North Korea’s government is calling on young people to tour Mount Paektu as part of efforts to encourage them to “learn from the Paektu revolutionary spirit.” Many young people, however, are uninterested in the tours because they are considered a waste of time.
A source in South Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Monday that Hamhung’s party committee has been unable to fill up spots on tours of Mount Paektu.
“It’s because fewer people want to participate in the tours than in the past,” he said.
According to the source, North Korea has ordered party organizations nationwide to put together tours of the Mount Paektu district’s revolutionary historical sites this year, as it did last year.
However, party organizations are reportedly experiencing difficulties filling up tours because young people are avoiding the outings.
The source said young people “are complaining to the tour organizers of fatigue.”
“Last year, about 60% of the people recommended by various organizations refused to participate, citing family or health issues. This year, even more people are avoiding the tours,” he explained.
In fact, one member of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League branch of a company in Hamhung’s Ranam District reportedly received treatment at a hospital after taking an intentional tumble down the stairs upon learning his name was put on a list of Mount Paektu tour participants.
In another instance, a student at Hamhung’s university of traditional Korean medicine bribed a school cadre to take his name off the list, saying that tours of Mount Paektu in the bitter cold of January were nothing but hardship.
The source said young people are trying everything to avoid the tours because participants must pay for everything they need, including uniforms and food.
He explained that more and more young people are avoiding the tours because they will have to pay for medical treatment if they come down with frostbite while participating in forced marches in the bitter cold.
In fact, large numbers of frostbite cases emerged among the young people who climbed Mount Paektu in mid-January.
However, officials offered no treatment and told the climbers to stay in line, admonishing them that “for young people, struggle is priceless” and that “young people grow up when their noses and feet freeze.”
The source said in the old days, people would go into a panic if they missed a tour to Mount Paektu, “but young people think differently nowadays.”
“It’s tough enough to make a living, so there’s no reason to use their own money to climb Mount Paektu, where the average temperature plummets to minus 40,” he said.
Some of the young people who experienced tours of Mount Paektu have complained that “simply going up Mount Paektu doesn’t constitute ideological education” and that they were “tortured by cold weather,” the source added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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