A public struggle session was held at a raw material base in Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province, in early April against two people who allegedly committed non-socialist behavior, Daily NK has learned.
“A public struggle meeting was held for a crew leader and the chairman of the local union for non-socialist behavior such as renting out government fields to individuals in exchange for cash and crops,” a source in the province told Daily NK on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to the source, the meeting was held in a vacant lot near the depot and was attended by all the base workers as well as officials from major organizations in the county, including the party committee and the people’s committeeNorth Korean people's committees are akin to local governmen... More.
During the meeting, the improper conduct of the crew chief and the local chairman was exposed, and the two people were removed from their posts and sentenced to “revolutionary punishment” on the spot.
Revolutionary punishment usually means forced labor or ideological indoctrination for a specified period of time.
“Since the party ordered that the resource bases be organized as a mass movement in the spring to provide the raw materials needed for the factories in the countryside, issues that were overlooked in the past are now being taken more seriously,” the source said.
The raw material base had basically functioned as a private farm for officials of major organizations in the county, including the party committee. Workers were instructed to grow crops such as corn instead of the raw materials needed by factories in Onsong County.
Another common form of misconduct was to give well-connected locals access to land in exchange for cash and crops in the fall, which could then be distributed among the various officials involved.
But after the production of raw materials needed by provincial factories was prioritized this year, the public struggle meeting was held at the raw materials base to send a warning that the aberrant behavior of the past would no longer be tolerated, the source explained.
“The basic problem lies with the managers, the party secretary and the technical director of the resource base, but minor functionaries were the ones who were punished,” he said.
This criticism was echoed by employees at the resource base, who objected that people who had done nothing wrong were being punished instead of those who had treated the base as their personal fiefdom, growing corn and other crops to impress officials in key organizations while lining their own pockets.
The source also shared a rumor that the two officials who were fired and given revolutionary punishment were promised that they would be reinstated in a few years.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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