North Korea has reportedly expanded its
foreign currency-earning projects to young students in an effort to make up
for a lack of funds in carrying out other ‘loyalty’ projects for the 70th anniversary
of the Workers’ Party foundation fast approaching in October, Daily NK has
learned.
“State-run factories nationwide have
received projects to earn in ‘loyalty foreign-currency’ for the 70th anniversary of Party
foundation day,” a source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Thursday.
“According to these measures, workers have been grouped into five or six
members to produce gold and pine mushrooms.”
Daily NK cross-checked this information
with sources in North and South Hamkyung Provinces as well as North Pyongan
Province.
Everyone from homemakers to elementary
school students are required to participate in the ordinance, making things
just that more difficult for parents, she said, noting, “Homemakers have been
asked to hand in castor beans, while students have been tasked with submitting
rabbit skin, copper and other colored metals.”
Under the directive, each student has been
ordered to hand over two rabbit skins, forcing parents to seek them out at the
markets, where vendors have wasted no time jacking up the prices to make a tidy
profit. With demand ticking up, prices have skyrocketed, and people have
taken to comparing the skins to gold, according to the source.
Things for factory workers are much the same. “At regular factories, people are required to donate enough gold for
the entire enterprise to turn in at least 5g of gold, so the factory’s Party
secretaries are collecting money from the workers to purchase the precious
metal,” the source explained. “The groups in charge of procuring gold are
making rounds near known production gold rich areas like South Pyongan
Province’s Hoechang Mine, and South Hamkyung Province’s Sangnong Mine to broker
deals with local residents there.”
These ‘loyalty foreign-currency projects’
have also been handed down to military bases under the Ministry of People’s
Armed Forces, prompting platoons of 30 to 40 soldiers to dig around abandoned
mines in search of ore, according to the source.
“Military bases have not been given a strict
guideline on how much gold to produce, but in some ways this actually puts
them in a tougher spot; instead, their loyalty will be based on the
quality and amount with no knowledge of what will pass muster,” she said.
“Soldiers have been climbing dozens or
hundreds of meters into abandoned mines with sledgehammers and pickaxes,
leading to a number of accidents.”
People who had been looking forward to
receiving gifts or benefits on the upcoming national holiday are outraged at
the state for “clawing into everyone to dig up everything it can,” and even
exploiting children to meet its financial demands.
