Soldiers mobilized from other regions for military exercises in North Korean Gangwon Province have been stealing food from civilians and causing other damage in residential areas around Wonsan, according to sources from the region.
“Soldiers mobilized for the exercises are camped out here and there in the hills near Wonsan,” an inside source from the province told Daily NK on the 15th. “The problem is they’ve been cutting down even the smallest trees to use for firewood and as charcoal fuel for their vehicles.”
The source continued, “They’ve even been pulling up the young trees planted by Wonsan city folk and students last year. The hills around here are now practically bare.”
That is not the only impact the camping soldiers are having on the local area. The source explained more, saying, “When people go out for emergency alerts or training exercises, soldiers go to their homes and steal the radishes from under their eaves and the soy bean paste from their crock pots. They are also taking their firewood.”
According to the source, some of the soldiers are even going by night to apartments in Wonsan City itself to prevail upon local people to give them food. Hunger is reportedly getting more serious in the camps, and senior officers are allegedly guilty of encouraging the activity, saying that scavenging for food is all part of “training for wartime.”
The actions of incoming soldiers are causing conflict to erupt with soldiers ordinarily based in Gangwon Province too, the source noted. She revealed, “They fight amongst themselves, because soldiers coming in from other regions are just saying that ‘we have no choice other than to take firewood and food from local people or from these army bases because we aren’t being provided with those things.’”
“The Wonsan municipal authorities are just watching the destruction unfurl; they cannot do anything about it because the military training is ordered at the top level,” the source also noted. “At the same time, Party cadres take the attitude that ‘the fate of our country is at stake so we will simply have to endure the wrongdoings,’ but that just inspires more illegality.”
As a result of all the upheaval, the people of Wonsan and surrounding towns and villages are apparently keen to see the back of the national training exercises. Many simply believe that “because the government doesn’t provide them with supplies, our military is now made up of nothing but bandits.”
