NK leader wants crackdown on “anti-socialist” behavior

By Kim Young-jin

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un salutes during a visit to the Ministry of State Security to mark the anniversary of the institution in this photograph released by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency Oct. 21. / Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for efforts to root out “anti-socialist” behavior during a rare meeting of judges and prosecutors.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency reported details of the “national meeting of active judges and prosecutors” after it was held Monday in Pyongyang.

In a letter delivered at the meeting, Kim urged for efforts to "expose and foil in time moves of enemies, internal and external, for undermining the socialist system" of the North, KCNA said.

"The judicial and procuratorial institutions should ... bring about a drastic turn in carrying out their sacred mission of safeguarding the leader, policies, social system and the people," Kim was quoted as saying.

The letter also pressed the judges and prosecutors to "uphold with loyalty the party's leadership," the KCNA reported.

It was the first such meeting in the North since 1982, which occurred when Kim’s late father, Kim Jong-il became a member of the Seventh Supreme People's Assembly making him the heir apparent as the North’s leader.

The younger Kim, has been pushing to consolidate his grip over power by shuffling top posts and heralding an era that will seek to improve life in the country.

Analysts said the meeting of prosecutors and judges was likely aimed at gaining their loyalty and fell in line with the regime’s emphasis on public security.

Speakers at the gathering also “underscored the need for all fields and units to ensure that the party's economic policies are thoroughly implemented and the popular policies of the state correctly enforced and reliably protect by law the socialist system and the lives and properties of the people,” the KCNA said.

The call to squelch anti-socialist behavior came three days after Kim urged chiefs of police stations to identify and crack down on what he called “rebellious” elements of society “maneuvering behind the scenes to destroy our unity and prompt a riot."

Analysts say it would be exceedingly difficult to organize subversive activities inside the North given its iron-grip over the populace. However, Kim Young-hwan, a well-known human rights activist in Seoul, surprised observes in August, saying he had met with pro-democracy activists “who were active inside North Korea.”