The Ministry of State Security proactively gathers information on potential threats against the political system with a focus on those of a domestic origin, particularly in the form of ideological tendencies held by individual North Koreans. The Ministry of State Security is pointedly concerned with the identification of citizens who adhere to monotheistic beliefs such as Christianity.

The Ministry of State Security became independent from the Ministry of People’s Security in 1973 following an order by Kim Il Sung that called for separating political order operations from public order operations. Its official mission is to protect the Kim family and the political system by uncovering hostile forces engaged in espionage, anti-party, or anti-revolutionary activities. As an intelligence agency, it carries out many of its operations in secret. Ministry of State Security officers do not wear a uniform in public, and individuals released from Ministry of State Security custody are made to stamp their fingerprints on a form stating that, upon release, they will not speak about their experience.