The number of homeless people wandering the streets in search of food, so-called kkotjebi, has recently risen in every major North Korean city, Daily NK has learned.
During the days of the Arduous March of the late 1990s, most vagrants were minors, but as of late, many elderly drifters are in the streets, a source in the country told Daily NK on Monday.
According to the source, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of kkotjebi wandering around train stations and marketplaces, begging for food, in every major provincial city, including Hyesan, in Yanggang Province, Hamhung, in South Hamgyong Province, and Chongjin and Kilju, two cities in North Hamgyong Province.
The kkotjebi ordinarily gather near the train stations in winter, when food is in short supply and the weather turns cold, but this year, they have begun gathering a bit earlier, and they have grown in number.
THE NUMBER OF ELDERLY HOMELESS IS ON THE RISE
This year, there are reportedly more elderly kkotjebi. In North Korea, kkotjebi usually refers to homeless children who wander around begging, but with the recent growth in the number of elderly homeless, locals call them noin kkotjebi (elderly kkotjebi).
Old people with no food immediately on hand and nowhere to stay are begging on the streets. Unlike children, however, they have little strength to escape when enforcement personnel come to chase them away.
The source said the enforcement personnel “deal carefully with the elderly kkotjebi, who cannot even properly control their own bodies.”
There were many young kkotjebi during the mass famine of the late 1990s and early 2000s because North Korea’s birth rate was higher than it is now, and because many parents starved to death or crossed into China to make money.
AUTHORITIES LARGELY FAIL TO SUPPLY FOOD TO POOR FAMILIES
However, with fewer children due to the country’s declining birth rate and more older people with little financial power, the number of elderly kkotjebi has risen.
With household incomes collapsing as incomes from market activities have fallen and enterprises have failed to properly provide wages during the three-year closure of the border, many elderly people have voluntarily left home to avoid being a burden on their children, said the source.
To prevent the mass emergence of kkotjebi, the state regularly ascertains the state of food-poor families and advises people’s committees to gather food to provide to low-income families. With so many families unable to put even one proper meal on the table a day, however, it is difficult for the authorities to put together supplies to help food-poor families.
Moreover, the market price of rice, corn and other grains has not fallen even after the completion of this year’s autumn harvest, likely making it more difficult for low-income families to see the winter out.
In fact, according to Daily NK’s regular survey of market prices in North Korea, a kilogram of rice cost KPW 6,000 in Pyongyang as of Nov. 27. This was the first time in 10 years since 2012 that a kilogram of rice cost over KPW 6,000 in late November, the harvest season.
On the same day, a kilogram of corn cost KPW 3,200, with corn prices setting consecutive record highs.
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