A North Korean woman died as a homeless beggar on the streets of Hyesan in Ryanggang province after her parents and siblings refused to take her in following her divorce, illustrating how grinding poverty is severing blood ties in the isolated nation.
A source in the province told Daily NK recently that a funeral was held early this month for a Hyesan woman who had begged for food on the streets of the city after moving back to her hometown. Her return home was caused by a divorce from her husband in Chongjin due to severe financial hardship.
“Many people wept to hear this woman’s sad tale,” the source reported.
According to the source, the woman returned to her hometown of Hyesan, where her parents and siblings still lived, following her divorce in August. But none of her family members were willing to take in a woman in such dire financial straits.
After getting the cold shoulder from her family, the woman made the rounds of old friends, who fed her a meal or two. But she soon wore out her welcome and was at last forced to become a beggar. She only endured two months on the street before her life came to a tragic end.
Family wracked with remorse but spared blame
Fortunately, a friend who recognized the woman’s body alerted her family to her death, and they arranged a funeral for her. By the time the woman’s body was found, even her date of death was uncertain. She was reportedly cremated the next day.
“At the funeral, the woman’s family members were obviously wracked with remorse for having done nothing to help her after she became a street beggar. No doubt, the family members turned her away because they were themselves too hard up to help, but that just makes her fate all the more heartbreaking,” the source remarked.
“This is a world where your own brothers, sisters and parents treat you like a stranger when you’re broke. Since people know just how tough it is to make a living, nobody openly blamed the parents or siblings for being unable to help the woman.”
The story is thought to aptly show how even blood ties break down in the face of grinding poverty.
It is no longer uncommon for North Koreans to hear about poor people reduced to begging and eventually dying on the streets. The sense that this could happen to anybody someday is reportedly stoking fear and anxiety among the populace.
North Koreans who attended the woman’s funeral shed tears of pity at her frightful fate.
“Poverty really makes people mean,” one remarked.
“How sad that she would suffer so much only to die on the street!” another said.
“It really hits close to home,” a third was heard to remark.
“This incident is particularly troubling for parents of young women and unmarried women who are hoping to get married. Women feel they need to find a reliable breadwinner to avoid hardship both for themselves and for their parents,” the source said.
“Since everybody is having such a tough time, some parents are even counseling their daughters to live alone instead of getting married,” the source said.
