From an article appearing in English in the Korean media:
Institutions, businesses, groups and the public are prohibited from possessing or transacting firearms according to the law, which also banned lending, smuggling, destroying and self-producing firearms.
Those who violate the rules, resulting in “stern consequences,” are subject to administrative and criminal liabilities, the North says in the law.
Experts say the establishment of such acts is part of Kim Jong-il’s efforts to tighten control of the society and maintain strict order following his nomination of his third and youngest son Kim Jong-un to be his successor in early 2009.
“North Korea appeared to have tried to strictly regulate firearms under the circumstances where former leader Kim’s stroke in 2008 could lead to a chaos in the society,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
We’re constantly told how utterly useless small arms and personal weapons are against governments that have planes and tanks, but its amazing how eager pretty much every despot has been to control who has firearms and for what. Certainly the despots themselves feel they have something to be concerned about with firearms in civilian hands, or in this case, even in non-civilian hands.
Also note the mention of homemade (“self-producting” in the badly translated article) firearms. If it’s a problem enough to mention, you can bet it’s being done. And this is in a totalitarian country where the state controls all aspects of life.
How do our opponents think it’ll ever work here? And do we even want it?