North Korean authorities have sharply intensified crackdowns on illegal money transfers made using Chinese mobile phones. Remittance brokers near the country’s border say their fees have climbed as a result, jumping from about 40% to more than 50% in 2026.
A source in North Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Thursday that remittance fees in border areas including Hoeryong have topped 50% in recent months. Crackdowns by the state security department have intensified, the source said, adding that penalties have grown harsher too. Brokers are folding that added risk into their fees.
Remittance brokers make money by using Chinese mobile phones to contact people outside North Korea. They deliver funds sent by those contacts to the North Korean relatives of defectors, and typically charged a 40% cut of the money transferred. Fees were closer to 30% before the COVID-19 pandemic, but brokers sometimes charged as little as 20% for larger transfers. Fees above 50% have now become standard, the source said.
Brokers demand payment upfront as risk grows
One broker active in Hoeryong has stopped accepting remittance requests under 5,000 Chinese yuan, about $740, altogether. He now charges a 50% fee, the source said, adding that the broker has also sharply scaled back his business. He now limits transactions to defector families he has worked with repeatedly and trusts.
The broker is not trying to expand his client base to boost profit and is instead focused on keeping his existing clients while minimizing his risk of getting caught, the source said. Brokers have grown more cautious because punishments have become far more severe.
“Before the pandemic, most people caught could resolve the matter by paying a bribe, but now it has become very difficult to be released that way,” the source said. “In most cases, people who are caught are sentenced to reform through labor. In serious cases, some are sent to political prison camps. The risk involved has grown incomparably larger than before.”
Reform-through-labor sentences involve forced labor at reeducation facilities, while political prison camps operate outside North Korea’s formal judicial system and are known for extremely harsh conditions.
The rise in remittance fees is not confined to North Hamgyong province. In Sinuiju, another border city in North Pyongan province, fees have also reportedly risen from about 40% to around 50%.
“Before the pandemic, people involved in this kind of illegal trade used to say they lived with one foot in prison, but now they say they’re risking their lives to do it,” a source in North Pyongan province told Daily NK. “That shows how widespread the belief has become that it’s difficult to avoid crackdowns through connections to power or through bribery.”
A Sinuiju resident in his 50s had worked as a remittance broker for years. State security agents recently arrested him, the source said. Until recently, he had operated relatively freely, but rumors that he had powerful backing had long circulated. His arrest came as a considerable shock to people who knew him.
The intensified crackdown has also changed how remittances are carried out. In the past, brokers typically delivered money to a defector’s family in North Korea first. Once the family confirmed receipt, the person abroad who requested the transfer would pay the broker. Brokers now require payment upfront as a condition of the transaction, the source said.
As a result, the financial burden on defectors who send money to support family members still in North Korea keeps growing.
“Even when fees rose to 40% during the pandemic, it was a heavy burden, but now they’re demanding more than 50%, which is really hard to bear,” said a defector in his or her 30s living in China. “I keep telling myself I should stop sending money, but I end up sending it anyway despite the high fees, because I worry my family back home will struggle if I don’t.”
“There’s no guarantee that money sent with such difficulty will arrive safely,” the defector said. “Both the sender and the receiving family are anxious, but there’s no real alternative to going through a remittance broker. It’s just frustrating.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
Daily NK operates networks of sources inside North Korea who document events in real-time and transmit information through secure channels. Unlike reporting based on state media, satellite imagery, or defector accounts from years past, our journalism comes directly from people currently living under the regime. We verify reports through multiple independent sources and cross-reference details before publication.
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