In order to host an extravagant celebration
for the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers’ Party,
residents are being mobilized to repair and decorate cities across the country
and being ordered to hand over cash to the Party, according to inside sources.
In a telephone conversation with the Daily
NK on October 2nd, a source from South Pyongan Province explained, “Authorities
are emphasizing political enthusiasm and material progress for this Founders
Day celebration. Residents are therefore being mobilized to perform all manner
of preparatory tasks. Residents are also required to pay a one time fee to the
Workers’ Party.”
Two additional sources in North Pyongan
Province corroborated this news.
“Inminban (or people’s unit, a type of
neighborhood watch) leaders are going from house to house early in the morning
to force people to participate in the mobilizations and commanding them to fork
over cash for the Party. From the crack of dawn to late at night, authorities
are also broadcasting propaganda from car-mounted loudspeakers that encourages
residents to energetically engage in the ‘construction battleground,’ to prepare
for the festivities.”
She added that residents are ordered to
work on their own homes, adjacent streets, township walls, and nearby roads
without “a moment’s rest in the mad dash to the holiday on October 10th.” The
work starts promptly at five in the morning and lasts until after seven, which
means that workers often do not have time to eat breakfast before they’re
forced to scurry from the mobilization site to their workplace.
Road repair work sections, who, incidentally,
are also tasked with rebuilding concrete walls located near the roads–which is
very technically demanding work–are divided by age. To pay for the project’s
requisite concrete, paint, sand, and gravel, the inminban leaders turn once
again to the residents, collecting an average amount of 10,000 KPW per
person (~US $1.21).
“Students and factory workers are also
being forced to pay the fee, which is putting considerable financial strain on
poorer families. Students are putting their noses to the grindstone by
repairing and rebuilding their school’s exterior, fences, and walls,” she said.
“Workers are being forced to do work on
their factory’s building and spruce up the interior. They are also being asked
to hand over tens of thousands of KPW.”
The source also described how concrete
walls already built next to roads and around the circumference of schools and
factories were destroyed by torrential downpours during the summer rainy
season. These, she lamented, all need to be repaired. There has also been an order
to replace concrete walls that were not damaged but nonetheless lack
consistency with the national aesthetic.
Resident reactions to the matter are
surprisingly blunt, according to the source, who shared some of the examples of sentiments circulating on the ground. “‘The burden of preparing
for the festivities has ballooned beyond reason,’ I’ve heard people say and, ‘The event seems like it will
be a rarity, but I don’t think I’ll be able to attend because I am so
exhausted,'” she reported.
Others claim that “just hearing the words public holiday makes them fed up,” she said, adding that many exasperatedly say, “it would honestly be better if we had no holidays.”
