A seven-year-old boy abandoned by his caregivers recently starved to death in Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in the province told Daily NK on July 13 that the boy was found unconscious at his home in Hamhung in early July. He was immediately taken to the hospital but eventually died.
The deceased boy had been raised by his grandparents from the age of three, after his parents got divorced.
The boy’s family had managed to get by on what his grandmother made from selling vegetables on the street. But after law enforcement began cracking down on street vendors last year, the family began suffering from severe hardship.
Given the grandmother’s advanced age, she couldn’t slip away from police patrols, so she was repeatedly apprehended and all her stock confiscated. With nothing left to sell, she had trouble keeping the family fed.
Facing those difficulties, the boy’s grandparents moved to a temporary shelter in another region to plant crops for the spring, leaving the boy alone at home.
The boy’s mother had died in a car accident after her divorce, and his father had a new family, leaving nobody to look after him, the source said.
“If you want something to eat, you have to start the fire and prepare the food. How could a seven-year-old boy handle all that by himself? He went hungry more and more often and then fainted from hunger before finally expiring,” the source explained.
Locals were saddened to hear about the boy’s death and criticized the authorities for focusing solely on law enforcement and social controls without seeking fundamental solutions to public livelihood issues, the source said.
“This is the sort of tragedy that happens when the police find any old excuse to arrest and punish people who are just selling stuff on the street to get by. It’s not like they’re asking for handouts, even though the government has stopped giving us rations,” one of the locals was quoted as complaining.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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