North Korean elementary, middle and high school students are being forced to collect sand on the edge of a stream flowing through Hyesan, Daily NK has learned.
“Since July 7 – just a week after schools went on vacation – students have been collecting sand near a small stream in Masan District that flows into the Yalu River,” a source in Ryanggang Province told Daily NK yesterday. “The students have found spots near the stream where there’s a lot of sand to collect and are focused on the task at hand.”
A video acquired by Daily NK (below) shows the North Korean children collecting sand near the stream. They are seen using shovels and pickaxes to dig into the ground or filtering out sand using box-shaped seeves. The children are also seen placing the sand they have collected into a designated spot.
The source told Daily NK that the students are collecting sand on the stream because they are unable to head out to the Yalu River – where much more sand could be collected – because authorities are heavily patrolling the immediate border area to crack down smuggling activities.
The authorities may have also forced the students to collect sand away from the Yalu River out of concern that images of children working could be photographed. These photographs could be used to support accusations that North Korean authorities permit forced child labor.
In fact, the country’s military authorities have warned that South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency captures photos of kids working and publishes them in newspapers, the source said.
According to the source, the students involved in sand-collection activities in Hyesan are from eight different elementary, middle and high schools. The Hyesan Ministry of Education reportedly ordered the schools to “revamp” their interiors and exteriors during the vacation period.
Municipal authorities reportedly examined the hallways and walls of several schools that had damaged roofs or severely dilapidated buildings and questioned how schools in such a condition could exist in Ryanggang Province, the “home province” of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
“Several schools were selected for significant revamping and they were ordered to fix their issues during the summer vacation period,” the source said, further explaining that students at these schools have been forced to collect sand to use in the revamping process instead of being forced to work on farms – a decision likely affected by the spread of COVID-19.
The schools reportedly handed down specific quotas of how much sand each three-person team of students should collect. The schools also directed the students to get rid of as much moisture from the sand they collected as possible because “wet sand” cannot be used in revamping the schools.
The parents of some students have paid to have their children exempted from the forced labor, the source further reported, adding that parents are also being forced to pay for the purchase of cement. The source noted that the costs of cement vary between school and even school grade.
“The schools are demanding parents provide money to pay for wages, meals and even alcohol for plasterers – not to mention the tools used by these workers,” the source said.
“Each elementary school student [grades three to five] must pay KPW 5,000, middle school students must pay KPW 7,500 each, while high school students must pay KPW 10,000 each,” he added.
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