North Korea is in the midst of providing support to rural areas as the country heads into its busy farming season. North Korean authorities, however, are forcibly collecting money from ordinary people for the purchase of various agricultural equipment, including tractors, Daily NK has learned.
During a Mar. 17 phone call, a Daily NK source in South Pyongan Province said that “in recent lectures given to [Workers’ Party] secretaries of cities and counties, it was emphasized that rural support need not be formalized, but should be sincerely [offered] and practical in nature…In response, the city people’s committee is forcefully urging the public to donate funds needed for the purchase of tractors that will be sent to rural areas.”
From Mar. 4 – 6, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted the “First Short Course for Chief Secretaries of City and County Party Committees.”
Coverage in the Rodong Sinmun reported that on the second day of the short course, Workers’ Party Economic Affairs Department Director O Su Yong emphasized the importance of economic development in the provinces and ordered practical guidance on projects that “lay the material and technological foundation for the development of rural areas.” Although the issue of rural support was not directly mentioned by the media outlet, it seems that the authorities have issued internal directives along these lines.
As a result, the secretaries who participated in the conference are passing the responsibility of finding funds to purchase tractors for rural support onto locals. It is possible that tractors were included in the allocation of farm aid supplies to these secretaries.
“There is an annual agricultural tool exhibition held every spring to arrange and allocate farming tools such as shovels, pickaxes, hammers, and pitchforks,” the source explained. “While bearings and gears are sometimes offered as part of the exhibition, it is unusual for tractors to be purchased and distributed.”
Tractor parts have been offered as part of rural support packages in the past, but it is unusual for the authorities to collect money for the purchase of tractors.
In North Korea, tractors are fixed assets assigned to collective farms by the government. Essentially, the state owns the tractors, and farms are temporarily leased the right to use them. This phenomenon suggests that the economic situation in North Korea has worsened to the extent that tractors, which would ordinarily be produced and supplied to collective farms by the state, can be produced only after borrowing money from the people.
To make matters worse, the people’s so-called “non-tax burdens,” which would normally only pay for parts, have increased to accommodate the purchase of tractors. The source says that these measures have increased suffering on the part of the people; in short, the authorities have imposed extra “non-tax burdens” while an already bad economic situation has grown worse.
“In the beginning, the officials said that participation in the tractor fund would be purely voluntary, but then it became compulsory. Heads of enterprises have been borrowing money from everywhere,” the source said.
This policy contrasts with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s emphasis on the “termination of non-tax burdens” in a speech at the Eighth Party Congress in January. While the party congress officially advocated the eradication of non-tax burdens, those attending the short course were – contradictorily – ordered to increase these non-tax burdens. All of this reveals the poor state of North Korea’s economy, particularly the fact that the state cannot provide support where it is needed.
It is also noteworthy that tractors recently featured in a North Korean media outlet had tires that were in very poor condition.
On Mar. 11, Korean Central Television released a video showing an exhibition of agricultural machinery at the Waudo Regional Brigade Specialized Collective Vegetable Farm. However, many tractors that appeared in the video had completely worn out the grooves on the treads of their wheels.
Tire treads that have been worn down by more than 50% generally have significantly poorer performance than normal treads, making it hard for the tractors to function properly and increasing the likeliness of safety-related problems.
It is difficult to determine whether the tractors can even move properly, especially when one considers that they mainly operate on agricultural land with poor road conditions.
Considering the fact that the tires on tractors selected for a television exhibition were in such poor condition, it seems that there is a problem with tire production in North Korea.
Daily NK reported earlier that North Korea’s shortages of raw materials are very serious, and that the production of tires is often made impossible by the lack of materials.
*Translated by S & J
