Some accommodation facilities for the underprivileged in North Korea have recently been undergoing significant expansion. Children living on the streets, orphans, and the elderly near Pyongyang have reportedly seen improvements in their respective living conditions.
North Korea recently embarked on the construction of modernized group homes and schools for orphans and homeless youth as part of urban development projects in the cities of Samjiyon and Hyesan. The regime has been using these projects for propaganda, with Kim Jong Un personally visiting the areas, boosting his depiction as “Father of the people.”
Although the government is making an effort to improve conditions for the underprivileged, Daily NK sources reported that small cities outside Pyongyang are seeing limited improvements from these endeavors. Accommodation facilities in these areas are known to be rife with embezzlement and an unmotivated labor force.
After returning from visiting a relative who resides in a nursing home in the suburbs of Pyongyang, a source living in the capital reported, “The facility seemed very nice. There were over 40 residents living there and it seemed like they had very suitable care provided to them in terms of food, clothing, and lodging facilities.”
“Males were frequently allowed to fish or play Korean chess, with a small number of residents going to a nearby garden to harvest cabbage,” he said.
“I don’t know whether they received special treatment because I had come as a visitor, but we were all provided with rice, several different types of seafood and various vegetable side dishes for our meal. The residents here seem to eat even better than the average citizen living in Pyongyang.”
The reported improvements in accommodation facilities are taking place not only in Pyongyang, but in other areas as well. “After visits to nursing homes and youth homes in Pyongsong and Sinuiju, I can definitively say that meals have gotten a lot better than they were in the past. However, the facilities in smaller cities are still quite poor,” a source in South Pyongan Province said.
Despite the government providing food items such as rice, pork, and various types of seafood, workers have been known to steal these rations and sell them on the open market. Even with the government overseeing the distribution of rations, rampant embezzlement continues to be a feature of everyday life.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s an orphanage, youth home, school, or nursing home, the well being of the people there is largely dependent on having an honest and reliable manager. If the wrong person gets put in charge, it will often lead to embezzlement and rations not finding their way to those in need,” the South Pyongan Province-based source said.
Another source from South Hwanghae Province also reported that the conditions of rural facilities are very poor and said that although facilities in Haeju were well built by the government residents are not seeing many improvements in their daily lives. Specifically, she noted, in Unpa County, elderly residents of nursing homes are being used as day laborers at local farms,.
An additional source in South Hwanghae Province added, “Caretakers that send out the elderly as laborers to earn money for their own personal use are placating the elderly by calling it an opportunity to participate in ‘leisure activities’ and telling them that they shouldn’t be ‘ungrateful’ because they have it a lot better now than when they were living alone.”
*Translated by Brian Boyle
