The Kangwon Province Party Committee has rebuked a factory in Wonsan for its lackluster participation in rural labor mobilizations, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Kangwon Province told Daily NK on Thursday that the provincial party committee’s organization and guidance department “recently visited the Wonsan Communications Cable Factory to conduct a large-scale struggle meeting.”
He said the factory got into trouble because “it had received a four-day general mobilization order for weeding the corn fields of nearby farms in the first week of July, but it didn’t mobilize workers even once.”
The provincial party committee’s organization and guidance department castigated the factory for failing to support rural communities and for passively implementing regional development plans.
According to the source, the ideological struggle meeting was held on the morning of July 10 with the full participation of the factory staff. During the meeting, the officials of the organization and guidance department severely reprimanded the leading officials of the factory, including the factory director, the elementary party secretary, the technical director and the deputy director.
Mutual criticism also took place, with the officials of the organization and guidance department taking the unusual step of calling on ordinary workers to criticize the mistakes of the factory officials on the spot. Some workers with grievances against their superiors denounced the attitude and behavior of the factory officials as if they had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
The factory officials stared at the ground throughout the meeting, simply accepting the mob’s criticism as ordinary workers joined in. They appeared intimidated; given the seriousness of the matter, with the organization and leadership department directly involved, the officials are likely to face punishment or disciplinary reassignment.
Perhaps because of this, some workers said that it was difficult for officials in their small factory to do their jobs under the current circumstances.
The province’s organization and guidance department, however, stressed the seriousness of the matter, saying that it was “a party and ideological problem as an extremely dangerous act of ignoring party policy.” It threatened that “harsh sanctions will follow if the factory doesn’t properly implement regional development policies or agricultural support activities in the future.”
“After the meeting, factory workers said they had reaffirmed that powerful party departments such as the organization and guidance department are at the center of regional development policies and agricultural support activities,” he said. “For the time being, factory officials and workers are likely to work to strictly follow party policies and ideological principles.”
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons.
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