The authorities in Yangkang Province have put an unusually high burden on the people of the region this year; a burden that sources claim is causing deepening resentment. Most recently, an order to repair sidewalks caused great consternation.
A source from the province explained to Daily NK on the 26th, “Last week there was this sudden people’s unit meeting. It was about restoring damaged sidewalks. The people’s unit head said that the people should bear the cost of repairing them, but then some people fiercely protested and some just stormed out. The meeting didn’t even end properly.”
“The state is meant to guarantee to provide everything for state projects, but they wanted to shift the burden onto the people this time on the basis that it’s the people who use the roads,” the source asserted. “People can mostly tolerate being mobilized to take part in state projects, but ordering someone who is busy just getting by to give money is a bit like asking her family to starve.”
According to the source, the Yangkang Province authorities imposed the burden of dealing with the problem on the individual people’s units, and people’s unit heads had to pass the cost on to each household in the unit. As the source noted, although the order only actually calls for the sidewalks to be repaired, the materials to do so must also be purchased.
“In places like Hyesan, construction materials are of poor quality,” the source said. “Thin precast paving blocks are laid directly on the road, and when the ground rises in winter they crack and get damaged. There are a few places where the blocks have all been taken, too. That’s why the authorities have ordered this.”
However, “People’s unit heads also know very well that people are harvesting barley now, and if they can’t engage in market activity in during the day many will find it hard to feed their families. They are sort of saying it like ‘there is no way that we can’t follow the order.’ People are just astonished.”
