{"id":323899,"date":"2026-04-08T04:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=323899"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:11:14","slug":"north-korean-parents-forced-to-feed-laborers-renovating-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-parents-forced-to-feed-laborers-renovating-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korean parents forced to feed laborers renovating schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">North Korean parents in Chongjin are being forced to cover meals, snacks and cigarettes for laborers mobilized to renovate school facilities. The costs fall disproportionately on families with the least means, a Daily NK source reported Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">A district in Chongjin, the capital of North Hamgyong province, is pushing to earn the title of &#8220;model education district.&#8221; The designation requires all schools within its boundaries to attain &#8220;Red Flag of Honor&#8221; school status, a competitive benchmark tied to laboratory equipment, classroom materials and physical facility standards. To meet those criteria, elementary schools across the district have launched repair campaigns covering hallways, walls and classroom floors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">On paper, affiliated support organizations are responsible for the renovation work. In practice, the schools themselves must cover materials and costs, while the support organizations contribute only labor. That arrangement effectively shifts the entire financial burden onto students and their families.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<h2 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>Costs land on families who can least afford it<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The burden has grown more acute as parents must provide meals, snacks and cigarettes for every five or six workers assigned per class. Two classes typically group together and rotate provisioning duties. Each group has already absorbed two or three rounds of expenses within March alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Homeroom instructors who receive informal contributions from better-off or particularly loyal families excuse those families&#8217; children from additional demands. They then direct the costs toward children from households with fewer resources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">According to the source, roughly 20 out of 30 students per class shoulder the actual costs. About 70% of the burden falls on children from economically struggling families rather than being distributed evenly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;This has been going on for a long time, but the costs are getting larger because the district is pushing hard for the model education district title,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;Parents aren&#8217;t just resigning themselves to it. There is growing and vocal frustration over the financial demands piling up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>A pattern rooted in structural underfunding<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">North Korea&#8217;s education system has historically relied on parents and local enterprises to supplement state shortfalls in school funding and materials, a pattern that has intensified as the state&#8217;s capacity to deliver resources has weakened in the years following the 1990s famine. The current campaign appears to be an extension of that informal taxation, now intensified by a top-down political drive for prestige titles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"standard-markdown grid-cols-1 grid [&amp;_&gt;_*]:min-w-0 gap-3\">\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20260406-2\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<!-- Daily NK \u2014 A Note to Readers \u2014 End of Article Pattern -->\n<div style=\"background:#1a1a1a;border-top:3px solid #cc0000;padding:0;margin-top:32px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;\">\n  <div style=\"padding:20px 24px 24px;\">\n\n    <!-- Header row -->\n    <div style=\"display:flex;align-items:center;gap:12px;margin-bottom:14px;\">\n      <span style=\"background:#cc0000;color:#fff;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:9px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.15em;text-transform:uppercase;padding:3px 8px;flex-shrink:0;\">A Note to Readers<\/span>\n      <div style=\"flex:1;height:1px;background:#333;\"><\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <!-- Intro line -->\n    <p style=\"font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:15px;color:#fff;font-weight:normal;line-height:1.4;margin:0 0 12px;\">Reporting from inside North Korea<\/p>\n\n    <!-- Body -->\n    <p style=\"font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:13px;color:#bbb;line-height:1.75;margin:0 0 16px;\">\n      Daily NK operates networks of sources inside North Korea who document events in real-time and transmit information through secure channels. 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The costs fall disproportionately on families with the least means, a Daily NK source reported Sunday. A district in Chongjin, the capital of North Hamgyong province, is pushing to earn the title of &#8220;model [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":323900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,1360],"tags":[703,709,729,773,776,786,815,955,1857],"class_list":["post-323899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-society","tag-education","tag-poverty","tag-students","tag-north-hamgyong-province","tag-chongjin","tag-ideology","tag-mobilization","tag-workers","tag-non-tax-burdens"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>North Korean parents forced to feed school laborers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Parents in 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