After a family of three living in a tent in a mountainous area of Yanggang Province was discovered dead recently, police have launched an investigation into how they died, Daily NK has learned.
According to a Daily NK source in Yanggang Province, the bodies of the three — including the father, identified by his family name of Choe — were discovered in the mountains near downtown Pungso County on Jan. 8.
The family had reportedly been suffering from severe food shortages since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To resolve his family’s food problems, Choe decided to sell his home, move into the mountains and cultivate the land.
The family began living in the mountains in early April of this year, the source said.
Choe and his family had been living in the mountains about six kilometers from downtown Pungso County, in a spot where locals could easily stop while searching for wintertime firewood in the mountains.
In fact, it was a local person looking for firewood who found the family dead and informed the local police after he entered Choe’s tent for a glass of water.
The man told police that the tent, whose door was closed, was full of gas, and that he found the family on the tent’s floor with bubbles in their mouths.
Based on this testimony, the county police believe the family died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The family appears to have failed to properly ventilate their tent while living in the mountains during the cold winter.
According to the source, more and more people have sold their homes to live in the mountains since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Living requires having to accept restrictions and punishments from your workplace or neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More, but [these people] chose to give up everything and live in the mountains to solve their food problems and avoid social burdens,” he said.
The source said the police have yet to finish their investigation into the deaths of the Choe family.
“The police believe it’s also possible that they didn’t suffocate by accident, but were murdered,” he said. “That’s why they are still investigating, and it could take some time before they reach a conclusion.”
After Yanggang Province’s party committee received a report of the family’s death, the provincial party committee’s chief secretary ordered local police to find families living in the mountains and send them back to their places of residence.
City and county police in the province are currently ascertaining who is living in the mountains and sending them back to their homes, “but people who went into the mountains to solve their hardships are refusing to go home, asking that they be left to farm in the mountains,” the source said.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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