By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Burglary, murder and other crimes have increased in North Korea in the wake of the failed currency revaluation last November, an online news outlet run by North Korean refugees said Wednesday.
The report came out after Won Sei-hun, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said last week that despite the internal trouble following the currency reform, the Communist country is still under control. He ruled out the possibility of a coup in the North.
The North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) reported that a North Korean was shot dead in a fight after he, along with several other hungry residents, attempted to loot food items by jumping on a train in North Hamgyeong Province.
The train shipping imported foods from China was passing through the region. The province shares a border with the northeastern part of China.
"A man, who was identified only as Jung, died during a physical fight with security forces," the report said.
The NKIS Web site provides stories about what's happening in the isolated state based on reports from secret stringers living in large North Korean cities.
The North Korean freelance reporters send their stories to the organization's staff based in Seoul by cell phone on a regular basis, an activist of the organization told The Korea Times, asking not to be named.
She declined to give details on the secret reporters, such as the number of stringers and what cities they are based in.
The NKIS said residents in North Hamgyeong Province have been living in horror as several burglary and murder cases have been reported since last month.
Crime has risen in the North after the failed currency reform led ordinary people to face an even worsened economic reality. After the revaluation, prices soared, and it was harder for people to make ends meet.
In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il directed his deputies to prioritize normalizing food supplies to make sure that hungry residents did not skip meals. This resulted in the growth of food imports from China.
The NKIS said Hamgyeong residents witnessed trains shipping imported foods from China travel through the region almost every day.
Despite the increasing amount of food imports, many residents still don't have access to an adequate supply of food as state rationing has not been properly implemented.
Last year, an official from the World Food Program (WFP) projected that up to 40 percent (8.7 million) of the citizens urgently needed food aid.
"The failed currency reform is responsible for North Koreans starving. But it is not the sole reason," the NKIS activist said.
Poor harvests and international sanctions against the Stalinist country for its missile and nuclear tests last year also made it difficult for North Koreans to survive.
Asked if this year's food situation is worse than that of the mid-1990s when the North was hit hard by floods, the activist said it is probably not.
"I think the current situation facing people out there will be slightly better than what they went through in the 1990s. But it is still worse than what happened in the early 2000s when international food aid came," she said.
Despite the hardships the people face, the official said it was unlikely they would strike back against the government.
"North Koreans became more vocal recently, but there are no associations that can help them organize protests or uprisings. Residents there are also relatively unaware of the need for change," she said.