Amid efforts to build 50,000 housing units in Pyongyang, North Korean authorities have recently mobilized orphans for construction work in the city’s Sopo District. The employment of orphaned teenagers at a construction site has aroused criticism inside the country.
Speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, a reporting partner in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that the North Korean government recently assigned middle and high school students from an orphanage in the city to construction work in Sopo District.
More specifically, the South Pyongan Province branch of the Workers’ Party of Korea placed some 70 students from an orphanage in the city of Pyongsong in a “speed battle shock troop unit” assigned to the construction site.
Children without parents in North Korea progress through three tiers of orphanages that double as schools — the first tier covers nursery and kindergarten curriculums, the second covers the elementary curriculum (ages 7-11), and the third covers the middle and high school curriculums (ages 12-15).
The fact that orphans in their early teens had been put to work on the construction site came out when a senior member of the South Pyongan Province Party Committee called for the orphans on the shock troop unit to “at least be sent some food” during a discussion of assistance for construction work in Sopo District.
Some object to use of orphans on construction projects
Participants in the meeting reportedly objected that poor kids without any parents to look after them had been put on a construction detail.
According to another reporting partner in North Korea, who spoke to Daily NK on condition of anonymity, the North Korean authorities coerced students in the graduating class at the third-tier orphanage in Pyongyang to “volunteer” for the shock troop unit at the construction site in Sopo District. “You orphans have got to show your gratitude to the party for raising you,” they were apparently told.
What may have appeared voluntary was actually compulsory, with every one of the students in the graduating class given no choice but to sign up for the construction detail.
Since the groundbreaking was held for road construction in Pyongyang’s Sopo District on Feb. 25, the North Korean authorities have been focusing on rounding up people to help with the construction work.
Rodong Sinmun and other North Korean media outlets have been boasting that young people have been “voluntarily gathering from around the country” to work on construction. However, they have basically been coerced into working on the project because of the social disadvantages they would face if they refused.
Although people from around the country and all walks of life have been roped into the housing construction project, work crews remain shorthanded, prompting the government to set its sights on orphaned teenagers.
“There are many examples of teenagers from third-tier orphanages being mobilized for work at construction sites, farms and ranches,” a defector in South Korea told Daily NK, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The North Korean authorities like to brag about expanding support for orphans as part of their ‘love-for-the-people politics,’ but in reality, children without parents are being exploited as a source of labor that can be monopolized by the state.”
Regime emphasizes love and concern for orphaned children
Since coming to power, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has appeared in state-run media making several visits to orphanages and ordering that they receive more assistance. He has also ordered the construction of more orphanages in Pyongyang.
Kim has used those visits to underline his “love-of-the-people leadership” and the party’s love and concern for children.
On Apr. 12, Rodong Sinmun printed photographs of children at orphanages in Wonsan, Kangwon Province, eating snacks in modern-looking facilities. “Orphans’ luxurious abodes are clustered in the warm and loving embrace of General Secretary Kim Jong Un, who withholds nothing from future generations,” the newspaper said.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea and China. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
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