South Hamgyong Province authorities recently ordered rapid progress in the construction of rural housing in local cities and counties, Daily NK has learned.
A Daily NK source in South Hamgyong Province said Friday that the provincial party committee is pressing ahead “in several ways” to achieve rapid progress in construction – including the dispatch of technicians to construction sites – with a view to complete “the construction of rural housing in cities and counties in line with this year’s construction plans.”
According to the source, the province’s party committee decided on Aug. 30 to dispatch technicians to construction sites “to successfully press ahead” with construction of modern “socialist” housing in agricultural communities, ordering cities and counties to execute rural housing projects with the support of the province.
In fact, the provincial party committee ordered localities to ensure that construction sites have priority access to oil for construction machinery, and to concentrate on logistical efforts to gather funds and mobilize labor for construction, even if that meant levying “non-tax burdens” (quasi taxes) on farmers.
The source said in Chongpyong County, local authorities have responded to the provincial party committee’s order by demanding that all households take part in support efforts. They have ordered neighborhood watch units to determine which households have contributed no support and “report them to neighborhood and village party committees.”
Local authorities even threatened farming households who fail to support the construction effort with bad “reviews” and exclusion from the allocation lists for the new homes, likening their “shameless, conscienceless behavior” to “receiving for free a home the state worked so hard to build.”
However, farmers are rather gutsily responding to the scolding with complaints of their own. “Our families have little to eat, and we’re barely getting by day-to-day. And you’ve asked us to build houses when life is this hard?” they ask. “We don’t care if we receive a house or not.”
The source said since the provincial party committee issued its order, construction of rural homes — which had been proceeding at a lax pace — has suddenly begun picking up speed.
“With builders storming into home building sites where the ground had barely been broken and construction proceeding so quickly, locals are expressing concern,” he said.
With workers erecting walls by slapping together poor-quality materials, and then moving quickly to plaster the just-finished walls, locals are reportedly worried that the homes are unsafe and could collapse at any time.
The source added that even farm officials quietly worry that woe might befall them if they were to move into the homes.
Rodong Sinmun reported in an article last Thursday that officials and workers in each province — “holding aloft the party’s grand conception for building socialist rural housing” — were ceaselessly expanding the results of construction of rural homes, waging “breakthrough struggles of loyalty and fierce all-night struggles,” adding that, “by province, Pyongyang, Chagang Province, North Hamgyong Province and South Hamgyong Province are taking the lead.”
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