North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and participants of a national conference of the heads of branch public security stations stand together in this file photo carried by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, May 6. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called on neighborhood police chiefs to "firmly defend" the country's unity, state media reported Monday, in an apparent effort to tighten the country's grip on social discipline.

Kim made the call as he held a photo session with participants of a national conference of the heads of branch public security stations on Sunday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"When all the branch public security stations of the country ... become a fortress firmly defending the single-minded unity ... our cause of building an ideal society of the people will advance more dynamically," Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA in an English-language dispatch.

He also called on them to hold fast to revolutionary and class principles while becoming "sharp blades resolutely struggling against all the elements that encroach upon the socialist country," it said.

The session took place after the North held the gathering of the security officials for the first time in 12 years from April 30 to May 1 in Pyongyang.

The North's branch public security stations are the lowest-tier organization under the Ministry of Public Security and are tasked with maintaining public safety and protecting people's lives but are known to carry out surveillance on anti-regime activities.

The North has been stepping up efforts to tighten social discipline and block the inflow of outside information amid deepening economic difficulties.

The country has adopted laws aimed at strengthening internal control in recent years, including one enacted in 2020 to "reject the reactionary ideology and culture" and another adopted in 2023 to protect the Pyongyang dialect and culture.

The anti-reactionary ideology law calls for sentencing people who bring and distribute outside culture and information to up to 10 years of hard labor. Punishment is known to be tougher for those watching and spreading South Korean dramas, movies and music.

Last Thursday, Seoul's unification ministry said the North appeared to have held the meeting of security officials to elicit their loyalty toward Kim and tighten social control. (Yonhap)

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