Physical abuse of North Korean workers by low-level managers has become a widespread, systemic problem beyond simple workplace disputes.
A source in North Pyongan province told Daily NK recently that a crew leader at a farm in Yomju county beat up a worker on his crew, leaving him with injuries that required two weeks of bed rest.
The worker was assaulted for complaining about the crew leader’s reprimand instead of accepting it quietly.
“The crew leader chewed out the worker for skipping work and napping on the job. But the worker shot back that it wasn’t fair to be scolded for missing a few days when some workers never showed up at all. The worker went on to say he’d taken a brief nap because he was exhausted from staying up all night to guard the corn storehouse. That’s when the beating happened,” the source said.
The crew leader is notorious for his violent behavior, according to the source.
When one fed-up worker filed a petition with the village party committee, the petition was rejected, and the worker was sent to a forced labor camp instead of the crew leader. Since then, crew members have had nowhere to turn, the source said.
Results over rights
Because of his crew’s impressive results, the crew leader has been praised as a “patriotic farmer” and sent to conferences of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea.
“The way things work in society right now is that as long as you’re a good farm manager, everybody will overlook abusive treatment of your workers,” the source explained.
“It’s said that physically aggressive people are chosen to be low-level managers because nobody will listen if you’re soft-spoken. A heavy-handed approach to keeping people in line is encouraged on an institutional level.”
The incident isn’t simply about one abusive manager but represents North Korea’s broader results-at-all-costs mentality. When performance is the top priority, verbal and physical violence between supervisors and workers becomes accepted, justified, and normalized.
“On top of their backbreaking labor, workers also have to keep crew leaders in a good mood and shrug off the occasional beating. The dog-eat-dog mindset produced by this overemphasis on outcomes is clearly evident at the most basic levels of production,” the source said.
“As far as the state is concerned, results and performance are the first priority, and protecting basic rights is barely an afterthought. Without basic structural improvements, violence is bound to keep occurring, leading to more public anxiety,” he added.
