[imText1]Good Friends, the North Korean aid organization, relayed the dire situation.
North Korean citizens face during the winter season in its publication, “Today’s News on North Korea (No. 105),” which was distributed on the 3rd.
“Heating is not provided at all to 20- or 30-story apartments in Pyongyang and people go to work wearing the same winter clothes they wore to sleep,” reported the publication.
“Affluent houses prepare for the winter by setting up boilers on their verandas or acquiring gas stoves, but citizens who do not have access to such options set up vinyl tents around their houses like a greenhouse or they must endure the cold without any electricity.”
The publication continued: “Heating is so hard to come by that the Munsu Street in Pyongyang is sarcastically called “Naengsu (frozen water) Street.” Central heating has been provided to the Jung, the Botongkang, and the Pyongcheonkang Districts from the Pyongyang Heating Plant, but due to operational difficulty, Munsu Street has not received any heating.”
North Hamkyung Province has also suffered difficulty due to the lack of electricity.
“Electronic stoves are used in North Hamkyung Province because of the lack of coal, but due to the lack of electricity, the stoves are useless. Cadres of the municipal party or enterprises generate their own electricity, so they don’t have too much difficulty obtaining heating, but it is difficult for average civilians to even dream of electronic stoves.”
Further, the source explained, “A portion of citizens have said that it would be good if the extreme difference in living standards between officials and civilians or the dire electricity situation could be reported to foreign newspapers. They think that it could be helpful.”
Also, the price of coal has been rising in the winter. “Civilians in Shinuiju could not buy a briquette when the price was 90 won, but since the price rose to 250 won, the people cannot even dream about buying them. It takes at least 3~4 pieces of briquette to cook rice and to heat the floor, but all the money goes to buying rice, so the concerns of the citizens is not insignificant”
Along with the cold, market regulation has also deepened the concern of North Korea citizens.
Good Friends reported, “With people prevented from selling in the market, citizens facing the sudden grim realities of life are heading to the mountains to fell trees. The mountains around the villages were mostly cultivated as terraced patches without trees, so residents have to go to regions which are 2~3 hours away.”
“In Onsung, many people say, ‘there is nothing to eat and we are not allowed to sell in the market, but the enterprises and the Union of Democratic Women demand so much from us. Therefore, it is better to go deep into the mountains and live there.’ At first, only one or two people went up to the mountains, but now, enough people have gone up to form a village.”
