{"id":324111,"date":"2026-04-15T02:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=324111"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:18:08","slug":"north-korea-self-reliance-policy-factory-accident-chongjin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-self-reliance-policy-factory-accident-chongjin\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea&#8217;s self-reliance push costs factory worker a finger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure id=\"attachment_323089\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-323089\" style=\"width: 741px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/20260211_hya_\ud568\uc8fc\uad70-\uc2dd\ub8cc\uacf5\uc7a5.jpg\" data-wp-editing=\"1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-323089 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/20260211_hya_\ud568\uc8fc\uad70-\uc2dd\ub8cc\uacf5\uc7a5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"741\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/20260211_hya_\ud568\uc8fc\uad70-\uc2dd\ub8cc\uacf5\uc7a5.jpg 741w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/20260211_hya_\ud568\uc8fc\uad70-\uc2dd\ub8cc\uacf5\uc7a5-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/20260211_hya_\ud568\uc8fc\uad70-\uc2dd\ub8cc\uacf5\uc7a5-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/20260211_hya_\ud568\uc8fc\uad70-\uc2dd\ub8cc\uacf5\uc7a5-696x464.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 741px) 100vw, 741px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-323089\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea&#8217;s Workers&#8217; Party of Korea, reported on Feb. 11, 2026, that &#8220;food factories in various cities and counties are fiercely waging a creative struggle to set higher targets for new product development and quality improvement.&#8221; Pictured is the Hamju county food factory. \/ Photo: Rodong Sinmun, News1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">A technician at a coal mining machinery factory in Chongjin lost a finger recently while attempting to produce insulating paper using scrap lumber, an accident that workers and staff are attributing directly to North Korea&#8217;s &#8220;self-reliance&#8221; policy and the impossible demands it places on factory floors, a source in North Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The injured technician had been tasked with fabricating insulating paper for use in electrode production at the facility. Lacking proper materials and equipment, he and a single assistant had been attempting to repurpose leftover timber from mold-making for the project. The effort had been underway for three years without meaningful results when the accident occurred.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The source said the technician&#8217;s hand was caught in machinery during a test run of the improvised process. &#8220;They were trying to use scrap wood as insulating material, but the factory had almost none of the necessary equipment for that,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;In the end, without any proper verification, they pushed ahead under the banner of self-reliance and the accident happened.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>Unworkable demands, predictable results<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Producing insulating paper from raw wood is not a simple task. The process requires pulping, chemical treatment, pressing, and drying across multiple industrial stages. The factory, a coal mining machinery plant with no relevant production infrastructure, had none of those capabilities. Workers had reportedly been making trips outside the facility to conduct tests, scrambling to make the project work with whatever was at hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Following the accident, voices inside the factory have grown louder in criticizing the approach. Workers say that using improvised workarounds to fill gaps caused by chronic material and equipment shortages creates conditions for further accidents. Despite the injury, management has not moved to address the underlying problem, instead continuing to issue directives to make maximum use of available materials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">&#8220;The order from above is simply to be self-reliant, and that&#8217;s the end of it,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;The burden always falls on the shop floor. Pushing ahead to make paper with no equipment is the kind of self-reliance that ends up costing people their fingers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">North Korea&#8217;s self-reliance policy, a longstanding ideological directive requiring factories and institutions to resolve production shortfalls through their own means rather than relying on state supply chains, has intensified since the Ninth Congress of the Workers&#8217; Party of Korea in February 2026. Workers and enterprise managers across the country have reported mounting pressure to meet quotas without the inputs necessary to do so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20260414-2\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/p>\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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[&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":324112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,645],"tags":[743,773,776,815,955,1076,712,714],"class_list":["post-324111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-economy","tag-factories","tag-north-hamgyong-province","tag-chongjin","tag-mobilization","tag-workers","tag-quotas","tag-industry","tag-economy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>North Korea self-reliance policy causes factory accident<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Chongjin factory worker lost a finger in 2026 making insulating paper from scrap wood under North Korea&#039;s self-reliance policy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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