Kim Jong Il recently conducted an onsite inspection at a newly constructed pig farm run by the No. 567 Joint Unit of the Chosun People’s Army, according to a Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) report.
The KCNA report said that Kim Jong Il “expressed great satisfaction at the construction of the modern pig farm and the revolutionary spirit of the unit, and evaluated the soldiers’ exploits very highly, which are contributing to solving soldiers’ food problem.”
According to the North Korean media, Kim Jong Il has already visited pig farms attached to military units three times this year; on the 13th Kim inspected the No. 313 Joint Unit pig farm, and on the 16th he was at the No. 534 Unit’s October 7th pig farm, both according to Rodong Shinmun reports.
It seems that Kim Jong Il is trying to show that the authorities are concerned about feeding the soldiers as well as the people.
Since the late-1990s, North Korea has made the military a national priority, but this year the authorities moved to improving people’s lives as their major assignment, emphasizing light industry and agriculture in the New Year’s Statement, rather than the military field.
In the current atmosphere, the military authorities may be feeling uncomfortable, and therefore may be trying to publicize the idea that Kim Jong Il also has a deep concern for soldiers’ lives.
According to the KCNA report, during the inspection Kim Jong Il claimed, “By raising pigs in every unit, we should provide solders, who devote themselves to our national security at the front, with abundant food.”
In modern day North Korea, however, soldiers generally only receive pork on Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il’s birthdays, the founding day of the Chosun People’s Army and lunar New Year’s Day.
Nevertheless, the authorities try to have every collective farm and stock farm raise pigs for the military. There are also pig farms under the Escort Bureau in order to distribute meat to officials in the Central Committee of the Party. This campaign to encourage every military unit started in 2002.
Regarding this move, sources report that people are making complaints along the lines of, “There is no grain for the people, so why do they build so many pig farms?” while some others joke, “Are they hiding missile bases under pig farms?”
