Photos of Fishing NK Residents

[imText1]It was drizzling too on August 9 in the Sino-North Korea border area. I went out with my camera to the Yalu River.

There were about 80 North Korean residents fishing to make a living on the Yalu River, which belongs to Sakju-gun, Okgang-gu of North Pyongan province. I got on a boat and pressed the shutter.

The people I may be able to touch only if I stretched my arm… August 2005, I could feel the harsh living and smell the sweat of the brethren of the North.

The location of the scenes is the river bank of the Yalu River of Sakju-gun, Okgang-gu of North Pyongan province, a farming village of located 25km from Sakju in the direction to Uiju, and 20km from Uiju in the direction of Sakju. The opposite side is Changdianhekou of Guandian, China.

The Yalu River has abundant smelts that had been released by the Japanese during the construction of Supoong hydroelectric power plant. North Korean people call smelts, “oil fish” because smelts have a lot of fat.

The reason why the Japanese released smelts is to prevent oxidation of the propellers of the power plant. When the smelts die caught in the propellers, they naturally oil the propellers, but it lacks scientific justification. In any case, those smelts have bred in multiples so the residents along the Yalu River enjoy fishing them.

When it rains a lot in the border area, water in the Supoong Dam overflows. Then they control the water level by opening the water gate, by the number of gates they open.

In 1994, they released water by opening all the doors. The height of head of water is about 105m. The fish fall out of such height flow out of the river fainted. The residents wait the dead fish to flow down and take them out with a net to eat.

People are catching with without raincoats but only with pieces of vinyl on.

The news “water gates of Supoong will be open” is a news people wait for. This is because they can catch not only smelt but many other kinds of fish. When the water gates are open, people from all ages come out to catch fish.

Even the children are out to catch fish. It is not hard to see the nutrition situation did not improve for the children by their dark skin and emaciated body line.

A fainted fish that fell down from Supoong water plant floating on the river. The size of the fish is about 10cm to 15cm. The fish makes people happy.

They are not “fishing.” As if they are competing on who catches more fish, people run into water that comes up to their waist to catch the floating fish. If the plant opens another gate without notice, people can be swept away by water. They are risking lives to catch fish.

Children under age of ten catching fish in the rain. The elementary school in North Korea is also in vacation now. The vacation usually starts around August 1 and ends around September 1.

A child is returning home with the fish she caught. She probably had a full stomach that night for the first time in many days.

Armed North Korean border patrols watch the border area to prevent secret trafficking between North Korean residents and Chinese people. The patrol belongs to Sakju Compound of the 38 Border Patrol Unit. The border patrol does not belong to the People’s Military but to Border Patrol Command Department.