The North Korean authorities have recently launched a heavy crackdown on private vendors of fuel oil, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK last Friday that the police have been clamping down hard on private individuals selling fuel in the city of Sinuiju — as well as confiscating their fuel during the arrest.
The source explained that the recent crackdown on private fuel vendors is due to fuel shortages at farms at the beginning of the autumn harvest.
As the harvest gets underway across the country, the authorities are nabbing private fuel vendors and confiscating all the fuel in their possession to ensure that there is enough fuel to run farm equipment.
It appears that the confiscated fuel is being immediately sent to the farms. According to the source, apprehended vendors have been unable to recover their fuel later even after they visited the police with a bribe.
“The plan to toughen enforcement used to be announced through meetings of the inminban [neighborhood watch unit]. But this time, there were no warnings before the police abruptly ratcheted up their enforcement campaign and began ruthlessly confiscating the fuel. The private vendors who were caught on the first day of the crackdown suffered the greatest losses.”
Rumors about the crackdown soon spread through the market, which prompted private vendors to stop selling fuel or even go into hiding.
Police officials pilfer fuel to line their own pockets
Meanwhile, some policemen have been siphoning off a portion of the confiscated fuel and then selling it on the side. That kind of improper behavior is provoking anger not only among the apprehended vendors but among ordinary citizens as well.
“Policemen have been asking friends to sell the pilfered fuel on their behalf to conceal their identity and then failing to adequately compensate them for their troubles. That has caused rumors about inappropriate police behavior to quickly spread through the population,” the source said.
The crackdown on private fuel vendors is underway not only in Sinuiju but also in Hyesan, a city in Yanggang Province.
“It’s considered illegal for individuals to own or sell fuel here [in North Korea]. Even at normal times, fuel vendors have always lived in fear of being apprehended. But more recently, enforcement has gotten a lot tougher, and policemen are randomly raiding vendors’ fuel stashes,” a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The source explained that some vendors have managed to minimize losses from the crackdown by storing their fuel in several locations instead of a single one.
“Our government tries to resolve every shortage by forcing citizens to shoulder the burden or shaking them down on the pretext of [punishing] anti-socialist and non-socialist behavior. That practice is making people increasingly frustrated with the government.”
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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