Facing the bitter cold, some Hyesan residents have resorted to stealing their neighbors’ outhouse doors for firewood, Daily NK has learned.
“Many households outside downtown Hyesan are suffering from freezing temperatures due to a lack of firewood,” a source in Yanggang Province said Tuesday on condition of anonymity. “They often steal the outhouse doors of private homes for firewood.”
According to the source, Hyesan has recently experienced a cold snap, with temperatures dropping to minus 20 degrees Celsius. However, many households can barely heat their homes once a day because they cannot afford firewood.
In fact, in outlying areas such as the neighborhoods of Yonbong 2-dong, Tapsong-dong, and Masan-dong, only about five families per neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More can afford to heat their homes three times a day. The rest can only heat their homes once or twice a day.
Neighborhood watch units are the lowest administrative units in North Korea and typically consist of around 20 households.
Stealing anything that burns
Unable to watch their children shiver in the cold at home all day while schools are on vacation, people are starting to steal firewood, the source said.
The source said people have taken to stealing anything that will burn. There have been several cases where thieves have been caught stealing the plywood gates of private homes, with the perpetrators running away or being caught and beaten to death, or people making off with their neighbors’ outhouse doors.
“Since the New Year’s holiday, people in every neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More in Masan-dong have been talking about outhouse door thefts overnight,” the source said. “This is quite extraordinary and indicates that the problems are quite serious.”
The source said the thefts are caused by the economic difficulties of people who cannot escape their hardships no matter how hard they try to survive.
“Many families in downtown Hyesan are struggling, but families in the outskirts of the city are suffering even worse hardships, which has led to unimaginable things like people stealing outhouse doors for firewood,” the source said. “People are getting more and more frustrated because the authorities have done nothing, even though people now have to steal to survive.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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