Province’s Musan County have been arrested.

“One or two minutes after you switch on your phone and start talking, security agents with detectors show up. So you’re putting your life at risk when you make calls to other countries,” a source based in North Hamkyung Province told the Daily NK on Wednesday. [Daily NK]

Some of those arrested are hit with heavy fines — denominated in Chinese yuan — and those involved in brokering remittances from defectors in South Korea are sent to camps. The report suggests that the crackdown is working, and a lot of people depend on those remittances. That means that there are more victims than just those arrested.