North Korea has been mobilizing hordes of
people for state projects that include regular ‘spring month of sanitation’
clean-up efforts and mass preparations for the country’s celebration of the
70th anniversary of the Workers’ Party foundation day that falls in October.
“People have no time at all to rest with
all the preparations to clean and improve the environment and city surroundings
for the 70th Party foundation anniversary,” a source in South Pyongan Province
told Daily NK on Tuesday. “For everything from cleaning sewage to mending
damaged water pipes and ditches, people are being mobilized even before
breakfast.”
“It’s not just for residential homes.
Streets, village fences, roads, green areas, and bridges are all included, and
everyone from homemakers to those who work are being mobilized,” she explained. “Every day from 5 a.m. for about two hours before people have to go
to work, residents have to take part with no exceptions. If you miss work, you
have to pay a fine.”
District People’s Committees hand down
assignments by neighborhood and inminban [people’s unit] and frequently monitor
progress being made on each project. “Inminban leaders in turn assign tasks
such as paving roads and landscaping to each household, meaning everyone
needs to get their project done even if it means paying out of pocket,” she said.
Even more complex projects such as
replacing old bridges and stepping stones with concrete bridges have been
assigned to members of the public. Pent-up frustration from having to work at
such early hours on empty stomachs have led some to inscribe messages such as
‘bridge before eating’ in wet cement on the pillars and surface of bridges,
according to the source.
“Young elementary school students to middle
and high school students spend half the day sorting gravel at railway
construction sites and applying limewash,” the source said. “Cadre excuse
themselves blaming their guidance work, while donjuLiterally "masters of money," donju refers to people who hav... More [new affluent middle class]
dispatch paid workers in their place, so it’s only the poor residents who are
being mobilized.”
“Merchants selling sand have appeared as
well. They sell 10kg of sand mixed with bits of gravel for about 1,000 KPW [0.12 USD],
while limestone goes for 500 KPW [0.06 USD] per kilogram,” she said, adding that paint, hardly sold in the markets to begin with, is now scarce; as a result, the price of it has nearly doubled.
Residents have been critical of such state
projects saying they’re being forced on to people without any investment from
the state’s end. In some cases, people have not been shy to express these
sentiments publicly, saying they are being dragged into forced labor, the
source reported.
These sanitation projects have been
carried out from March to April and September to October each year since the Cabinet
adopted a measure announced by the country’s founder Kim Il Sung in 1958.
*The content of this article was broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.
