As part of efforts to implement afforestation measures,
the North Korean authorities have imposed strict regulations over burial
practices for the deceased and are instead encouraging cremation, which residents are
taking great pains to avoid.
“Regulations on grave sites are so stringent that an
increasing number of people are postponing funerals or clandestinely moving
and burying the bodies during the night,” a source from South Pyongan Province
informed Daily NK on April 30th.
He followed by citing an example that he described as all too common since the recent decree. “One of the village residents held a funeral for her
grandmother recently; she mobilized young people in the middle of the night to
dig up the ground and then quietly transported the body using an ox cart,” he said, explaining that ox
carts greatly reduce the risks emitted by cars with their loud engines and bright lights.
Unfortunately, the land management officers discovered
traces of this activity the following day, promptly barging into the individual’s home with the intent to inflict severe punishments on the accused; this, needless to say, left her no choice but to bribe them with
food and money.
According to the source, the Central Party handed down this
mandate because the myriad tombstones and burial mounds peppering the mountains
are visible from the roads below–rather than sprawling forests– and therefore deemed a “national disgrace.” In a bid
to reduce their visibility, existing tombs are to be moved, tombstones to be
placed parallel to the ground, and burial mounds flattened.
“The regulations grow increasingly severe as Kim Jong Eun’s reforestation efforts gain momentum,” he asserted. “Elderly residents sometimes jokingly say, ‘We’d better not die because there’s nowhere for us to be buried.'” Some households have even resorted to extending the mourning process to give themselves more time to find a burial plot and make arrangements.
Cremation is still an unfamiliar practice for most North
Koreans, carried out only in a handful of major cities, such as Pyongyang, Hamheung, and Chongjin. For the majority of the population,
however, cremation costs are still far too exorbitant to bear.
“Even in Pyongyang, cremation requires making an appointment
two days in advance, and finding funeral cars is difficult [as personal cars are the privilege
of only the very wealthy],” the source explained. “Cremation of a body requires 30kg of diesel fuel,
which amounts to hundreds of thousands of KPW. One also has to provide food for
the workers of the cremation site, which makes the whole process fiscally and
physically cumbersome.”
He lamented that the entire situation was much like being
cast back into an even more painful part of the nation’s history. “During
Japan’s annexation of Korea, when our country had no sovereignty, people bemoaned
that there was no land available for them to be laid to rest. This whole situation is pretty
similar to those times,” the source concluded.
