North Korea has established a new spy committee to monitor “anti-state activities” at military-affiliated companies tasked with raising cash for the regime, according to an ROK researcher, in a move that appears to be linked to a broader crackdown on stopping the influx of foreign culture.

Testimonies from recent DPRK defectors point to the creation of the previously unknown 84 Gruppa to monitor civilians in sectors that deal in foreign currency, according to Kim Young-hui, a visiting researcher at the Institute for North Korean Studies at Dongguk University. 

The defector-turned-academic told NK Newsthat the committee was likely created around