A North Korean woman rides a bike on the banks of the Yalu River near Sinuiju, across the Yalu River from Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea, in Liaoning Province, on May 28. Home invasions have become a problem in North Korea. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI |
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SEOUL, June 30 (UPI) -- Highway robbery, crimes of passion and rampant drug use are so serious in North Korea, Pyongyang has issued a report, according to an activist group in Seoul.
In materials obtained by North Korea Intellectuals Society, a group of North Korean defectors and other activists, North Korea was taking steps toward remedying the situation even as it pinned blame for the spurt in violent crime on the "U.S. imperialists and the South Korea puppet government," according to Yonhap.
The leaked North Korea report included a broad survey of an array of violent crimes and accidents that are plaguing everyday life in the isolated state.
Murders, rapes, burglaries and drug use were some of the top crimes that were drawing the concern of North Korea's authorities, according to the report.
Interesting anecdotes about the crimes included the case of a married Pyongyang woman who was carrying out an extramarital affair with a married man.
The woman was apprehended, said North Korea, when she allegedly hired a hit man to take out the wife of her paramour.
In South Pyongan province, two couples engaged in a promiscuous tryst turned into rape, while under the influence of drugs.
The poverty in the country was leading to highway robbery and home invasions.
The report cited a case of masked robbers descending upon a truck carrying supply materials during a national holiday, and another case in which unemployed itinerants took advantage of an unlocked house to rob the place of its valuables.
The illegal viewing of smuggled U.S. and South Korean films also was listed as a crime that had become commonplace.
In addition to the rise in crime, accidents resulting from drunk driving, as well as fires and explosions were mentioned as issues of concern for North Korea authorities, according to South Korean television network SBS.
The North Korea report urged leader Kim Jong Un to establish a policy to address the spurt in crime and accidents.
