In its effort to normalize power production
as it struggles through a massive shortage in supply this year, North Korea has
been mobilizing prisoners from labor training camps to dig out coal, the Daily
NK has learned.
“Upon orders to produce more coal, the
state has been forcing male prisoners, who have been sent to labor training
camps for misdemeanors, to coal mines,” a source in
South Pyongan Province told the Daily NK on Friday.
Labor training camps refer to correctional
facilities under the Ministry of People’s Security that
hold criminals who have committed less serious crimes. They are held in these
camps from anywhere between one to six months, where they carry out intense
labor. Usually prisoners of these camps are mobilized to construction sites or
farm areas, and coal mine work is considered an extreme exception,
reflecting the serious rate of power deficiency currently facing the
North.
The prisoners are worked day and night at
coal towns some kilometers away, eating and sleeping on site. Many of them have
been convicted of anti-socialist activities, such as not working [not going to
work at a factory], selling CDs [with unauthorized content, namely foreign
media], and conducting other illegal business operations.
Their working conditions are abhorrent with
conditions that constantly threaten their lives. The shafts that prisoners work
in do not have any wooden lining to prevent unstable rock from falling,
exposing them to dangers of cave-ins at any moment.
“They don’t even
have safety lights. Instead they have to push a 1t trolley for a stretch of
more than 300 m with only a carbide lamp [a simple lamp that produces light
from acetylene generated from the reaction between calcium carbide and water],” the source elaborated.
“Some inmates collapse from pulling the
coal trolleys all day since they only get to eat corn kernels mixed with only a
bit of rice,” she said. “They
collapse more from respiratory problems than hunger though.”
As people get towards the deep end of the
shaft, they can easily experience breathing problems because of the lack
oxygen. Ventilation is more important than anything, but there is none
provided, and the prisoners are still forced to produce coal, according to the
source.
“The prisoners who have respiratory
problems aren’t able to receive any treatment and are
dragged out of the shaft. Once they gain consciousness, they have to go back
in,” the source explained. “Those
who resist may face beatings from other inmates, who are ordered to do so by
the on-site manager .”
She explained once such case, “A
few days ago, a prisoner in his 40s fell unconscious from suffocation and then
died from the added malnutrition. He then received ‘parole,’” going on to add, “With more residents
learning about the conditions at coal mines for those in labor training camps,
rumors are spreading that if you land yourself in a training camp, you come out
dead.”
“Women who have their husbands in these
camps are passing on bribes to security officials and trying everything they
can to get them out,” she asserted. “As they get to know of how the inmates are working, not even because
of a serious crime, people are saying even during the Japanese colonial period
they did exploit people this much.”
In the area of South Pyongan Province, the
price of coal has risen to 20 USD from 18 USD a ton, while the planks that
should be used to uphold the shafts are roughly 1,100 KPW a meter, according to
the source. [1 USD = 8,300 KPW in South Pyongan Province currently]
Meanwhile, the Party-run newspaper Rodong
Sinmun recently published an article stating, “Power is
the basic force behind the people’s economy, and coal
is a staple and important resource for the Juche industry.” It encouraged coal production by further writing, “The drought that hit us like no other in the past century has
restricted our hydroelectric resources, and so the way to deal with this is to
produce more by burning fossil fuels.
In the province of South Pyongan, major coal mines, such as Bukchang,
Dokcho, 2·8 Jikdong, and Chonsong, are
responsible for bringing in much-needed foreign currency. Especially, Jikdong is tasked
with providing fuel for the Pyongyang thermoelectric power plant which supplies
the capital with much of its power.
