Ahead of North Korea’s 7th Party Congress
scheduled to start on May 6, an order has been put forward to forcibly evict
300 families currently living in Hyesan City, Ryanggang Province. The move is
being seen as an attempt by Kim Jong Un to demonstrate regime consolidation to
a domestic and international audience with proactive attempts to block defector
routes.
In a telephone conversation with Daily NK
on April 29, a source in Ryanggang Province said, “Recently, authorities have
handed down an order to demolish 300 family residences in Hyegang-dong, a
riverside region in northern Hyesan City. The stated purpose is to ‘reorganize’
the border areas, with the demolition poised to begin immediately following the
completion of the ‘70-Day Battle’ in early May. Nearby residents are upset
about the news.”
When asked about the attitude of these
residents, the source said, “Everyone expected to breathe a sigh of relief at
the end of the ‘70-Day Battle’, which entailed accelerated construction by
mobilizing residents with hard work for long hours. But now these residents are
facing a grim reality, given the news that their homes will be destroyed in
short order. The fact that North Korea is entering the peak agriculture season
only compounds their problems.”
According to the source, the current effort
is an extension of earlier actions undertaken by the regime to destroy private
homes in Hyesan City’s Songhu-dong and Kanggu-dong areas in 2014. The forced
relocation of residents in Hyegang-dong is a continuation of the regime’s
efforts to block defector routes by depopulating the border areas.
Provincial authorities are stating that
“these orders have been made in order to block traitors (defectors), so don’t
even consider complaining.” Some residents in the region are assuming that the
number of people who are considering leaving North Korea must be increasing,
because their lives have gotten more difficult after the implementation of the
UN sanctions. This, they say, would explain why the regime is reorganizing the
region near the bank of the Amnok [Yalu] River in Hyegang-dong.
“The provincial People’s Committee
Department of Housing has already collected landlord certificate documents from
all of the residents whose homes will be destroyed. A minority of these
residents will be able to afford the purchase of new homes, but most are in a
state of shock and will have few options available to them,” an additional
source in Ryanggang Province reported.
For their part, the North Korean
authorities have promised to build new homes for these residents, but
practically no one believes this. Last year, the authorities publicly
guaranteed the reconstruction of 52 homes that were destroyed by a fire in
Kangan-dong, but progress has been exceedingly slow.
“Construction managers for the new homes to
replace those lost in the fire have only just started recruiting construction
workers,” the source explained. “Knowing this, the Hyegang-dong residents have
realized that it will be a considerable amount of time before they can hope to
have their homes replaced. The authorities are using the lure of new homes
being provided [by the state] in order to push the residents whose homes will
be demolished to participate more fully in the work demanded of them, including
mobilizations.”
Due to the severity of the situation, some
of the affected residents are undertaking preparatory measures in desperation,
purchasing vinyl sheeting to lay atop of wooden planks (to create makeshift
shanties) after their dwellings have been demolished.
