North Hamkyung Province authorities have distributed a portion of wartime rice stockpiles to workers from factories in the regional military-industrial complex. However, the rice is reportedly in appalling condition having been stored for a number of years.
A source from North Hamkyung Province explained the situation today, saying, “Military rice stockpiled for wartime was distributed to the workers in ‘5.10 Factory’, ‘Rabukcheon Factory’ and ‘Kwanmo Machine Factory’ in Chongjin over about a week in the middle of this month.”
“Workers got 15kg each,” he went on. “However, the authorities didn’t do it out of concern for the people’s food shortages; as far as I know they did it in order to change over the stocks.”
“The rice that was distributed had been in storage for a few years without being moved, so it just breaks up if you try to mix it. It was in really poor condition. People are wondering whether the day will ever come when they get freshly harvested rice rather than this stuff. They think the state just didn’t want to throw it away,” he added.
Wartime stockpiles are ordinarily rotated out of storage facilities every two to three years. In the case of the Chongjin region, stores are kept underground in Osang-ri, part of Gyeongseong County (see picture below).
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