construction
A construction site for residential homes in North Pyongan province in July 2024. (Daily NK)

North Korea is implementing stricter safety measures in construction work after documenting numerous fatal accidents during flood reconstruction efforts last summer in North Pyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang provinces.

According to a source in Ryanggang province, the Cabinet issued orders to provincial people’s committees in early January detailing worker deaths during last year’s flood reconstruction and outlining new accident prevention measures.

The orders acknowledged significant casualties among reconstruction workers mobilized from various organizations, including the Workers’ Party of Korea, the General Federation of Trade Unions, the Socialist Women’s Union, and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, as well as “shock troops” from different agencies and companies.

The Cabinet reported 50 deaths in North Pyongan province, 30 in Chagang province, and 20 in Ryanggang province. The source noted these figures exclude military casualties, which weren’t counted in the official tally.

Notably, the Cabinet stated that because these deaths resulted from workers’ “lack of care,” their families received no state compensation. The deceased were only given funerals within their respective units.

The Cabinet’s orders included new disciplinary regulations for provincial committees to prevent deaths in factory construction, rural housing projects, and ongoing flood reconstruction work. The regulations establish a graduated system of punishments for managers based on the number of workplace fatalities: stern warnings for one or two deaths, unpaid labor for three or four deaths, and hard labor sentences or possible demotion/termination for five or more deaths.

According to the source, the Cabinet presented this disciplinary system as the most effective way to reduce casualties, citing persistently high death rates and increasing accidents at construction sites nationwide.

When these orders reached agencies and companies throughout Ryanggang province, they sparked outrage among officials who learned of the death toll. One official remarked, “While people are celebrating their newly built, well-lit homes, they should know how many lives were lost constructing those houses and embankments.”

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