North Korean authorities are forcing ordinary people to provide food to party members mobilized for rural construction work in Yanggang Province, Daily NK has learned.
“Rice was already collected in Sinuiju at the beginning of this month for the teams of party members that are leaving for Yanggang Province to build houses in rural areas there. And now city residents are being asked once again to donate food, which is provoking discontent,” a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
According to the source, the city of Sinuiju had inminban (neighborhood watch units) instruct each family at the beginning of this month to donate two kilograms of rice for party members on the rural construction work teams. Families without rice on hand were asked to donate KPW 10,000 cash instead.
But recently, the neighborhood watch units held another round of meetings to inform families that they were expected to donate food on a voluntary basis to the construction work teams.
During this process, the leader of one neighborhood watch unit in Sinuiju got in a scuffle with local residents after calling out individual families who had not been able to make a two kilogram donation and pressuring them to donate.
“Families who are doing well and have money to spare could give a little more, but poor families who haven’t so much as seen a bowl of rice in months get stressed out whenever they’re told to donate. The argument broke out after people lost their temper over the unit head acting like families were holding back on purpose while knowing full well about their actual circumstances,” the source said.
Residents of North Hamgyong Province have also been frustrated about being coerced into making nominally “voluntary” donations of rice, which are used to support teams of party members doing rural construction work in Yanggang Province.
“Times are so tough right now that people often say they’d die happy if they could only eat their fill. So it’s no wonder people are upset that the government keeps telling them to make donations, voluntary or not. Some people gripe that the housing construction work is pointless since it’s just a way for blood-sucking bureaucrats to win brownie points,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK.
“Quite a few people are angry at the government for bringing party members together from all over the country to refurbish the rural areas in Yanggang Province while expecting ordinary people to provide all their provisions without covering any of the costs on its own,” the source added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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