[imText1]Few days before it resumed back to the six-party talks, the North Korean government declared national \u201cmass involvement in rice planting.\u201d According to defectors testimonies, even the markets were closed and the entire population was included in the forced labor for a month in the cooperative farms. <\/p>\n
Park Chul Yong, a resident of Sariwon City of North Hwanghe province whom The DailyNK met in Dandung, China on August 25 said, \u201cStarting the end of May, for a month, military, students, workers, sellers and all the people were forced into the rice planting. During the \u201cmass involvement in rice planting\u201d period, even the markets were closed after 6pm.\u201d <\/p>\n
Other defector\u2019s from North Pyongan province, South Hamkyong province and North Hamkyong province testify the same about the \u201cmass involvement in rice planting.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAll the people had to work for eight hours in cooperative farms. For entire month the Safety Department closed streets and markets in the city and controlled people. Due to such strong actions of the state, the people could not business in the markets nor could they buy goods from the markets so people suffered tremendously,\u201d added Park. <\/p>\n
In the past, the North Korean government carried out forced \u201cfarm assistance\u201d by involving certain groups of the population such as in units of schools or work but there was no time the entire population was forced into rice planting before. Park said the party cadres and People\u2019s Leaders educated people that \u201cmaking our nuclear a problem, foreign countries might cut off food and fertilizer aid.\u201d <\/p>\n
For this reason North Korea predicted economic sanctions in case the six-party talks ends in unpleasant terms, and as part of the long term preparation, it has been pursuing increasing and storing food policy. In the new year\u2019s cooperative column this year, North Korea called agriculture \u201cSuccessful Line of Battle for the Construction of Socialist Economy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Following is the interview with Park. <\/p>\n
Markets Controlled due to the \u201cMass Involvement in Rice Planting <\/b><\/font><\/p>\n – Was there \u201cmass involvement in rice planting\u201d before? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIt is generally very busy during the rice planting period and harvest period thus students, workers, and soldiers work in the farms for two weeks each. But there was no time like this year that everyone was involved into farming by closing down the markets.\u201d <\/p>\n – What was the reason they enforced the \u201cmass involvement in rice planting\u201d? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWhat the party cadres and People\u2019s Leaders said was \u201cmaking our nuclear a problem, foreign countries might cut off food and fertilizer aid.\u201d Also that because the food situation can get worse in the future, everyone must put effort to prepare for the food problem.\u201d <\/p>\n – What was people\u2019s response? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cCommon people complained a lot. Even when they talk about the foreign aid, there is nothing that reaches people, so it does not make any difference whether there is foreign aid or not. At least people could make a living by running business in the market but they could not even do that, so they had a hard time.\u201d <\/p>\n – Why did you come to China? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI make trade with China through a cousin who lives in Shinuiju.\u201d<\/p>\n \nPrevailing Illegal Cash flows and Trafficking in North Korea <\/b><\/font><\/p>\n – What kind of business do you do? <\/b> <\/p>\n \u201cI do (trade) everything that makes money. Mainly I bring flour from China and take mushrooms or herbal medicine, dried sea slug from North Korea and sell them in China.\u201d<\/p>\n – How do you bring flour? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cOnly the trade companies that obtained government permission from the Chinese government can export flour to North Korea. But it is too expensive to officially import flour. I do flour trade with a small size trader of China, we trade crossing the Yalu River. I usually pay 300-350 (NK)Won($0.15-0.175) per kilo. When I take them to Sariwon, I sell them 600-650won($0.3-0.325) per kilo to the sellers. My brother (cousin) fetches the flour crossed over to North Korea from a small size Chinese trade company, when it amounts to 3-5 tons, I take it to Sariwon.\u201d <\/p>\n – When you settle accounts with the small size chinese trade company, do you pay with North Korean money? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot make payment with cash. You cannot take cash out of North Korea, it\u2019s not permitted. Chinese does not care how much cash you take into North Korea, but from North Korea to China, it is strictly controlled. That\u2019s why we pay them with goods as much as it pays the due instead of cash.\u201d <\/p>\n \nFree Education a History, High Cost of Education<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n – Do you have children? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI have two sons, older one goes to middle school and younger one goes to elementary school.\u201d <\/p>\n – I heard that it costs a lot to send children to school these days. <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cFree education\u201d is a history now. Since the state does not pay the teachers, the teachers collect money from the students. All the costs to manage the school is paid by the students.\u201d <\/p>\n People\u2019s school (equivalent to elementary school) uniform costs about 1,500Won($0.75). Since there is no textile in North Korea, they bring them from China. They say the state pays 30% for it, but still what the parents pay is 1,500Won. Plus we pay 2,000Won($1) to the teacher monthly, and for the management of the school, students are told to bring recycled metal, recycled plastic sheets, recycled paper and other things.\u201d <\/p>\n My younger son has to take 15kg of recycled metal every month, but where can we get the recycled metal? If he does not take the recycled metal, he has to pay 200Won($0.1). Also in the winter, they collect wood from students for the heater in the classroom, and each student has to take 40 bunches every month. Since it is hard to find wood in the city, they make students pay 20Won per bunch. Paint, window replacement and other things are also assigned to students.\u201d <\/p>\n – How about textbooks and school supplies?<\/b> <\/p>\n \u201cTextbooks must also be bought from school. Notebooks must be bought also from the market. Elementary school students use small notebooks, it costs 15Won($0.0075) for a notebook of 32pages. The notebooks for the middle school students cost 25Won($0.0125) per each. Students use plastic pencils of which you only replace lead, it costs 200Won($0.1). Regular pencil costs 24Won($0.012) each.\u201d<\/p>\n – Does it cost more if you go to high school? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cFrom middle school on, you can only graduate by money. My older son who attends middle school takes about 10,000Won($5) per month to school. These days, you have to pay a lot to take the university exam. In the university, you have to pay all the costs for the uniform and pay for all the food if you stay in the dorms.\u201d <\/p>\n \nHousing and Electricity <\/b><\/font><\/p>\n – I heard that there are a lot of house sales? <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIn North Korea, originally, all the houses are state owned thus buying and selling of houses is illegal in principle, but there are many personal trade in secret. A house of about 20 square meters costs about 1Million North Korean money. Last year I moved to an apartment with the money I saved, I paid 4.2Million Won($2,100). It is not big because it only has two rooms. Houses in the middle of the city are more expensive.\u201d <\/p>\n – How about electricity?<\/b> <\/p>\n \u201cThey provide electricity separately, for the people and for factories. Electricity situation for the people is bad. Since it is rare that electricity is provided, even the people who have money do not buy electronics such as rice cookers or refrigerators. But they have been providing 4-5 hours of TV broadcasting everyday since May in this.\u201d <\/p>\n – How much tax do you pay for water and electricity?<\/b> <\/p>\n \u201cBefore they collected tax quarterly, but now they collect every month. For electricity, we pay 80Won($0.04) per light bulb. Our family uses 4 light bulbs so we pay 320Won($0.16). For water, we pay 16Won per person.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [imText1]Few days before it resumed back to the six-party talks, the North Korean government declared national \u201cmass involvement in rice planting.\u201d According to defectors testimonies, even the markets were closed and the entire population was included in the forced labor for a month in the cooperative farms. Park Chul Yong, a resident of Sariwon City […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[645],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n