[imText1]From September 6th, I have traveled throughout Sino-North Korean border area and met several North Korean residents who came to China.
From interviewing them, I realized North Korean people’s complete loss of confidence on Kim Jong Il, especially since the missile launch incident, huge flood, and weakened Sino-North Korean relationship occurred.
Now, most of the North Korean residents are despairing in a decade long famine and hopeless lives. Many of them hope a war to be broken out and desire to escape to China. Interviewees agreed that North Korean society was doomed to collapse because of widespread corruption and starvation.
According to them, after huge floods in July and August, the number of children, and even adult, vagabonds increased. And adult wanderers volunteer to collect foodstuff on the street since it is even harder to work and earn money.
Also, as North Korean government’s anti-American and pro-dictatorship propaganda gets intensified, people’s detestation against the regime is deepening.
The Daily NK will post a series of special report ‘North Korean people turn their back on the regime’ based on updated testimonies from North Korean residents.
I met the first North Korean resident in my trip to northeast China, in a border area in Changbai County, Chinese Northeast, near North Korea’s Ryanggang Province.
He introduced himself as Mr. Choi, 45 years old, living in Pyongsung City, South Pyongan province.
Choi said that not only the number of children beggars but also that of adult throng of vagabonds increased, recently as did in 1997 at the peak of the Great Famine.
The number of young wanderers, called ‘kotjebi’(begging children) in Korean, had been anticipated to rise since the flood last months. However it was the unprecedented that adult wanders appeared in such a large scale.
Choi analyzed that being wanderers, for many North Korean people, was the better, if not only, way-out to survive, and, thus, they chose to wander around freely, abandoning homes and occupations.
Also he testified about ‘9.27 Camp,’ which is a provisional authority to commit ‘kotjebis’ and established by order of Kim Jong Il on September 27, 1996.
Below is the full interview with Choi
– How many is the number of adult wanderers increased?
I don’t know the exact number. They are scattered in private markets, stations and other places in which people gather. It seems similar as in 1998 (during the famine).
Although the state has never declared that it will not provide food rationing, people no longer believe in state rationing. Workers don’t expect salaries from their companies. Nobody asks for overdue payment. They just gave up any hope on that. Since there is no ration and no salary, there is no need to keep homes and jobs.
Wandering freely to seek food and keep alive is the only way of survival left. We live because we cannot die.
– Still, isn’t it better to settle down in a certain place to survive than wander around?
No. Rather it is worse to settle down. Every resident is registered in a people’s unit. And each one of them has to go to work, which is so heavy a burden. In a people’s unit, residents are obliged to donate money for the army, and mutually watched.
In workplaces, no one receives salary although everyone has to participate in self-criticism and brainwashing studies. Then, do we have to starve to death? It would be rather better to wander around without residence. People do not wander because they don’t have home or job.
– What is the ratio between young and adult vagabonds?
Young kotjebis are 7 and adults are 3. Half of them are male and the other half female.
– How do they survive while roaming?
Adults live upon robbery and swindle. Children steal or gather foodstuff in the market.
– How can they live by robbery and swindle?
They cheat the families of army soldiers. Since the ‘army-first policy,’ almost all the families in North Korea have their member in the army. So many vagabonds swindle the families of army soldiers.
For example, they gather information about the families’ living condition and decide which ones are worthy to extort money from. Situations of the children’s units in the army are examined, too. Then, they go to the parents and pretend to be serving in the same unit with their children. And they lie to the parents that their children are starving and in desperate need for some money to buy foodstuff.
Many of the parents, because their children are involved, are cheated. And since many soldiers serving in the army have been asking money and food to their parents, this kind of swindling activity is so widespread.
– The word ‘vagabond’ reminds me of Gypsies.
How could they be compared to Gypsies? Gypsies are permitted and legal. I heard they live freely. However, North Korean vagabonds are not legal. 9.27 Camp arrests those wanderers.
– Then why doesn’t 9.27 Camp arrest all the vagabonds and take care of them?
Even if the commission arrests them, wanderers get out from there. And the number of vagabonds is increased to a level that 9.27 Camp cannot take control. And, moreover, those who own houses and have jobs can be wanderers, anytime.
Originally, 9.27 Camp is established to house the orphaned kotjebis. In the regular orphanage, orphans are recognized by the state and provided with basic supplies. 9.27 Camp, however, contains wandering children and adults forcefully, and no state benefits are given to them. Commissioners cannot even feed the children.
– What is the current situation of 9.27 Camp?
Once entered, there is no hope. They are just forced to labor in there. There is no future plan. And detainees keep escaping again and again every time they get arrested. If they are succeeded in breaking out to China, there is hope. But inside North Korea, they keep being arrested and escaping until death.
– Then, how can we solve the vagabond problem?
The international society must be concerned about the situation. Inside North Korea, there is no solution. 9.27 Camp is located in every province, city and county. Most of the current vagabonds are once or more arrested by the commission, so they must be registered in the commission’s documents. The international society must investigate this.
(To be continued)
