According to Yonhap News on the 2nd, the North Korean regime revised the criminal code for punishing defectors by adding fines in 2009.
The information reported by Yonhap News suggests that North Korea revised the criminal code 3 times in 2009. In the last of those revisions, they added fines and applied these fines to convicted defectors.
An expert on North Korean law, Choi Eun Suk, analyzed the reports as meaning that the regime started fining defectors to obtain the money the defectors earned after escaping. This was done in order to attempt to minimize the economic disparity between defectors and general North Korean citizens.
Source: Yonhap News
