NK News published a news article on a hidden surveillance organization in North Korea called 'Non-socialist Groups' referring to NKDB's report that includes detailed information and testimony of the victims and former incumbents of the organization. In its article, NK News also quoted relevant testimony of a former DPRK prosecutor who spoke during NKDB's latest seminar, North Korea as a Panoptic Society: Human Rights and Crackdowns by Non-socialist Group.

As a former DPRK prosecutor, Eundeok Kim said he oversaw these shadowy groups charged with cracking down on foreign media, part of the regime’s systematic efforts to achieve complete ideological control over the North Korean people.

“Talking about this, my hands are shaking,” he said in an emotional address on Thursday. “I did wrong. I hope I can be forgiven.” Kim is one of 32 North Korean defectors, including 12 former North Korean officials and 17 victims, whose testimony forms the basis for a new report on the DPRK’s “non-socialist groups,” which purports to be the first detailed investigation into the inner workers of the groups responsible for regulating “non-socialist and anti-socialist acts.”

Published on Thursday by the Seoul-based Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), the report seeks to map out the network that DPRK authorities use to punish consumption of foreign media like K-pop and South Korean dramas for use in “future accountability-seeking procedures,” according to the nongovernmental organization.

Read the full article on NK News' website HERE