Sources within North Korea have revealed that the autumn potato harvest in Yanggang
Province was completed before the Korean Workers’ Party 70th anniversary
celebrations on October 10th. Prior to the festivities, farm workers were each given a disbursement of
one ton of potatoes, equivalent to one year’s worth.
In a telephone conversation with the Daily
NK on October 12th, a source in Yanggang Province said, “As the country
entered into celebrations for the Workers’ Party 70th Anniversary, every
resident of Yanggang Province was provided with the potatoes. The amount given
to each family depended upon the age and number of family members, but the
average came out to about one ton. It was provided in a single allotment and
designed to last all year.”
An additional source in Yanggang Province
confirmed this news.
The potatoes were dug up and distributed to
families in all the areas in Yanggang Province including Taehong County,
Samjiyeon County, and Baekam County. Residents were surprised to find that even
though the country was in the midst of a celebration, the food disbursement was
“exactly as it’s been in years past,” according to the source, who added that
many took it as a glib sign that the regime requires the “year-round back
breaking labor of its residents but it can only provide potatoes in return, year
after year.”
He noted that while the amount may seem
like a lot, the potatoes are low quality. Families who want to eat rice usually
have to go outside the local area in order to trade rice for potatoes; however,
the vegetables are so subpar that the going rate is 10 kg of potatoes for 1 kg
of rice.
“There are other traders who go as far as
the East Sea to trade for dried seaweed and salt. These traders get a poor
price at 1 kg of seaweed for 5 kg of potatoes. There are some people that go to
those lengths, traveling the far distance carrying the heavy potatoes, in order
to add some variety to their diet,” the source explained.
Unfortunately, rice
is still out of reach for most people as it is not provided for in the
disbursements and goes for too high a price at the market.
“So lots of people simply don’t eat rice,”
he said.
“Central Party cadres say that there is a
‘potato revolution’ happening here in the propaganda, but the residents say
that the potatoes have such poor nutrients that you immediately feel hungry
after you urinate once.”
When pressed on the broader public opinion,
the source reported that some residents have said, “Perhaps Russian people
enjoy eating potatoes because it goes well with the pork they consume, but for
we Koreans– who like kimchi– the combination just doesn’t work well.”
More brazen residents have even complained
to local cadres about the situation.
“Many of those restrained to a potato-only
diet get sick with malnutrition. Just hearing the word ‘potato’ is enough to
set off a wave of disgust in the region. Most folks badly want to find ways to
get rice,” he explained. “One guy I talked to remarked, ‘If the cadres are so
fond of potatoes, why don’t they eat them? Then we farmers can eat their rice.’”
This, the source elaborated, is a
roundabout way of criticizing former leader Kim Jong Il’s policy of focusing on the ‘potato
revolution,’ which was in actuality a way for the regime to earn cash at the
residents’ expense.
*The content of this article was broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.
