Kim Jong-un's crackdown as North Koreans found smoking paper with his face on

12 August 2023 , 11:50

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Smokers in North Korea often use the papers of one of the country's propaganda rags to roll their cigarettes (Image: Credit: Pen News)

North Korea has unleashed its strangest crackdown yet, purging people for selling the regime newspaper after Kim Jong-un’s photo was used to roll cigarettes.

The Rodong Sinmun, a propaganda rag, is prized by North Korean smokers who used it as rolling paper, according to human rights crusaders. A source in the country said it was also used for wallpaper, and to wrap up foods like bread, rice cakes, and sweets. Now the regime is sending people to the gulag for selling the paper, fearing the “highest dignity” of its propaganda is being disrespected.

Greg Scarlatoiu, director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said “very credible sources” had confirmed it was a custodial offence. He said: “Cigarette rolling paper is very scarce in North Korea, so people often use newspaper scraps to roll up their cigarettes. Over the years, there have been credible reports of people who were sent to a camp because they rolled up their tobacco in newspaper scraps containing pictures of the Kims.”

North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun (Credit: Pen News)

People found selling the paper will be sent to penal colonies (Credit: Lucien Muller via Pen News)

A source in South Pyongan Province told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that two women in their 40s had been arrested for selling the newspaper on Saturday. He said: “Two traders who secretly sold Rodong Sinmun to a rice cake vendor and a tobacco vendor in the marketplace were cracked down by a police officer in plain clothes.

“I was told that the authorities would treat residents imprisoned in the detention centre for selling the party’s newspaper as anti-socialist. They would be imprisoned in a labour camp for one to two years.” He added that the “intensive” crackdown had been unleashed because the newspaper features “the highest dignity activities and party policies”.

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Another source in North Hwanghae Province told RFA that, earlier this month, guards had started raiding paper stalls in Sariwon market looking for Rodong Sinmun copies. They added that old newspapers were supposed to be collected once a month and sent back to the print works for reuse, but some had been intercepted and sold.

Mr Scarlatoiu said the regime considered access to Rodong Sinmun a “privilege” – with those who got copies obliged to read it to others at their workplaces or weekly indoctrination sessions. In Pyongyang, Kim’s showpiece capital, locals are often seen browsing the day’s edition on subway platforms, where the pages are framed in special display cases.

Mr Scarlatoiu said copies were so highly prized that party apparatchiks could even be punished for failing to protect them. He said: “Perhaps cash-strapped officials saw that copies of the Rodong Sinmun had been gathering dust in storage for years, if not for decades. And they came up with the idea to make a quick buck by selling them to rice, candy, and tobacco vendors to be used as wrapping paper or cigarette rolling paper, while clearing storage space. How serious an offense is this in North Korea? Very serious. This is the kind of offense that could land local officials in serious trouble, including demotion, expulsion from the party, or even imprisonment in a camp.”

He said those responsible were the Organization and Guidance Department, which maintains ideological compliance, and the Propaganda and Agitation Deparment, which delivers propaganda. The source in South Pyongan said a kilo of shredded Rodong Sinmun could fetch approximately 5,000 won, citing market prices in Pyongseong, the provincial capital. North Koreans get an average monthly salary of between 5,000 and 10,000 won, according to a 2022 article by NK News.

Ryan Fahey