Cargo trains recently returning to Sinuiju from Dandong have been half-empty, Daily NK has learned.
This development comes after freight train service between North Korea and China restarted last month, and suggests that North Korean authorities are having difficulties managing the sudden spike in imported items.
In a telephone conversation with Daily NK on Wednesday, a source in North Hamgyong Province said two cars of a train that recently returned from China were completely empty. Only the train’s other two cars were carrying goods.
Immediately after Jan. 16, when freight train service restarted for the first time in about two years, 10-car trains returned to Sinuiju from Dandong full of goods.
As the cargo loads decreased, however, trains of seven to eight cars began making the trip. Recently, even four-car trains are coming back partially empty.
The lack of space at the quarantine facility in Uiju, where imports entering through Sinuiju are stored, may be the reason.
According to the source, people wonder whether the trains are coming back half-empty because the Uiju facility is full, and therefore unable to accept any more goods.
Another Daily NK source said the authorities are adjusting the schedules and loads of China-North Korea freight trains depending on the capacity of the Uiju quarantine facility.
Quarantine times depend on the item, but some cargo can spend up to two months in the facility. Because of this, the flow of imports and exports has been less-than-smooth.
Meanwhile, the authorities are reportedly tearing their hair out over frequent thefts at the Uiju facility.
The source said dozens of people steal items stored at the facility every night. He said a guardpost has been set up to protect the goods, but because so many thieves are involved — thieves who apparently know the area around the facility — protecting the items is proving difficult.
He said stolen goods include foodstuffs, plastic pipes, medical supplies and other items, suggesting that the thieves are stealing as much as they can to sell with little concern for what, exactly, they are stealing.
Two North Korean men in their 30s were reportedly sentenced to forced labor recently after they were caught stealing construction supplies and medical supplies stored at the quarantine facility.
North Korean authorities ban ordinary people from approaching quarantine facilities and are bolstering exemplary punishments of people who steal quarantined items. Yet, thefts have not stopped.
The source said many people still peak into the facility looking for imported items to steal despite the strengthened punishments. He said it seems a growing number of people are risking their lives to steal due to the country’s poor economic conditions.
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