 ▲Chosun Central Television broadcasts Kim Jong Eun planting a tree on March 3rd.(ⓒYonhap) |
To mark Tree Planting Day on March 2nd, the North Korean authorities released the slogan, “Let’s increase the density of our country’s forests.” Despite the existence of such campaigns, defectors report, deforestation in the North remains dire.
Messages conveyed by the Chosun Central News Agency on March 3rd read, “The spring season tree planting has begun,” and articles described people all over the country gathering together in celebration. Another piece published by the Rodong Sinmun encouraged citizens to take part in tree planting activities under the rallying cry, “”Let’s increase the density of the forests all over the country, ablaze with the patriotism of Kim Jong Il.”
Additionally, video footage of members of the Kim clan planting trees have remained a regular fixture on Chosun Central Television. “Planting ten trees in the place of one that has been removed is the fulfillment of the forest protection principle of the Great Suryeong [Kim Il Sung],” it was said.
North Korea’s Tree Planting Day used to be celebrated on April 6th in commemoration of the ascension of Kim Il Sung to Pyongyang’s Munsu Peak to plant a tree in 1947. The date was changed in 1999 to March 2nd to commemorate a trip Kim Jong Il made in 1946 with his parents to the top of Moran Hill for the same purpose.
According to defectors, the North Korean authorities operate a system whereby students are dispatched on Tree Planting Day to various locations throughout the country. Around 100 saplings are distributed to each student and around 200 saplings per adult. However, it is common practice for younger children who are unable to carry out such physical labor to bury all their designated saplings in one place.
Annual tree planting tasks are carried out in hilly regions where the people have already cultivated land for small-scale farming. Saplings planted in fields on the slopes tend to dry up and die before they are able to take root, defectors say. The trees that do survive are often removed by the person managing the field during the harvest period, resulting in an average lifespan of only three to four years.
Unsurprisingly, the hills of the North remain as bare as ever. Ko Bok Suk (47), a former People’s Unit leader now living in the South told Daily NK, “Tree planting is only done on a perfunctory basis. Even if ten saplings are planted, it’s usual that they will all die; it’s as serious as that.”
A former North Korean school teacher who wished to remain anonymous also added, “The tree planting period in North Korea goes for a minimum of three days. Each student is typically tasked with planting 250-300 trees. There are children who simply cannot plant 80-100 saplings a day so they go into the steep areas or to the middle of the forest and just throw the saplings away.”
“Tree planting is a mere formality for people who do not have a remedy for their lack of food and fuel. They believe it to be waste of time and effort,” the former schoolteacher said, before concluding, “Trees have even been secretly felled from historic sites and old battlefields. Fuel shortages are severe, so even if the trees were planted properly it would be difficult for them to survive past three or four years.”
