A North Korean can be seen picking something up in the woods near the China-North Korea border. (Daily NK)

Two North Korean soldiers were severely beaten after attempting to rob locals of their foraged acorns and wild berries near the Changsan Coal Mine in South Pyongan province. The soldiers had set up a roadblock in mid-September to forcibly seize acorns gathered by civilians, but their plan backfired when locals resisted.

According to a source in the province, a young man who had completed his military service and was working the night shift at the coal mine recently went into the forest after work without taking a break. He gathered acorns to supplement his livelihood. On his way back from the forest, he met the two soldiers.

When the soldiers tried to take his backpack full of acorns, the young man resisted violently. Another young man who had just experienced the same mistreatment joined the fight. In the end, the two soldiers were knocked unconscious to the ground.

“Every year around this time, people living near the Changsan Coal Mine go into the forest to gather berries and herbs as an extra source of food. And every year, soldiers of the Korean People’s Army turn to banditry,” the source said.

The area around the Changsan Coal Mine is densely forested, a rare sight in North Korea. A number of military facilities are located in the area, including the arsenal of North Korea’s XI Corps, also known as the “Storm Corps.”

Some soldiers make a habit of setting up roadblocks, claiming that the area is restricted to soldiers, and then stealing food that people have gathered.

“If it’s a restricted military area, they should be preventing people from going in, not just stealing their berries and backpacks on the way out, which really annoys the locals. While soldiers steal wild berries every year, this year some locals decided they weren’t going to take it anymore,” the source said.

News of two soldiers being beaten up for trying to rob people of their wild berries spread through the local community. Some people said they enjoyed seeing the soldiers getting punished. 

While soldiers often attack civilians, it is rare for soldiers to be the ones beaten up. Not surprisingly, the source said, the incident was the talk of the town.

After the incident, several soldiers who were not involved in the incident talked to people gathering berries in the woods, hoping to find the young men who knocked out the soldiers, the source said.

“The soldiers involved did not report the incident to their superiors. Instead, they appear to be trying to hunt down the civilians who beat them so they can take revenge,” the source said.

Following the beating, soldiers in the area have limited their banditry to women and teenage boys, while keeping their distance from full-grown men.

Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.

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