{"id":52947,"date":"2022-10-07T09:54:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T00:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=52947"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:56:18","slug":"officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials at a Hamhung textile factory under investigation for corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The prosecutors\u2019 office in South Hamgyong Province is investigating corruption at the Hamhung Knitwear Factory, Daily NK has learned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Hamhung Knitwear Factory has been under investigation by the provincial prosecutors since the end of September. The factory management is under the microscope for taking bribes from \u20188.3 workers,\u2019\u201d a source in South Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The term \u201c8.3 worker\u201d refers to employees who are not required to come in to work in exchange for a monthly payment to their workplace. But those workers are still expected to participate in organizational events, including lectures and self-criticism sections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 2015, the North Korean government has ordered the elimination of 8.3 work arrangements and carried out sweeping crackdowns on the practice. Nevertheless, many companies have continued to quietly take money from employees who want to spend their time elsewhere. Those funds help companies stay in business and complete tasks assigned by the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government continues to assign tasks to companies and expect them to come up with their own funds, even as the government itself is unable to pay workers\u2019 wages or distribute their rations. That leaves companies with no choice, the source said, but to keep taking payments from 8.3 workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An 8.3 work arrangement appears to be behind the prosecutors\u2019 investigation of the Hamhung Knitwear Factory. An individual surnamed Kim was nabbed by prosecutors early in September after several years of making a living by cooking \u201cice\u201d (crystal meth) \u2014 even though he had been nominally employed at the factory since August 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While being questioned by prosecutors following his arrest, Kim confessed that he had been paying off the Hamhung Knitwear Factory under an 8.3 work arrangement and even spilled the names of people at the factory who were implicated in the arrangement, according to the source.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An even bigger problem for the North Korean authorities was that the company had allowed Kim to skip all the organizational events \u2014 not only self-criticism sessions but also the entire schedule of lectures and workshops \u2014 in exchange for contributions of KPW 400,000 each month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the course of the interrogation, Kim divulged that he had been paying an extra USD 200 a month in bribes to the party secretary at the factory to get out of his organizational obligations. That is what prompted the provincial prosecutors\u2019 office to initiate a direct investigation into the Hamhung Knitwear Factory, the source explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn this investigation, the provincial prosecutors\u2019 office is looking into bribes accepted by the party officials and bureaucrats who are supposed to be providing party members and workers with education that reinforces the ideology of the Workers&#8217; Party. The investigation is particularly focused on whether party members were excused from party activities,\u201d the source said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSince Sept. 25, prosecutors have been [reviewing] the daily logs for mid-level and high-level managers in all departments, beginning with the factory\u2019s party secretary, and carrying out one-on-one interviews with employees. Officials at the rank of section chief and above are trembling with fear that they\u2019ll be caught in this rigorous investigation,\u201d the source added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The prosecutors who have been assigned to the investigation of the Hamhung Knitwear Factory have reportedly been cross-checking the factory\u2019s nominal list of employees with the people who actually show up for work to see whether there are any other 8.3 workers at the factory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOnce this investigation is over, the factory\u2019s party secretary won\u2019t be able to wiggle out of severe punishment,&#8221; the source said, adding, &#8220;The incident has put 8.3 work arrangements and corruption by factory management back in the spotlight, which will likely lead the prosecutors to investigate factories and companies throughout the province.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20221003-4\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The prosecutors\u2019 office in South Hamgyong Province is investigating corruption at the Hamhung Knitwear Factory, Daily NK has learned. \u201cThe Hamhung Knitwear Factory has been under investigation by the provincial prosecutors since the end of September. The factory management is under the microscope for taking bribes from \u20188.3 workers,\u2019\u201d a source in South Hamgyong Province [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":46159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[273,747,3243],"class_list":["post-52947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-corruption","tag-hamhung","tag-crime-corruption"],"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>Officials at a Hamhung textile factory under investigation for corruption - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Officials at a Hamhung textile factory under investigation for corruption\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The prosecutors\u2019 office in South Hamgyong Province is investigating corruption at the Hamhung Knitwear Factory, Daily NK has learned. \u201cThe Hamhung Knitwear Factory has been under investigation by the provincial prosecutors since the end of September. The factory management is under the microscope for taking bribes from \u20188.3 workers,\u2019\u201d a source in South Hamgyong Province [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-07T00:54:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-05T06:56:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/08\/14996550718_72f0383a15_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lee Chae Eun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lee Chae Eun\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lee Chae Eun\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6c9f40b0a89c4a5354607f43756dbbe0\"},\"headline\":\"Officials at a Hamhung textile factory under investigation for corruption\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-07T00:54:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-05T06:56:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":627,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/14996550718_72f0383a15_b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"corruption\",\"hamhung\",\"Crime &amp; Corruption\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/\",\"name\":\"Officials at a Hamhung textile factory under investigation for corruption - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/14996550718_72f0383a15_b.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-07T00:54:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-05T06:56:18+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/officials-hamhung-textile-factory-under-investigation-for-corruption\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/14996550718_72f0383a15_b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/14996550718_72f0383a15_b.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768,\"caption\":\"A photograph of Hamhung taken in 2014. 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