People in parts of North Hamkyung Province are out in large numbers catching leeches in order to send them for sale in China. The practice has grown popular of late after prices rose in the face of rising demand from oriental medicine manufacturers across the border.
A source from the region explained the situation to The Daily NK this morning, saying, “Adults and children alike are practically living in the fields here right now since they are catching leeches to send to China to get foreign currency.”
“Smugglers and traders come here and give 400 Yuan for 100g of leeches, and thanks to that people from Gyeongwon County can buy rice to eat,” the source added. 400 Yuan can buy 6kg of rice, sufficient for one person to eat for almost half a month.
“Those guys told us, ‘Recently in China, there is a lot of interest in using leeches to treat arthritis and back problems, so we are selling leeches at a high price,’” the source said, adding that he was told North Korean leeches are in demand.
As a result, the practice of catching leeches is currently absorbing the time and effort of workers from Hunyung, Jungyoung, Sasoo and Hamyun Cooperative Farms, and even Hamyun Mine, the source added.
“Distribution is in short supply, and in cases where there is no other way and since the price is good, family members are all out catching leeches. In truth, we think this is a pretty strange thing to be doing, but with a little hardship we can buy a few days of food, so people are flocking to it.”
It’s not easy, the source added, and when seeing “a mother and her 7-year old child trudging through cold water on Hunyung Farm all day catching leeches, it makes you tut.”
Once the rice is planted, with the exception of the application of fertilizer there is little for workers to do, but thanks to leeches they are even out at night in the fields by firelight, leading to concerns over the rice crop, the source also noted.
Leeches are not the only source of revenue that North Korean people derive from their connections to oriental medicine. According to another Yangkang Province source, “People go around the mountainsides picking ‘buchaema’, ‘saesan’ (medicinal herbs) and milk vetch root to sell to China.”
However, this causes problems, the source added, explaining, “There are many people looking for medicinal herbs, so even those trees which are there cannot play their role correctly, and if it rains there are landslides.”
