In addition to requiring university students to help in the construction of 100,000 houses in Pyongyang, according to an inside source, the North Korean authorities have placed another heavy obligation on its students, which is that they must help collect medicinal herbs.
Students have to collect medicinal herbs for the purpose of โloyalty foreign currency earning,โ that is, to help the government procure foreign currencies, before the regular summer vacation, during a period known as the โmedicinal herb vacationโ in late June and early July.
According to the sourceโs explanation, the reason why the medicinal herb vacation started later than usual this year was because the โrice planting battle,โ the time in June when most residents, including students, are mobilized for rice planting, was completed belatedly. Since residents in farming areas have not been able to fully concentrate on rice planting for private trade and the period of the โbattleโ has dragged on, students have been just mobilized to collect herbs.
A source from Yangkang Province reported on July 15, โA number of universities will have their medicinal herb vacation from July 15 to 31st.โ He added, โSome students living in urban areas have offered money to students residing in Daehongdan, Samjiyeon, Bocheon, Huchang, Shinpa and other areas at the foot of Mt. Baekdu to meet their herb quota.โ
The medicinal herb vacation has been an annual event since the July 1st Economic Management Reform Measure was adopted in 2002.
Since then, enterprises based in both cities and rural areas have had the authority to participate in private trade in order to produce funds for their own management, and universities have also had to provide funds for their own management. Faced with this burden, universities have shifted the duty of earning money onto their students.
Professor Lee Ae Ran of Kyungin Womenโs College, who was the first female defector to earn a doctorate in South Korea, explained in a telephone interview with The Daily NK that, โThe medicinal herb vacation is a time when students are made to collect medicinal herbs in order to earn foreign currency. It has been carried out more actively and intensively in medical colleges.โ
A defector from North Hamkyung Province stated that, โAll the universities in Chongjin have the medicinal herb vacation. When the vacation came, we asked students whose relatives lived in mountainous regions to collect herbs from their relatives for us in exchange for money, and then we submitted those herbs to the college.โ
He added, โOther students, who donโt have enough money, go to mountain areas to gather medicinal herbs for themselves.โ
Another defector, from Yangkang Province, said that, โWhen they were not able to obtain medicinal herbs with money, students gathered them in mountainous regions. Sometimes all their family members would go with them to the mountains in order to gather enough herbs.โ
Kim Song Hee, a defector who used to study at a university in Hwanghae Province, noted, โAll the universities [in Hwanghae Province] have the medicinal herb vacation. The medical college especially was very rigorous about the requirement. Even the assignments given to university professors to help earn foreign currency were passed on to the students.โ
According to Ms. Kim, if students cannot complete their herb collection assignment in June and July, they must spend their August vacation working to complete it as well.
