Daily NK has learned that officials at historical sites in North Hamgyong Province are being reshuffled after the provincial party committee ordered them replaced with younger ones.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Wednesday that the provincial party committee is placing a priority on achieving policies set out in the first year of the country’s five-year economic development plan, and that the committee ordered “the replacement of historical site cadres with younger ones” to “better protect and promote revolutionary battle sites and revolutionary historical sites within the province.”
According to the source, the party committee plans to replace more than 50% of the workers at historical sites with younger cadres and lecturers. The committee has been carrying out the reshuffle over the course of a month, from May 10 to June 10.
The provincial party felt the need for a generational change while examining the state of historical activities in the province, finding that cadres and instructors at local historical sites were older and sicker than those at sites in other provinces. The committee immediately ordered the reshuffle, instructing that it be completed within a month, said the source.
In fact, the committee ordered that the transfer of duties be completed before large-scale tours of revolutionary battle sites start in summer, instructing city and county party branches to take responsibility for the needs of the new cadres and lecturers during the replacement process.
The source said the provincial party believes the “chronic attitude” of workers at historical sites to “protect their positions, consuming their state rations and state salary” while “living lax” was at the root of “unending incidents of impure behavior at historical sites and the failure to manage historical sites on a daily basis.”
According to the source, “The provincial party pointed out that the party had been taking care of the historical workers’ rations, living expenses, holiday provisions, housing and even the advancement opportunities of their children,” yet “[these same] workers have been regarding these as rights they were born with or pretending as if they were in official government positions, harming the revolutionary nature of historical activities.”
Meanwhile, the head of the provincial party committee’s department in charge of revolutionary historical sites was sacked for failing to do his job properly and replaced with an official from the propaganda department.
