North Korea recently issued an order to party committees nationwide calling on them to craft measures by the end of October to deal with Workers’ Party members who have abandoned their “duties to the party.”
According to a Daily NK source in North Korea on Friday, party committees nationwide received the order on Sept. 12.
In the order, North Korea pointed out the importance of the role played by party cells, stressing that party committees must never forget efforts to control and crack down on party members who shirk their duties.
The order called on the committees to devote themselves to promoting “party members’ collective unity and the execution of revolutionary tasks by diligently pushing through efforts to turn all party cells into firmly unified, healthy and vigorous cells in a humanly way.”
The order also called for party committees to “realize the elitism of the party’s ranks” by patiently carrying out efforts to root out shirkers and party members unattached to party organizations, and intensifying education and party punishments of individuals who fail to properly execute their party duties.
In the order, North Korea called on provincial, city and county party committees to exhaustively uncover party members who have failed to join party organizations and craft measures to deal with them by the end of October. The order called on the party committees’ organizational secretaries to take charge of the effort.
In fact, the order called on party organizations to ensure that “criminal elements never appear amongst such individuals” by taking “party, administrative and legal measures” against people who were expelled from the party for being inactive for six months or more.
North Korea’s leadership is thus demanding party committees take action against members who fail to properly carry out their party duties. However, many party members are reportedly asking whether their efforts might be better focused on helping improve the economic conditions they face.
“People are admitted to the Workers’ Party after undergoing thorough vetting of their party loyalty and ideology,” said the source. “And if those people — in contrast to when they joined — abandoned all their party duties and rights and deserted, don’t we need to think where the problem lies?
“People join the party with unlimited loyalty, but the party has long simply demanded dedication and sacrifice without resolving the livelihood issues of party members,” he continued, adding, “Despite this, the party looks pathetic, blaming and threatening to punish members who have abandoned their party duties.”
Meanwhile, the party committee of Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province held an emergency meeting of the city’s party cell secretaries to convey the Central Committee’s order, as well as to call on party cells to bolster their function and role.
In fact, the Chongjin party committee reportedly warned the cell secretaries against taking bribes from individuals who shirk their party duties to collude in crimes or look the other way at criminal activity.
Rebuking the attendees of the meeting, the city’s party committee also complained that some party cell secretaries were quite lax in carrying out their party duties, “abandoning the party’s confidence and faith.” It also once again called on party cell secretaries to lead party members by becoming models of party behavior during hard times.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
