Authorities in provinces along the Chinese border are levying fines up to $280 on families with hillside graves, citing damage to national image and reforestation needs, but people say the real burden falls on those already struggling economically.
“In border regions of North Hamgyong province, including Hoeryong, the authorities have recently fined families in neighborhood watch units with ancestral tombs on hillsides, with the families in question rushing to prepare exhumations since the fine is so large,” a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently.
According to the source, the authorities have demanded the removal of the tombs because they regard the rows of tombs on hillsides along the border region as injurious to the national image; moreover, they argue that the hillsides must be reforested. However, given the rarity of tree-planting efforts in winter, people say the reforestation “is in name only, with a view toward the outside world.”
In particular, people criticize the move, saying it is “absurd for the authorities to tell us to unearth tombs and cremate remains because it doesn’t look good from outside the country, and slapping huge fines on us if we don’t,” and that “few of the trees they planted before survived, and even if the ones they plant now survive, they’ll all get cut down as firewood.”
The North Korean authorities have long ordered the removal of hillside tombs, and most people who have responded to the order have carried out funerals by cremating the remains and spreading the ash in rivers. However, families experiencing economic hardship have delayed exhuming the tombs — all the while keeping an eye on the authorities — as even cremations are financially burdensome.
Fines equivalent to 400 kilograms of rice push families deeper into debt
However, with the North Korean authorities recently taking a harder line, levying heavy fines on families that fail to remove the tombs, families are quickly preparing to unearth graves and cremate the remains.
“The state appears to have levied the heavy fines because many families failed to follow several orders issued earlier,” the source said. “As the cost of exhumation and cremation is just a quarter of the fine, the families in question are rushing to prepare.”
In fact, families in one neighborhood watch unit in Hoeryong with unremoved hillside ancestral tombs in the border region were fined 2,000 Chinese yuan ($280). People criticized the fines as excessive — 2,000 yuan is a large sum that could buy over 400 kilograms of rice in a North Korean market.
People in the neighborhood watch unit in question complained to the unit’s head, saying families “couldn’t pay the fine when they had nothing to eat” and that “living people would have to go hungry to remove the tombs of the dead.” Ultimately, the neighborhood watch unit head gave families a grace period until the end of the month.
“More people say they will cremate their ancestors’ remains rather than pay the fine, but with the prices of cremations doubling, people who have no choice but to borrow money to do so are being driven deeper into poverty,” the source said.
The authorities are levying fines on families with unremoved tombs in the border regions of North Pyongan and Ryanggang provinces, too. The fines differ slightly by region because the provincial, city and county people’s committees set their own penalties.
At a meeting in one people’s committee in Hyesan, Ryanggang province, families were told they would pay 1,500 yuan ($210) if they failed to remove tombs by the end of the month. The families in question complain that this is a heavy burden.
A source in Ryanggang province said that “many people complain that they are going further into debt because cremations — and even getting dates for the cremations — costs money.”
In North Korea, exhuming or moving a tomb is considered a serious matter connected to a family’s destiny, so people pay a fortune teller to give them a “good date” for the disinterment. Because people must pay the fortune teller for the best date and sometimes even pay to “ward off evil,” families must endure a heavy financial burden, the source said.
“The authorities say this is the people’s world and a nation for the people, but the reality here is that people who are tightening their belts are told to pay huge fines just because they didn’t remove their ancestral tombs,” the source said. “This doesn’t seem like something a country that supports its people would do.”
