North Korea’s government recently issued an order for the country’s graineries to adopt ozone treatments to enable the long-term storage of grain. However, many people in the grain processing sector believe the order overlooks the fact that graineries are wholly unprepared to apply ozone treatment to grains.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Friday that “provincial people’s committees and agricultural community financial committees received an order from the Cabinet’s Agricultural Commission in early August instructing graineries and farms to start ozone treatments by the end of August with a view to use the treatments to store fresh grain from the fall harvest.”
In the order, the Agricultural Commission stated that “cities and counties in each province must carry out simultaneous and mutal inspections of grain warehouses to determine if conditions are suitable to adopt the treatments.”
For its part, South Pyongan Province’s government duly relayed the order to cities and counties, telling them to “report in full any problems found during the mutual inspections by the end of August,” noting that all localities “must fulfill the order in the spirit of self-reliance.”
However, Daily NK’s source said that graineries and farms affiliated with the grain departments of city and county people’s committees are reacting with astonishment at the order given that they are unprepared to adopt ozone treatments.
Local officials tell grainery officials to just go through the motions
In fact, some grainery officials have complained that “there is never enough grain to store from the harvest each year,” and question whether this year will be any different, according to the source.
“The provincial government simply relayed the instructions regarding the ozone treatments they received from the central government. Local officials aren’t happy about having to carry out inspections given the graineries are not being provided with support. With everyone below them complaining about the order, provincial officials are just trying to coax everyone into at least pretending to comply.
“Provincial authorities are facing a ton of orders from the central government. As it urges officials to at least go through the motions – all the while complaining it can do little to help them – on-site officials are hesitating, noting that even if they say they’ll adopt the ozone treatments, it will come to naught since they’ve got nothing to help them.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. 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.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
