evidence: The area around Hyesan city (Hyesan-si), the capital of Ryanggang province, has traditionally been a point through which many North Koreans cross or escape into China across the Yalu River. It is the second largest informal trade hub after Sinuiju city, North Pyongan province.69 Hyesan city is connected to Changbai county, Changbai Korean Autonomous County, through the Hyesan-Changbai border crossing. [...] Media also reported dozens of executions, party removals, and dismissals of government officials for corruption or failing to follow quarantine orders. A border guard in Hyesan city, Ryanggang province, reportedly was sentenced to three years of forced labor in June 2020 for conspiring with an informal trader to transfer two boxes (600 packs) of cigarettes to a Chinese trader.107 In January 2021, authorities reportedly put Hyesan city and Samjiyon city in Ryanggang province under lockdown due to smuggling activities.108 In February 2021, North Korean authorities reportedly also put Chasong county and Manpo county in Chagang province under lockdown for over a month because of informal trading and an incident in which a soldier and his girlfriend were shot and killed while trying to escape to China.109 [...] Several former traders from Ryanggang province who left North Korea after 2018 said that around 2018, they saw that rice and cooking oil sold in three different markets in Ryanggang province and in two markets in North Hamgyong province they visited were about 80 percent Chinese.158 However, other former traders from the southern provinces said in two locations they visited in South Pyongan province and Hwanghae province, over 90 percent of rice was North Korean and cooking oil was locally pressed in 2018.159