As North Korea enters its national “sanitation period” in March and April, the entire nation is focused on cleaning and beautifying all corners of the country.
This year’s “sanitation period” coincided with the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) elections on March 10, meaning that even buildings are getting a new coat of paint. Paint has thus become a hot item in the markets, North Korean sources reported on March 12.
The period is similar to the “spring cleaning” activities conducted by South Korea’s local governments. In North Korea, sanitation activities focus on cleaning roads, schools, administrative buildings, enterprises and other public facilities with water or lime to wash their exteriors. Residents are mobilized to repair damaged sidewalks and buildings, meaning that the intensity of the spring cleaning in North Korea surpasses that seen in South Korea.
“The authorities have placed an emphasis on beautifying cities recently, and because of the SPA elections, schools and government agencies are vying with each other to purchase paint,” said a Ryanggang Province-based source.
“During the winter, sales of lime powder and oil-based paint are low because it’s only bought for private use. But because of Sanitation Month, merchants now have little stock left.”
“The markets are selling both domestic and imported construction materials. There are price differences and contrasting quality between the products,” she continued. “Imported products are more expensive, but better in quality. Domestic products are not particularly bad, either.”
Government agencies and enterprises tend to prefer imported products, while schools and other small-scale facilities that have smaller budgets purchase domestic products.
“Even schools that begin classes in April have quickly called on students and teachers to clean and repaint entrances, exercise equipment, and walls,” said a source in North Hamgyong Province. “Schools don’t have money, so they collect it from students in each grade and ensure that students with wealthier parents contribute.”
A separate source in Ryanggang Province added, “Buildings that fail to get a fresh coat of paint each year look completely different from those that do. Hyesan has a lot of new buildings, so it’s easy to see which ones haven’t been painted recently. The authorities have told people to repaint the walls of older apartments, so people are collecting money to buy oil-based paints.”
As late as the early 2000s the outer walls of North Korea’s apartment buildings and office buildings were finished with tiles or whitewashed, but the recent trend has been for paint in aesthetically-pleasing colors. The authorities have recommended that the exterior walls of buildings be painted with oil-based paints. The open spaces in front of important buildings are often planted with grass to improve their appearance.
“The outer walls of apartments nowadays are frequently painted in reds and blues, so paints in these colors are expensive, at around 6,000 KPW a can,” said a source in South Hamgyong Province. “The paint produced in Hamhung is cheap, with the cheapest being khaki-colored paint.”
