A Kangwon Province resident who met the country’s supreme leader twice asked the Workers’ Party of Korea for help his hungry family, but three months have passed without any help being given, Daily NK has learned.
“In mid-January, an individual in Sepo County who had met the supreme leader asked the provincial party committee to submit a request for food assistance to the Central Committee. But no assistance has been given, and the individual remains hungry,” a reporting partner in Kangwon Province told Daily NK on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
According to the reporting partner, the individual who filed the petition to the central committee is a retired military officer who was discharged in 2014 after a 30-year career in the army. He is on record having met the supreme leader two times while serving in the military. There are reportedly two photographs of the leader hanging up in his house.
People who have met the supreme leader are envied in North Korea because they receive various benefits, including access to good jobs and good universities, that extend to their children and even their grandchildren.
But despite that status, the retired officer was in worse financial straits than other families even before COVID-19. And in the early months of this year, his family members fainted from hunger, the reporting partner said.
“Even officers have all kinds of trouble adjusting to normal life after 10 years in the military. Imagine what it must be like for someone who has depended on government rations for 30 years in the military. Retired soldiers and their families have been suffering even greater hardship since the outbreak of COVID-19.”
When officers leave the military and return to normal life, they typically start a business to earn a living. But this retired officer and his wife did not have a knack for business and chose an unprofitable product line, which left them in grinding poverty. That is why the former officer ended up submitting a petition to the Central Committee, the reporting partner said.
In mid-January, the retired officer drafted a petition asking for help feeding his family and submitted the petition to the provincial party committee, which then passed it along to the Central Committee.
Two months later, the Central Committee sharply rebuked the provincial party committee for passing along a petition it ought to have handled itself. The Central Committee also instructed the provincial party committee to provide food to the family of the former officer who had met the supreme leader.
But the family has yet to receive any food, which has irritated locals. “What’s so great about having met the supreme leader? What good does it do to have a photograph of him on your wall?” one asked. “When the whole family was starving, members of the people’s committee helped out, but the government hasn’t even sent a single gram of rice.”
“If the ultimate reward for retired soldiers who have dedicated their lives to the army is starvation, it’s sure to give young people a good reason to avoid a career in the army,” the reporting partner observed.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea and China. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
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