30 Days Imprisonment Penalty Revived

It was revealed that North Korea has revived the “30 days imprisonment penalty” to workers who were lazy or failed to complete their duties among the executives of factories and companies in their concentration of flood assistance of city.

The 30 day imprisonment penalty is a policy that confines executives, managers of factory or company in the prison for 30-50 days in case of their over usage of electricity, resources or laziness or failure to conduct their duty.

The inside source in North Korea revealed on the 28th of September that, “The authorities said that if the target figure is not achieved, they called it as neglect of duty and inflicted the “30 days imprisonment penalty” on them. It had disappeared during the famine but it is now revived again, causing the company managers and executives to become anxious. “

According to the inside source, this treatment can be interpreted as a method to ask for business responsibilities in case the managers or executives takes the profit into their personal use and to create a scapegoat in case of low revenue.

The 30 days imprisonment penalty was established in 1990 at first. Back then the company workers was forced upon mobilized labor every day to assistance of agriculture or construction of houses and evaders increased, so that there needed to be a scapegoat who would take responsibility upon the people who would avoid the workforce.

However, with the March of the Tribulation (Mass starvation period in the 1990s) and with the factory’s operation rate at lower than 30%, this appeared to have been abolished.

The initiation of the 30 days imprisonment means there will be an additional method for the Party secretary posted in each factory to take political control over the manager of factories and companies. Therefore, there will be increased control by the Party departments. However, there was the structure of connection between the Party secretary and the manager in many of the companies even along with the corruption of the inspection groups. It is highly doubtful whether this measurement will be successfully implemented.