The busiest time of year for the North Korean people falls from mid-May until the end of June, as the authorities push every citizen to complete the nation’s rice planting tasks. Everybody is expected to participate, from elementary school
children and university students to enlisted men, state employees, and members of the Women’s Unions and the People’s
Units.
During this critical time, the authorities only allow the markets to open from 5-8pm. Under such restrictions, the people find it endlessly
tiring just to get by. Daily NK sat down
with a number of defectors to hear their experiences during the farm mobilization period.
Pak Dong Hui [pseudonym], b. South Hwanghae Province. Mobilized to the
farms during elementary and middle school.
In third grade I would
have to go out after school and lug water at a farm 8km away. I would draw water for hours, which was so
tiring there were times when I suddenly collapsed on the street on my way home.
My clothes would get covered in mud. I
was so exhausted that sometimes I’d wet the bed at night. During my fourth
year of middle school our grade was told to go to other cities and counties to
assist there. There were four grades
with around 40 kids in each. Altogether around 200 individuals would form one
work unit.
At the farm I slept in
one room with six other people; a farming couple, their child, and three other
student workers. We would get one bowl of mixed corn and rice before going out
to the fields at dawn. My feet would get
cold early in the morning and then my lower back would start to hurt. I was so tired I just used to fall asleep on
my feet.
The most difficult
aspect was not the work, it was the hunger. On windy days I would wander near
the apricot trees to see if any had fallen off. A few students would have corn,
beans and cornmeal that their mothers had prepared in advance for them to snack
on, but most students didn’t even have that.
Girl students tended to bear the hunger, but the boys couldn’t take it
and would secretly steal a chicken from another work unit and cook it over a
fire made of straw.
Thankfully, my
birthday always fell in the middle of the mobilization period, and a teacher would
give me bowl of rice with one boiled egg. Each student is supposed to deal to
three seedbeds a day but if it was your birthday you had to pay back the price
of the rice by attending to five seedbeds.
There were two
students who were in charge of the machine that processed the seedlings and one
boy had his hand amputated at the wrist after it got stuck in the machine. The
farm management committee gave him a TV but the boy had to quit school because
he couldn’t write anything without his right
hand. When I look back on my memories of farm mobilization, I think of that
boy. When I was in North Korea, I always thought it would be best if the month
of May never came around at all.
Hang Song [pseudonym], b. Pyongyang. Mobilized to the farms while completing
military service.
I was based in Pyongyang
throughout my military service. When May came around, many of the weaker
soldiers in our unit were mobilized out to the farms. There was no strict military
training there, and you could steal and eat food from neighboring houses
and from the farm itself, which solved the problem of the weak soldiers as well
as the issue of deserters.
Out of 70 soldiers,
only 10 remained in the unit and the other 60 were sent away to the farms surrounding
Pyongyang for two months to get some nutrients. Soldiers lodged in the farm’s propaganda
room. They would transport the rice seedlings on an A-frame, and would spend
time shoring up the ridges along the rice paddies. The military volunteers always performed
their tasks well. The farming management
office liked the soldiers were afraid of them at the same time.
Chae Hyok [pseudonym], b. North Pyongan Province. Mobilized to the
farms while employed as a factory laborer.
Up until the 1990s, state employees were only mobilized from May 20 until June
10, but this was later extended to July 20 due to the lack of resources. The authorities
are fond of the term “battle.” For example, “rice planting battle,” “weeding
battle,” and “mowing battle.” It’s a bit of a silly word.
The farm was 30 ri away, and people with bicycles could arrive
by 9am. But those who had to walk couldn’t get there until 10am, and they
were so tired by the time they arrived they weren’t very efficient. People work
until midday when everyone would stop for a bit of food and some alcohol.
The afternoon work went from 2-5pm but the state laborers just saw it as filling in the time in the absence of any contract. State enterprises must have written confirmation that they participated in the farming tasks, which they tended
to obtain dishonestly.
Lee Son Hui [pseudonym], b. Kangwon Province. Mobilized to the farms
when serving as the head of a People’s Unit.
In May it’s commonly said that, “No matter what you do, [the work] never ends.” This is because
women are ordered all over the place to assist on the farms. The farm management committees tell the
neighborhood offices where workers are needed. The offices then order the mobilization of
task forces made up of People’s Units and Women’s Union members under their watch.
Women’s Union members are typically the breadwinners of
their families thanks to their market activities. They are so busy just getting
enough to eat that of all the uncompensated mobilization tasks throughout the
year, the May farming tasks are the worst. They must attend as it is Party orders, and
their anger just continues to rise while they suffer in silence. A contracted
amount of work is best so that they can finish the work and get some time to go out to the markets.
This amount will differ according to the number of people in the unit.
Members of the Women’s Union who don’t show up have to
provide 1kg of corn per day as payment. This solves the issue of lunches and snacks for the workers, and when
the rice planting is over there is sometimes enough left over to host a small gathering.
However, women who go out into the streets are still stopped
and questioned, even when the contracted work is finished. This is because going out in the street [to
sell goods] is restricted during the farm mobilization period. They demand that
you show a certificate saying you’ve completed your tasks.
As the markets don’t
open until 5pm, some sensible women display signs on their door or on their
roof, proclaiming “footwear,” or “manufactured goods.” That way, people going past can see it. This kind of thing is common now, and when the
farming season rolls around signs can be seen on every house. Women on the
street can also be seen holding signs and product advertisements.
