Factories and enterprises in Sinuiju, North Pyongan province, are importing sports equipment as part of the Three Revolutions Red Flag Movement, which aims to achieve a “cultural revolution” through mass sports activities. However, local residents dismiss the effort as little more than window dressing.
A Chinese source told Daily NK recently that “orders keep coming in for ping-pong tables and paddles, exercise bikes, treadmills, and other sports equipment.” He added that most orders come from Sinuiju factories and enterprises participating in the double- and triple-flag Three Revolutions Red Flag campaigns.
The Three Revolutions Red Flag Movement, launched by Kim Jong Il in the 1970s, calls for sweeping reforms in ideology, technology, and culture.
The movement operates across all social workplaces—from factories to enterprises—where each competes for the Three Revolutions Red Flag by demonstrating exemplary achievements in ideological, technological, and cultural revolutions.
However, it’s now nearly impossible to find a workplace that hasn’t received a Red Flag, which has led to double- and triple-flag campaigns where previously recognized workplaces compete for the honor a second or third time.
A source in North Pyongan province explained that “the movement primarily focuses on ideological education within workplaces and improving workers’ and officials’ cultural development, while genuine technical innovation rarely breaks new ground.” He noted that this is why well-maintained cultural and sports facilities have become key evaluation criteria.
Workers bear the burden
With the 80th anniversary of the party’s founding approaching on Oct. 10, workplaces are competitively modernizing their facilities and actively importing sports equipment to upgrade their grounds. Since promoting mass sports participation is viewed as a pathway to cultural revolution, each workplace aims to build modern sports facilities and is aggressively importing the necessary equipment.
But this push has become a heavy burden for workers, who are forced to bear the full cost of these projects.
“Workers are fed up with being made to pay for sports facilities that don’t help them at all,” the source said. “They’re saying authorities should focus on the real issue—food rations—instead of putting on a show with imported equipment.”
Even when facilities are built, workers rarely get to use them, leading to cynical comments that they “exist only for show, like sacred objects we’re forced to revere.”
The source added that “workplaces struggling with poor performance throw themselves even harder into these political campaigns,” while “workers who shoulder the entire burden are sick of leadership obsessed with honor campaigns that have nothing to do with actual productivity.”
Translated by Kyungmin Kim.
