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When US soldier Travis King bolted across the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea in July 2023, he crossed one of the last remaining Cold War frontiers.
King, a 23-year-old US Army Private 2nd Class, may have also crossed into the hands of North Korea’s Ministry of State Security, the much-feared spy agency tasked with tracking down, identifying, and catching intruders deemed ‘hostile agents’. The MSS is one of Pyongyang’s four primary intelligence and security agencies (see breakdown below).
Technically, North and South Korea are still at war and the US, which fought alongside South Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953), has no formal diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. What little is known about the inner workings of North Korea and its spy agencies is largely intelligence gathered from undercover operatives and defectors.
North Korea’s Ministry of State Security
North Korea’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) is the counterintelligence service, an autonomous agency that reports directly to leader Kim Jong Un. According to North Korean defector and former MSS officer Dr. Kim Hyun-woo, MSS’s role includes catching hostile agents and tracking down hostile activities which can be as mundane as watching a South Korean drama on television - an act that could result in several years in prison.
The MSS also runs prison camps, investigates domestic espionage, and repatriates defectors. It has been called the secret police, the National Security Agency, and many other names throughout the years and is divided into two sections. Section One (the first directorate) tracks foreigners stationed in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, who may work for the UN mission, foreign embassies, or in foreign trade liaison offices. Section Two (the second directorate) focuses on North Korea’s domestic population to ensure no subversive activities threaten the Kim family dynasty.
Speaking through a translator to US broadcaster NPR, Dr. Kim Hyun-woo said the MSS’s extensive network of agents also monitor the country's high-ranking military officials and politicians. The agency is staffed with North Korean elites with unimpeachable social and familial backgrounds. Officers must complete mandatory military service and graduate from North Korea’s intelligence university (previously known as Pyongyang Technical College).
Dr. Kim defected with his family while working in China in 2014 after 17 years with the MSS and is now employed by a Seoul think tank affiliated with a South Korean spy agency, the National Intelligence Service. He compared North Korea’s MSS to a combination of the FBI, which has legal authority, and Britain’s MI5, which protects the UK against espionage, terrorism, and sabotage threats.
North Korea: crime and punishment
North Koreans who disobey leader Kim Jong Un’s ideology - or political, organizational, economic, or social control - can be convicted of political or general crimes.
Political criminals are subject to confinement in special dictatorship zones (political prison camps). General criminal offenders may either be imprisoned or confined to forced labor training camps.
“North Korea’s primary strategic goal is perpetual Kim family rule via the simultaneous development of its economy and nuclear weapons program - a two-pronged policy known as byungjin,” according to the US Department of Defense.
North Korea’s Main Intelligence and Security Services
North Korean spies collect political, military, economic, and technical intelligence by using open sources, running agents, and collecting cyber and signal intelligence from three prime targets - the US, South Korea, and Japan. According to a 2017 US Department of Defense report, the four primary agencies include:
Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) - The foreign intelligence agency operated by the military collects intel and runs clandestine operations. It is divided into six units: operations, reconnaissance, technology and cyber capabilities, overseas intelligence, inter-Korean talks, and service support. Google’s Mandiant has also tied RGB to a hacker group it identifies as UNC4899, a cryptocurrency-focused outfit.
The Ministry of State Security (MSS) - aka National Security Agency (NSA) and State Security Department (SSD) - The counterintelligence service reports directly to leader Kim Jong Un. The MSS runs prison camps, investigates domestic espionage, repatriates defectors, and conducts overseas counterespionage operations within North Korea's foreign missions.
The United Front Department (UFD) - The UFD manages inter-Korean dialogue and policy toward South Korea. It also establishes pro-North Korean groups in the south such as the Korean Asia-Pacific Committee and Ethnic Reconciliation Council.
The 225th Bureau - The Bureau trains agents to infiltrate South Korea and establish underground political parties to create unrest and revolution.
To ensure the monitoring of ideological conformity within the North Korean military, Dr. Kim Hyun-woo said the North Korean People's Liberation Army also has People's Army security agencies overseeing espionage or counterintelligence within the military divisions.
