Sources have informed Daily NK that a second
round of deaths has recently occurred during the construction of the Samjiyon
railway in Ryanggang Province. Ten people were killed while digging into a wall
of earth, which suddenly collapsed and buried them. The construction of the
railway, which began in June, has seen a significant number of deaths of stormtroopers resulting from landslides and cars being overturned by blasts.
On the 24, a source in Ryanggang Province
told Daily NK that 10 construction workers on the Rimyongsu section of the
track were killed very recently in a flood of mud and rock. Public reporting of
accidents of any kind remains extremely rare in North Korea, and funerals for
victims even more so.
Two additional sources in Ryanggang
Province were able to verify this news.
Party cadres, wary of negative public
opinion following the series of accidents that have been killing workers since
the project began, held the first funeral in the project’s history. The cadres
themselves made sure to attend.
“The workers who were killed had been
digging out a section of the ground alongside the tracks when they were
overwhelmed by a sudden collapse of the earth nearby. Due to recently warming
temperatures, the dirt had started to crumble and become fragile, making the
task significantly more dangerous,” he explained.
The source also informed Daily NK that the
workers mobilized to build Samjiyon railway have been forced to work beyond
what the regulations stipulate on a daily basis. This, he explained, is in an effort to complete the railway in time for the Party
Congress in May. Under considerable pressure to meet the tight deadline, these
disasters have arisen.
It is being reported that members of the
public are also being mobilized each day at the Samjiyon railway construction
site in Hyesan City. A fee of 12,500 KPW per day exemption fee is charged to each individual
who wishes to engage in market activities or private business. Furthermore, some members of the Korean Democratic Women’s Union are being
mobilized to work on beautification projects for the city and buildings in
glorification of Kim Jong Un.
Daily NK previously reported in January
that two mobilized construction workers and a member of the public were killed
when their cars were overturned by blasts from a nearby Samjiyon railway
construction site.
