Access to Ungok Ranch, the farm responsible for producing meat for Kim Jong Un and high-ranking cadres, has reportedly been placed completely off limits due to an outbreak of avian influenza (AI). Although spread of the disease is showing a momentary lull, the regime is ramping up efforts to block the virus from spreading, fearing that a wider outbreak will cause much greater damage.
“The Ungok Ranch has been completely restricted, even to residents who live inside the farm itself, and to those visiting their relatives there. The students who traveled to other regions during the winter vacation are also being blocked from re-entering the ranch,” a source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on January 22.
“Checkpoint guards in Sunchon and Anju are in charge of securing the ranch around the clock and have ordered security agents to block access to everyone including the relatives of ranch cadres. Mobile units are also intensifying efforts to prevent merchants from entering the ranch via alternate mountain routes,” the source said.
Ungok Ranch stretches across a vast area that encompasses 6-7 internal villages, and its front entrance and back gate are located in two different cities. In addition, although the population density is small compared to the area it covers, people residing within the ranch come from all walks of life.
Inside the ranch, there are workers and families belonging to various local industrial plants including livestock farms and greenhouses as well as educational facilities including Manchungsan University (built to educate future researchers for the Institute for the Leader’s Longevity), a vocational college specializing in advanced livestock technology, and middle schools.
“Normally, when going outside the ranch, residents have to present their identification card or birth certificate to the guard post and when relatives of the residents visit the ranch, they have to be issued a pass. But now the ranch has essentially become an inaccessible area,” a separate source in South Pyongan Province said.
Market activities have also reportedly stagnated as the movement of merchants has been blocked. The markets inside the ranch were developing slowly, as it is a preferred zone for state provision. But recently, as the ranch has begun to earn its own funds through the mass production of eggs, market activities have grown.
“Merchants from other regions used to bribe the guards to enter the ranch and sell foreign goods, meat, fruits, and vegetables, but now they cannot enter. They are worried that ‘if caught this time, there will be more punishments than the usual confiscation and penalties,’” the source reported.
The authorities are focused on blocking the spread of the AI virus, and the disease has not been reported in other regions. The North’s routine restrictions on freedom of movement designed to control its own people may have proven advantageous in the current situation.
A source in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province said, “Bird flu has not reached the northern provinces including Hyesan and Hoeryong, and there have been no instructions from the People’s unit.”
A trader dispatched to Dandong, Liaoning Province (China), added, “I have not heard of a bird flu outbreak in Pyongyang or Sinuiju yet.”
However, considering patterns evident in other countries where bird flu spreads through the migration of birds, the North Korean regime is likely to remain cautious as the country is relatively more vulnerable to contagious diseases.
