soldiers, war, labor,
FILE PHOTO: North Korean soldiers are seen in Sakju County, North Pyongan Province. (Daily NK)

North Korea recently issued an order to deploy discharged soldiers to remote, run-down regions this year. The move comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced during a recent meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly that he would make overcoming regional imbalances a major focus of government policy.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a Daily NK source in Kangwon Province said on Monday that the Workers’ Party “decided to deploy discharged soldiers as laborers in run-down regions this year and ordered the military and the Cabinet to conduct a joint operation to this effect. Party officials explained that discharged soldiers must take the lead in developing regional industries and regional economies, which are crucial links in improving people’s livelihoods.”

Accordingly, in mid-January, the Ministry of Defense and the Cabinet issued a joint order instructing North Korea’s Military Manpower Bureau, local people’s committees, and other relevant agencies to “conduct organized activities to deploy discharged soldiers to regional mountain communities and agricultural villages as critical laborers.”

According to the source, the Military Manpower Bureau aims to finish deciding where to send late-term soldiers in the spring, summer, and fall by the end of January, with such efforts already underway.

The regional people’s committees are also making steady progress per the decisions of the Military Manpower Bureau. The Kangwon Provincial People’s Committee has instructed city and county-level labor departments to determine the labor needs of backwoods communities and run-down farming villages before the large-scale deployment of discharged soldiers.

The source said that the Kangwon Provincial People’s Committee plans to use the discharged soldiers as youth workers in local factories, rural housing construction sites, and agricultural work teams.

The authorities are effectively forcing discharged soldiers to live in run-down areas as laborers to achieve Kim’s new provincial development policy, among other state policies.

Provincial areas in immediate need of labor are pleased with the state’s use of discharged soldiers. But they also worry that some will try to run away, unable to adjust to their new, distant homes and the hardships they are likely to suffer.

In a policy speech before the 10th Plenary Meeting of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly on Jan. 15, Kim Jong Un expressed his firm intention to push ahead with regional development policies. “An important issue in improving the people’s living standards at present is to resolve the differences between the capital and the provinces and the imbalance between regions,” he said.

Kim unveiled his new “Regional Development 20×10 Policy” ( at the meeting, calling for the construction of modern regional industrial factories in 20 counties each year, “thus raising the basic material and cultural living standards of the people in all cities and counties in one step” nationwide within 10 years.

He also said, “I am thinking of setting up a department to guide the construction of regional industries in the Organizational Guidance Department of the Central Committee, and reviewing and promoting its work on my own responsibility,” suggesting that he would personally take charge of the matter.

Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.

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