Following Kim Jong Un’s calls for the
nation to glean all it can from what the young leader dubbed an “ocean of abundance,” the subsequent and sustained pursuit by North Korea’s fisheries legs to scour the surrounding seas has caused widespread damage to its marine resources.
“Recently, the Cabinet’s Ministry of Land
and Environment Protection published a report on the ocean ecosystem and
preservation of marine habitats,” a source from North Hamgyong Province told
Daily NK on January 27. “According to the report, fish populations had been returning
to healthier levels in the West Sea [Yellow Sea] but these destructive practices exercised by the
fisheries offices are rapidly reversing that progress.”
Two additional sources in South Hamgyong
Province corroborated this news.
The fisheries units have been conducting excessive fishing without any consideration of scientific methods aimed at conservation and mitigating repercussions on the environment. “This all
comes on the back of Kim Jong Un’s orders to produce a wealth of supply for
fisheries,” he said. “Accordingly, military-affiliated fisheries arms have utilized
destructive, indiscriminate methods like bottom trawling and either destroyed
or diminished a number of prominent fish species’ habitats.”
Moreover, Kim Jong Un has already toured
military fisheries operations and awarded those who have performed well at the
Korean Workers’ Party [KWP] Central Committee building on two separate
occasions, further encouraging proactive fishing work by others hoping to
measure up and gain recognition.
“Our former General [Kim Jong Il] conducted
endless ocean patrolling and crackdowns through surveillance agencies in the
name of protecting marine resources,” the source asserted, stating that the
former leader even issued a mandate from the National Defense Commission
banning bottom trawling, and for other spells, banned fishing boats from going
out to sea.
Where these measures did extend some degree
of protection to marine ecosystems, the lack of safeguards further inland
quickly saw the mountains go bare. Conversely, he noted, rather than seeking a
more balanced approach, “Kim Jong Un has slapped restrictions on land
cultivation for reforestation efforts but encouraged reckless pillaging of the
ocean.”
