A new quarantine facility being built in North Pyongan Province will be used to decontaminate items related to the military, Daily NK has learned.
A Daily NK source in North Korea said Monday that the country’s authorities plan to store only military supplies or supplies for construction sites administered by the military at the new site, which is located in the province’s Yomju County. These supplies include secret items ordinary people “must not see,” according to the source.
As such, the list of North Korea’s recent imports appears to include not only food, daily necessities, and construction materials for general consumption, but also components and chemicals for the defense industry.
Daily NK previously reported that North Korean authorities are building a new quarantine facility near Yomju County because the existing quarantine facility in Uiju is filling up. While the new site has yet to be completed, some imported items are already making their way through the facility.
However, exactly which items are being stored in the Yomju facility remains unknown.
Daily NK understands that the decision to build a separate facility in Yomju was motivated not only by the Uiju facility reaching its storage capacity, but also by the frequent thefts of imported items at Uiju.
North Korea has deployed guards throughout the Uiju facility to stop thefts, but thievery has continued nonetheless.
“Construction work is at its height to apply the finishing touches to the Yomju facility,” the source said, adding that the wire fence near the facility has been completed.
The authorities have mobilized North Pyongan Province’s shock labor brigades and the Ministry of Defense’s Construction Brigade to build the facility.
North Korea’s leadership has ordered the Ministry of Defense to complete construction of the Yomju facility by Apr. 15, the birthday of late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
Accordingly, imports from China may expand from the middle of next month after the Yomju quarantine facility is completed.
The source said total imports were partially curtailed last month because the Uiju facility was full. Once the new facility is complete, the authorities will allow more imports in to make use of the new quarantine site, he added.
The source noted that the authorities continue to deploy personnel to take part in managing the new site. He said the Yomju facility will likely go into full-scale operations once it receives disinfectants and an administrative system is put into place.
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