A high school student at a Pyongyang recently leaped to his death from a high-rise building, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Nov. 13 that the high school student “had hoped to go a teacher’s college, but leaped to his death from a high-rise building in Kwangbok-dong, Mangyong District, because his family faced financial difficulties and was placed on a military recruitment list.”
Neighbors who discovered the student’s body as they were passing by immediately informed the police, but it took an hour for them to arrive.
In the meantime, crowds gathered around the body, witnessing the horrible sight of the corpse.
“Officers from the Kwangbok-dong police box and Mangyongdae District branch of the Ministry of Social Security arrived an hour after the initial report. Taking charge of the scene, they began stopping people from using their mobile phones, but finding it difficult to monitor each and every phone, they confiscated everyone’s mobile phone and put them in a bag, telling the owners that they would return them in two days,” the source said.
The police investigated whether the phones’ owners took photos at the scene or called anybody while there, apparently to stop rumors from spreading.
Police also questioned the dead student’s parents, teachers and friends to get a full account of what happened. The investigation eventually concluded that the student took his own life due to pessimism over his personal circumstances.
Based on the police investigation, the student studied so hard that he frequently placed first or second in his class. Investigators also found that he wanted to enter a teacher’s college.
However, the student’s parents had already asked his teacher to place him on the military recruitment list, explaining that they could not support their son if he went to university because they were strapped financially. In fact, during a counseling session, school administrators explained to the student that he had been placed on next year’s military draft list because his family faced financial issues.
Following the counseling session, the student often spoke pessimistically about his circumstances, telling his friends: “I can’t go to university, even if I study well, and I can’t become a teacher like I want to.”
Then, in late October, he unleashed on his parents, telling them that “we live like beggars and there’s no point in living in Pyongyang when I can’t go to college.” When his father slapped him, he went to the roof of a high-rise building in anger and leaped off.
“Neighbors have expressed sadness over the incident, saying that there are many households who can’t put a single meal on the table even in Pyongyang, and that the tragedy involved a good student who took his own life due to poverty, given that the gap between rich and poor is akin to the gap between heaven and earth.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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