North Korean authorities recently provided rice to government cadres and their families, but multiple sources inside the country say the rice originated from outside the country.
A source in North Korea told Daily NK on Wednesday that the authorities provided five days of “pretty high-quality rice” to members of “special bodies” such as the Central Committee, military and Ministry of State Security from July 31. “North Korean rice has [small] stones mixed in, but the rice provided this time was clean without a single stone,” he said.
Another source in North Korea who works in the rice industry said the recently distributed rice was shiny and sticky when steamed. “It’s definitely not from North Korea, nor have I ever seen rice this good coming from China,” he added.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) recently claimed that North Korea is distributing rice from wartime emergency stores due to food shortages, but Daily NK sources in North Korea stressed that the rice recently provided to cadres was not from these stores.
According to South Korean lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung of the People Power Party, NIS chief Park Jie-won told a plenary session of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that with North Korea’s grain situation worsening this year, North Korean authorities provided wartime emergency stores of rice to “food-poor families and workers at provincial government organizations and enterprises.”
However, Daily NK sources say that because rice from North Korea’s wartime emergency stores is of such poor quality, people can clearly distinguish it from rice in general distribution in the country.
With some of the rice distributed to the cadres and their families finding its way into markets, rumors have spread among locals that “cadres received rice of a quality never seen before.”
Daily NK also understands that illegal ship-to-ship transfers took place “countless times” in the open waters near the port of Nampo last month.
“Work took place in the middle of the night with the lights turned off, so we cannot confirm which items entered the country,” one of the sources told Daily NK. “It’s clear, however, that the transfers took place not just once or twice, but several times.”
That being said, most of the food distributed to food-poor families has reportedly been corn, with some poor quality rice thrown in as well.
Multiple Daily NK sources in North Korea have reported that the grain provided to food-poor families “appears to be corn from China.”
Corn accounted for most of the “problematic” Chinese grain imported by Ri Pyong Chol, the recently disgraced vice chairperson of the Central Military Commission. It seems highly likely that this corn was supplied to families suffering from food shortages during the latest distribution.
