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2017.06.28
| Won | Pyongyang | Sinuiju | Hyesan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange Rate | 8,070 | 8,050 | 8,095 |
| Rice Price | 5,800 | 6,000 | 5,900 |
North Korea is currently emphasizing the need to protect against damage to crops during this year’s rainy season, which is about to begin in earnest. However, the advice is at odds with reality in a country where flooding and storm damage occur on an annual basis.
In a piece entitled, “Let’s Stop Flood Damage to Crops,” on the 23rd the official publication of the Chosun Workers’ Party, Rodong Sinmun noted, “Protecting crops from flood and storm damage during the rainy season is an important task that decides the results of the year’s agriculture.”
It went on, “We must thoroughly establish measures to make sure that every last sheaf of grain that has been cultivated with such care by agricultural workers and managers does not suffer flood and storm damage.”
The piece added a number of concrete measures required if such damage is to be avoided. It explained, “In farming villages, workers should assess the current condition of areas that could suffer damage, including fields, reservoirs, waterways and embankments, then establish countermeasures, mobilizing labor and tools to properly drain fields and thus keep the ridges between paddies from fracturing.”
However, despite the fact that the authorities stress the need for advance preparations to forestall flood damage every year, problems continue to occur. Notably, several hundred people died or were injured by storms and flooding last year alone, while thousands of homes were reportedly devastated and many areas of farmland were devastated.
This is because the hillsides in North Korea are highly denuded, meaning that the soil is not bound and when there is heavy rain it incites landslides. This increases the stresses on relatively unproductive farmland. Furthermore, there is a shortage of materials and fuel in the country, making advance preparation for the rainy season difficult to do.
Defector Kim Hye Eun, who arrived in South Korea in 2012, told Daily NK, “Due to the lack of cement, levees are only constructed of dirt and rocks. Just a little rain causes them to collapse, so we have to reinforce them again every year.”
She added, “People just sneer at their local cadres when the order comes to rebuild the levees, wondering what the point is when the same thing is going to happen the next year.”
In a piece entitled, “Let’s Stop Flood Damage to Crops,” on the 23rd the official publication of the Chosun Workers’ Party, Rodong Sinmun noted, “Protecting crops from flood and storm damage during the rainy season is an important task that decides the results of the year’s agriculture.”
It went on, “We must thoroughly establish measures to make sure that every last sheaf of grain that has been cultivated with such care by agricultural workers and managers does not suffer flood and storm damage.”
The piece added a number of concrete measures required if such damage is to be avoided. It explained, “In farming villages, workers should assess the current condition of areas that could suffer damage, including fields, reservoirs, waterways and embankments, then establish countermeasures, mobilizing labor and tools to properly drain fields and thus keep the ridges between paddies from fracturing.”
However, despite the fact that the authorities stress the need for advance preparations to forestall flood damage every year, problems continue to occur. Notably, several hundred people died or were injured by storms and flooding last year alone, while thousands of homes were reportedly devastated and many areas of farmland were devastated.
This is because the hillsides in North Korea are highly denuded, meaning that the soil is not bound and when there is heavy rain it incites landslides. This increases the stresses on relatively unproductive farmland. Furthermore, there is a shortage of materials and fuel in the country, making advance preparation for the rainy season difficult to do.
Defector Kim Hye Eun, who arrived in South Korea in 2012, told Daily NK, “Due to the lack of cement, levees are only constructed of dirt and rocks. Just a little rain causes them to collapse, so we have to reinforce them again every year.”
She added, “People just sneer at their local cadres when the order comes to rebuild the levees, wondering what the point is when the same thing is going to happen the next year.”
