Ahead of the start of the pine nut harvest season, North Korea’s Central Committee and the country’s Cabinet issued a joint order on Aug. 1 that instructed provinces to strengthen controls over state-owned pine nut forests to ensure the state can earn foreign currency from the harvest.
According to a Yanggang Province-based source on Aug. 19, North Korean authorities learned that workers in some provinces were doing as they pleased with the forests, a “state-owned asset,” and issued the order ahead of the harvest season, which stretches from August and into September.
Yanggang Province is home to a large amount of pine nut forests and the province has already seen government land parceled out to paying individuals since the spring, the source told Daily NK, speaking on condition of anonymity. In light of the country’s difficult economic situation, local authorities began offering residents plots in pine nut forests in return for money, which they then used to pay required contributions to national or provincial construction projects.
“The government made it clear that irrespective of the circumstances in some provinces, pine nut forests belong to the government,” the source said. “The authorities warned that any officials caught offering land to individuals in return for money, instead of properly managing it as a state asset, will be unconditionally thrown in jail.”
Notably, the order stated that pine nuts harvested from government-owned forests in each province will be split 50/50 between the state and foreign currency-earning agencies. This split, however, switches to 80/20 in favor of the central government if provinces are found to have offered land to individuals.
“The government also instructed that any provinces not following the rules on dividing up [the harvest of] pine nuts should be investigated and dealt with by the judicial authorities,” the source said.
According to the source, the authorities also expressed an intention to put thorough security policies in place to prevent harvested pine nuts from being siphoned off to other locations.
The source noted that officials in some provinces believe it will be difficult to carry out these orders. One of the reasons that officials rented out plots of land in pine nut forests to individuals for money is because they have not had enough workers to effectively harvest the land. Unless the state is able to provide extra manpower, they have no way to harvest all the pine nuts requested by the state, the source said, based on what he had heard.
“In North Hamgyong Province and South Hamgyong Province, where state-owned forests have not been offered to individuals, armed guards have been deployed around the forests as part of efforts to implement the ‘joint order,’” the source added.
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