North Korea has mobilized people for farm
work five days ahead of the regular schedule in a move to complete fall harvest
before the October 10 Party Foundation Day, which marks its 70th anniversary
this year, Daily NK has learned.
“Last month on the 15th, the secretariat of
the Party’s Central Committee issued an order declaring nationwide mobilization
to support the farming community,” a source from South Pyongan Province told
Daily NK over the telephone . “The ‘fall harvest battle’ started five days earlier
than last year, and all state-run enterprise workers, soldiers, students, and
homemakers have been mobilized.”
A separate source in the same province and
an additional source in North Pyongan Province confirmed this news.
The vast majority of workers aside from a
number of key production employees from state-run factories have also been
mobilized as well as all students from elementary school to college. Employing
rhetoric typical for these initiatives, district offices have called on ‘all people
who eat’ to join the harvest, meaning homemakers and elderly members are also
taking part, according to the source.
“The Central Party has put in place the
goal of completing most of the rice harvest before the October 10 Party
Foundation Day, so they’re stepping up pressure on those mobilized,” the source
said. “The collective farms, however, were not ready to accept such large
numbers of people, so there is a lot of confusion,” he said, adding there are
also growing complaints about having to live together in the collective farm’s
propaganda unit facilities during the mobilization period.
Each spring and fall, North Korea
designates a full-out mobilization period for rice planting and harvest, but
this year, the scale is even greater as the state is out to produce more
results ahead of the foundation day and step up celebrations, the source
reported.
In fact, the provincial railway management
department has even added temporary rides to transport more residents and
students to the farming areas.
“Local people’s committees,
prosecutors, and Ministry of People’s Security (MPS) personnel (which act as
North Korea’s police forces) have even put together a temporary command center
for the full mobilization, and they patrol village and factories to check up on
mobilization numbers. They even restrict those moving around on foot, so the
atmosphere is almost like martial law is in place.”
MPS officers have set up desks around the
downtown intersection and question those who are out on personal business.
Those deemed problematic are forcibly shipped off to the nearby farms. In the
afternoons, people are only allowed to pass through if they have a confirmation
slip for mobilization participation from respective farm management committees.
Keeping in line with general sentiment on
the ground during mobilizations of all manner, people who have been forced into
this round of ‘support mobilization’ have been complaining about the nature of
the whole thing, according to the source.
“ They criticizing Party cadres for
demanding resident participation especially because you’ll never see once see
them show up to take part themselves,” he concluded.
