A path to successful careers, envied no less than those admitted to prestigious colleges, however, is getting scouted as "objects of Division No. 5" or persons administered by Division No. 5. They are so called because they are placed under the jurisdiction of the Central Workers' Party Division No. 5. Though often known as entertainers for the national leader, who constitute only part of the group, it's a generic term referring to those who are engaged in a variety of jobs involving Kim Jong Il, including those handling work concerning the late President Kim Il Sung. According to testimonies given by North Korean emigres living in the South, honorary guards, guards of the head of state and those assigned to the Parliamentary Hall on Mount Kumsu and villas of the senior and junior Kim across the country are included in this category of people. Also included are private nurses assigned to generals with the rank of corps commander or above. Some of them, meanwhile, do nothing but sweep the gardens of Kim Senior's or Kim Junior's villas or standing guards for Kim Jong Il throughout their 10-year careers.

Such persons are preliminarily recruited from among those male and female fourth-year secondary school students who have shown excellent scholarship, personality and have a good physique. They are given physical tests every three months and subjected to personal background checkups aimed at ferreting out anyone who has kin within the 12th degree on the black list. Their everyday lives are observed closely. Final recruitment, done upon graduation from the secondary education, is regarded as an honor for a clan.

Once recruited persons administered by Division No. 5 leave home, their contacts with their families are severed for a decade. Reaching the families are only occasional news, conveyed by party leaders in person or indirectly, that their children are fulfilling their duties properly for the sake of the party and the supreme leader. Color television sets, refrigerators and washing machines are delivered to the families as gifts. On such felicitous days as New Year's Day and the birthdays of Kim Senior or Junior, fruits, fish and canned food are given to the families, to the envy of neighbors. When they are fortunate enough to have photographs taken in the presence of either Kim Senior or Junior or both, the photos are delivered to their families, which are kept as family treasures.

Except a few, most of these people get discharged from their services in about 10 years. Upon discharge, they enjoy the extraordinary privileges of advancing to the College of Communism, which turns out party leaders, or prestigious colleges or universities. On behalf of discharged females, the party makes marriage arrangements with young men of promising prospects. Getting recruited as persons under the jurisdiction of Division No. 5 thus offers a short cut for ordinary citizens to rapidly climb the social ladder. Hence some secondary school students and their parents are very keen on taking or having their children take this career path.

Their careers, however, have a downside, according to North Korean defectors in the South familiar with the matter. Once recruited as such persons, they say, "they live with the persistent risk of being deported to concentration camps." They are obliged to keep entirely to themselves throughout their lives secrets they have been privy to in their careers. The slightest breach committed is irreversible. They are placed under strict surveillance, too.

(Kang Chol-hwan, nkch@chosun.com )