The death of an elderly man in his 60s and the arrest of a man in his 40s involved in a fight over firewood has been reported in Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung Province.
Kim Chung Wan (67) in Wonsan-ri, Hoiryeong collected canes of corn from a freshly harvested field, and spread them out on his yard on the 21st of last month. In North Korea, corn is a key “winter item” used as fodder for cows on collective farms or as a source of heating by farmers during the winter season.
The field from which Kim had gathered the canes of corn was a “private patch” owned by Jang Kyung Il (43) in a neighboring People’s Unit. Jang, after discovering that canes of corn had disappeared from his field, went to other People’s Units looking for the culprit and ultimately found his corn canes in the front yard of Kim’s house.
Jang, who needed corn canes to use as firewood during the winter season, got into a quarrel with Kim, who is old enough to be his father. Even though Mr. Kim acknowledged that the corn belongs to Jang, the two men apparently got into a petty fight.
Jang demanded Kim to “return the stolen item,” but Kim refused, saying, “I am not the one who harvested the corn.”
Kim began to grab the corn, saying, “Then I will take the corn back to my field.” A squabble then erupted between the two men. Kim, who could not withstand Jang’s strength, hit his head on a charcoal burner while falling to the ground. Kim was killed on the spot from a cerebral concussion.
Currently, Kim is undergoing an investigation or a “preliminary hearing” at the station of Hoiryeong People’s Safety Agency for the charge of “murder caused by careless injury.”
In North Korea, firewood for the winter season is sold at an exorbitant price. In the Hoiryeong market last January, a cubic meter of firewood costs 40,000 North Korean won. Most North Korean citizens agree that in order to survive a winter in the border region of North Hamkyung Province, approximately ten cubic meters of wood (equivalent to 400,000 won) is needed.
At the time, the price of corn in Hoiryeong was around 900 North Korean won per kilogram, equal to 445kg of corn, which is twice the amount of rations provided to a farmer who works year-round on a collective farm.
The reason behind the murder over the canes of corn lies here. To South Koreans or westerners, such a phenomenon is painfully difficult to fathom, but such is the recurring reality for North Korean citizens every year.
What then is the coal situation? It turns out that the price of wood and coal is about the same. In the Hoiryeong Market as of last January, one bucket, roughly seven kilograms of coal, cost 2,000 North Korean won.
Coal, contrary to its weight, does not take up too much space, so a bucket provides sufficient energy to cook three meals and maintain the average temperature of the home. Therefore, during the winter season, resolving the heating issue with coal requires several hundred thousand won.
Due to the shortage of heating fuel, North Korean citizens attempt to acquire heating material even before the end of summer. Canes of corn as well as roots of rice plants and cabbage are dried and people haphazardly gather cow and horse dung. Civilians in cities are forced to resort to going to nearby hills to collect dry grass and leaves before others get there.
Since the mid-2000s, North Korean citizens have been saying the expression, “The firewood issue is a greater cause of concern than the food issue.” Alternative sources of food through food delivery from South Korea, resources from China and the development of private fields have increased since the 1990s, but sources of heating such as coal and firewood have significantly decreased
