The justice department of Ryanggang province’s people committee has launched intensive inspections of farms throughout the province. While officials claim their goal is to root out corruption, many remain skeptical about whether these efforts can meaningfully address the agricultural sector’s deeply entrenched problems.
According to a Daily NK source in Ryanggang province recently, the provincial justice department notified the province’s rural economic committee of its inspection plans on June 18 and began conducting on-site farm inspections on June 23.
Initial inspection results reveal that legal violations at farms occur at more than three times the rate seen at factories and enterprises.
Unlike previous efforts that merely involved issuing instructions to city and county-level people’s committee justice divisions, this inspection campaign features direct visits by provincial justice officials who are combining inspections with on-site legal education.
Authorities say they aim to eliminate legal blind spots and correct administrative practices that violate legal standards.
North Korean farms are widely known to engage in practices such as inflating production reports, embezzling goods, and manipulating accounting records.
“The falsification of farm ledgers has been standard practice for a long time,” the source explained. “Since farms hold their own general meetings and manage operations and distribution themselves, they adjust the books to suit their interests.”
The source provided a specific example: “When higher-level officials visit, farms prepare hospitality meals and falsify the related expenses. They might claim they used five kilograms of corn when they only used one kilogram, then pocket the difference for personal use.”
Fake education sessions
The inspection also uncovered that legal education sessions by designated lecturers are largely ceremonial, with many cases where no actual lecture took place despite reports claiming otherwise.
“In the past, officials would occasionally give lectures urging residents to follow the law consciously, but nowadays it’s routine to skip the lecture entirely and simply submit a report claiming it happened,” the source said.
To combat this formalism, the justice department has compiled and distributed three new audiovisual materials to farms:
- An educational video on legal violations by farmworkers
- A casebook documenting punishments for infractions
- A guide to basic legal documentation
Unlike previous materials that simply outlined legal provisions, these new resources include actual violation cases and voice recordings. Examples reportedly include a sub-work team leader at a farm in Taehongdan county who failed to maintain material inventory logs, and a work team leader in Kapsan county who falsified workday records to help a worker earn private income in exchange for bribes.
Farm officials are nervous about the inspections, concerned that serious violations could lead to prosecution. However, ordinary farmworkers express doubt about the campaign’s effectiveness.
“Farmworkers question whether ‘socialist legal life’ even exists,” the source said. “They complain that no matter what the law says, officials with money and connections always escape consequences.”
Translated by Kyungmin Kim.
