A resident of Hwadae County, in North Hamgyong Province, recently set fire to the home of his village’s party secretary, Daily NK has learned.
“A man living in Ryongpo Village, Hwadae County, was arrested by the police after setting fire to the home of the local party secretary. The man had been angry about being criticized and insulted after visiting the party secretary several times in August to beg for help with his family’s difficult circumstances,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Monday.
According to the source, the arrested man’s family was facing ongoing hardships. Unwilling to watch his three children starve, the man was driven to ask the party secretary for assistance.
Since the Workers’ Party of Korea is often described as a “mother,” the man believed that if he explained his difficulties, he would receive some kind of help. So during August, he paid multiple visits to the party’s village organization to ask for help, even going to the house of the party secretary to make his appeal.
But instead of lending a listening ear or trying to provide relief, the party secretary kept criticizing the man for not growing more crops on the side. “You’re too lazy to make a living,” the party secretary reportedly said, griping that “people who hate to work always come here looking for handouts.”
The party secretary reportedly added: “When these crybabies don’t get any satisfaction from the [village] party, they take their complaints to the county or provincial parties.”
When the man asked to be given some food from the recent corn harvest, the party secretary sent him packing.
“Everyone is getting by on two bowls of grass porridge a day. I bet every family would like some help if they could get it right now. We’re all in the same boat,” the party secretary reportedly said.
Despite repeated rejections, the thought of his children drove the man to keep trying. So on the evening of Sept. 1, he visited the party secretary’s home to ask for help once again.
Through the window, the man saw the party secretary’s family feasting on a range of dishes, including rice, meat broth and Korean-style stew. The scene angered the man so much that he went back home to get lamp oil and a lighter. He waited until early in the morning, when the party secretary’s family was fast asleep, and then set the house on fire.
The man was immediately arrested by the police for arson. During the preliminary hearing, he reportedly defended himself vigorously. “The village party secretary brags about working for the people but doesn’t care about starving families, and when people are on the verge of starvation, he doesn’t show any surprise or even try to help. Could such a person really be a member of our ‘mother party’?”
After the incident was reported to the party committee in Hwadae County, the county branch of the party called in the village party secretary to learn what had happened and also conducted a direct inquiry into the circumstances of the arrested man’s family, the source said.
The news that the man’s children were emaciated with hunger angered area residents, who found it ridiculous that a farming family was starving.
Local villagers appealed to the county branch of the Workers’ Party for clemency because the man’s arrest had left the man’s starving family with no one to look after them. As a result, the man is unlikely to be severely punished, the source said.
“The fire didn’t damage much of the party secretary’s house, and no one was hurt. If anything, the secretary will be facing serious consequences by the party for the crime of neglecting residents who are facing such hardships,” the source said.
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