A tragic accident saw dozens of soldiers with the 9th Corps of the Chosun People's Army [KPA] lose their lives in a construction accident at the end of December, Daily NK has recently learned.

“The entire army started combat training back in December with the exception of the 9th Corps,” a source in North Hamkyung Province reported to Daily NK on January 9th. “Instead, they were mobilized to construction efforts in Yangkang Province, namely land readjustment projects, a ski resort, and Samjiyeon airport.” 

Units comprising the North Hamkyung Province 9th Corps, stationed in Kyongsong County, are tasked with defending the entirety of the Province--from areas bordering China to the coastal regions. For these tens of thousands of soldiers to halt their military training and be mobilized to a different jurisdiction is highly unusual. 

According to the source, soldiers with the 9th Corps were forced to traverse 200km by foot in order to be closer to the aforementioned construction sites. Rigorous schedules and frigid conditions led one soldier after the next to continuously develop frostbite. In northern mountainous regions such as this in North Korea, the temperature dips to 15 degrees below zero Celsius even at midday, and often plunges to 20 degrees or more below zero Celsius.

The troops dispatched for these construction projects were allegedly headed back to their unit at the end of last month, according to the source. “Land readjustment projects have been going on for decades, but until now, they have been wholly the responsibility of provincial departments dealing with rivers and streams maintenance or construction in farming areas,” he explained. “This is the first time that any troops in the army have missed winter training and instead deployed for construction projects.”

Unfortunately, this mobilization would see a tragic accident take the lives of many of those soldiers. “On the construction site, a sudden collapse of dirt pinned dozens of soldiers from the 45th Division of the 9th Corps underneath,” the source said.

He added that the state made special mention of one soldier when addressing those who perished due to the tragedy, saying he, in the authorities’ words, “was the archetype of loyalty, safely preserving the image of the Suryeong [Kim Il Sung] and the General [Kim Jong Il] until his very last moment.”

Just prior to the tragic accident, the state narrative claims that one soldier wrapped his badge, which bears portraits of both Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, in protective white paper and clutched it against his chest as he died. State propaganda has employed his death to teach military lessons “of protecting the greatest figures of Baekdu Mountain with one’s life,” broadcast via the fixed cable Third Broadcast system, to which only the North Korea people are exposed.

This propaganda is thought to be an attempt by the authorities to cover up the fact that they forced droves of soldiers to engage in rigorous work in frigid temperatures and put to sleep public criticism by lauding their deaths as heroic sacrifices. Residents, however, have responded to the propaganda with resounding skepticism, according to the source.

“How would he have even had the time to even think to wrap the badge in paper and it in his pocket when mounds of dirt are suddenly collapsing on him?” they point out. “Where would they have gotten a sheet of white paper while out there working? If he had the time to think about doing all that, he might as well have used it to move and avoid getting caught under the mounds of dirt.”

The source surmised the construction projects to fit into the grand set of achievements Kim Jong Eun seeks to see completed before the 70th founding anniversary of the Chosun Workers' Party this year in October, explaining the unprecedented mobilization. “Because Yangkang Province is the most severely cold place in North Korea, it’s likely the troops were mobilized so suddenly in a bid to finish jobs requiring dirt before the ground froze completely,” he concluded.