The families of many university students in Pyongyang don’t have much to be grateful for these days, now that students from less affluent households are being forced to abandon their studies in favor of life on the front lines of construction projects around the capital’s showpiece districts. On the other hand, as is now very much the norm in North Korea, those with money are quietly solving the problem for themselves.
On Monday, The Daily NK met in China with a resident of Pyongan Province to hear about the latest situation.
According to the source, “A lot of students have been injected onto construction sites in downtown Pyongyang and the surrounding area, as well as along major roads. Everyone from Pyongyang universities is being ‘mobilized’ onto these construction sites, apart from professors and certain students.”
The Daily NK reported on the project in around the middle of June, stating that students from Pyonyang and bigger regional universities were being used on construction projects under a ‘socialist construction mobilization order’.
However, the source cautioned, “They can get away with not being sent if they pay $100 to their university every month. I understand that the children of Party cadres and families engaged in trade on a larger scale are pretty much all getting out of it in this way.”
Looked at through the basic lens of rice prices, one dollar is currently worth between 2,500 and 2,700 North Korean won, while 1kg of rice is currently trading for approximately 2,100 won. This means the sum required to avoid mobilization for one month could alternatively buy roughly 120kg of rice, putting it well out of reach of the average family, even in the capital.
The source further explained that the length of time an individual spends on construction is determined by when and whether the project assigned to that specific university is complete or not. However, the fundamental lack of raw materials and resources caused by economic difficulties mean that progress is slow regardless of the relative effort level of the students.
“The students working on construction cannot study, and rumor has it this could last for a year,” the source added, mirroring previously reported information. “People are openly saying that a 2 year university courses will now be 3 years, 4 year courses will now take 5 years and so on.”
For this reason, anxiety is high for the less affluent households, with parents unclear how they can possibly survive such a situation.
