{"id":39723,"date":"2019-02-20T17:10:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T08:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=39723"},"modified":"2020-01-17T09:21:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T00:21:46","slug":"north-korea-deducts-money-from-workers-salaries-to-pay-for-kim-jong-il-birthday-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-deducts-money-from-workers-salaries-to-pay-for-kim-jong-il-birthday-events\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea deducts money from workers\u2019 salaries to pay for Kim Jong Il birthday events"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Statues<\/a>
Statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il inside the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. Image: Rodong Sinmun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In advance of Kim Jong Il\u2019s birthday on February 16, one of North Korea\u2019s biggest national holidays, the authorities forced residents to contribute money to the state. The financial burden of this and other de facto taxes North Koreans are required to pay is creating some level of discontent in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe approaching Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong Il\u2019s birthday) has led to an order by the government toward factories and enterprises in Chongjin and even farms in Onsong County to contribute foreign currency,\u201d said a North Hamgyong Province-based source on February 15. \u201cThe authorities are ordering these entities to pay 10,000 KPW per person (employee) to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Korean efforts to raise foreign currency began in the 1972 when Kim Jong Il ordered that institutions and citizens contribute items that could be sold for foreign currency to the state in celebration of Kim Il Sung\u2019s birthday. The government originally requested gold, pine mushrooms, and animal pelts but now demands foreign currency outright.<\/p>\n

In North Korea, 10,000 KPW<\/a> is equivalent in value to approximately two kilograms of rice in the markets, or 1.22 USD. This is not a lot of money, and many residents have become more financially well-off through their earnings in private business activities and have not complained about this form of \u201ctax\u201d to any great extent.<\/p>\n

The issue with the state\u2019s demand, however, centers on those North Koreans who are in more difficult financial situations, and it is those in the poorer classes that are raising issues with the financial burden it imposes on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo some workers in enterprises who don\u2019t conduct private business activities, 10,000 KPW is a lot of money,\u201d said a source in Ryanggang Province. \u201cThe authorities don\u2019t even give them proper wages, so it\u2019s cruel of the state to be asking them for money.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more infuriating for local residents is that the government, through Party committees in the factories, is demanding that money for the loyalty funds be automatically deducted from workers\u2019 monthly wages without their express permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe factories just decided on their own to take out the funds from workers\u2019 salaries because they didn’t know when or if the workers would be able to save it up themselves. But these workers are so poor that they don\u2019t even have the money to bring their own lunchboxes. The workers don\u2019t complain openly about the situation but I heard that many are really fuming because of it,” an additional source in Ryanggang Province reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe authorities are taking money from people to pay for all sorts of construction projects and to prepare election sites (for the upcoming Supreme People\u2019s Assembly elections),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government crackdown on what people are allowed to say in advance of the upcoming [politically sensitive] events and elections means that people are not openly talking about what they\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North Korean authorities are actively leaning on ordinary North Koreans to supply funds needed for construction projects in Samjiyon County, the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area and other major projects.<\/p>\n

North Koreans are showing less interest in [the spirit of] Kim Jong Il due to an increase in discontent toward the state and its practices during celebrations for the deceased leader. The government has moved to mobilize its citizens to take part in a range of events to help celebrate Kim Jong Il\u2019s birthday, but the genuine fervor of previous years has largely abated.<\/p>\n

The North Korean authorities also mobilized people to form \u201cloyalty singing groups\u201d within each work unit, but the general response to this has largely been negative, according to a source in South Hamgyong Province.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were asking when they\u2019re able to rest when they have to work all day and then sing at night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In advance of Kim Jong Il\u2019s birthday on February 16, one of North Korea\u2019s biggest national holidays, the authorities forced residents to contribute money to the state. 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