Residents are hoping to beat the drought by
farming private plots during unofficial breaks from state mobilizations,
according to inside sources. To supplement a poor season, the regime has issued
orders to mobilize residents nearly every day for an extra two hours of arduous
planting. The residents do not receive payment for the extra work, which is
performed in addition to their other duties.
The North Korean regime has amped up
mobilizations during droughts in
years past, but the call to duty has been taken to the extreme this
year, causing unrest and resentment. Mobilization orders are administered
through inminban [people’s unit] leaders and business/factory management. But
the inminban and business leaders are being flexible about how people commit
their time to the group in order to get the project done, according to local
sources.
In this way, residents are finding a way to
get the state work done while also planning for the harvest of autumn greens on
their personal plots. Those with good songbun [family political background and
loyalty] can simply buy their way out of the mobilization by providing food or
money to the unit commander to compensate for their absence. Those without that
money have fewer options.
Rice production in North Korea is 12% below
last year’s yield, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO). Other produce, such as spring potatoes, have seen a price spike in
recent weeks, raising serious food security problems for the isolated country.
According to a defectors involved in farming mobilizations while still in North Korea, the shift-taking
strategy is familiar. But it will take up new significance as residents try to
weather the drought. The FAO report indicates that in 2014, 10.5 million North
Koreans went hungry. At the same time, UN funding for agencies in North Korea
was cut from USD 300 million in 2004 to USD 50 million in 2014.
