A kindergarten in the North Korean city of Hyesan, Yanggang Province, is being investigated by the authorities, Daily NK has learned.
“The Hyesan department of education has been investigating Hyetan Kindergarten since Apr. 4. The investigation was launched when the authorities learned that teaching staff had pilfered soy milk intended for the children and sold it on the market,” a source in the province told Daily NK on Apr. 8.
According to the source, North Korea has been providing soy milk to kindergartens and daycares since 1992. The supply of soy milk was not suspended during the “Arduous March,” a severe famine that swept North Korea in the 1990s, which indicates that the North Korean government took a special interest in ensuring children were receiving proper nutrients during those challenging times.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has long taken an interest in projects for children. “I will make it the policy of the party to provide dairy products and other nutritious food to our nation’s children at the state’s expense,” he said during the Third Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which was held last June.
But the implementation of the party’s policy of supplying children with nutrients is running into obstacles on the ground as the North Korean authorities face financial economic difficulties amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the source said.
“In its propaganda, the government proclaims its love for children, describing them as ‘the monarchs of this country’ and ‘the future of the fatherland.’ But the reality is that children can’t even get their fill of soy milk,” she added.
Each region is responsible for producing soy milk using locally produced materials, and in Hyesan, soy milk produced at a local food plant is reportedly trucked to kindergartens every morning.
But since inflation has been driving up the price of soybeans, the Hyesan factory has been mixing more water into the soy milk it produces. Moreover, teachers started setting aside some of the soy milk to sell on the market and diluting the rest before giving it to the children.
“Kindergarten teachers are stealing soy milk intended for children because their working conditions haven’t been improving. Since the state doesn’t provide for their basic livelihood through rations, the teachers have few good choices,” the source explained.
“If the teachers are selling the children’s soy milk, one can only imagine how hard it must be for them to make ends meet. Rather than punishing them, the government ought to put the priority on guaranteeing their livelihood so that they can focus on teaching,” she added.
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