RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NORTH KOREAN SOCIETY http://www.goodfriends.or.kr/[email protected] Weekly Newsletter No.401 (Released in Korean on May 4, 2011) [“Good Friends” aims to help the North Korean people from a humanistic point of view and publishes “North Korea Today” describing the way the North Korean people live as accurately as possible. We at Good Friends also hope to be a bridge between the North Korean people and the world.] ___________________________________________________________________________ Overseas Representatives to “Come and Leave Silently” Directive to Make Sure Nobody Starve to Death during the Spring Lean Months Rice Collection for Military Resume While Saying, “Do not Force it on People” Farmers in Kangseo County Suffer in Silence due to Military Provision Obligation No Provision for Residents Despite the Corn Import Increase Ryanggang Province Residents Run out of Kimchi in Spring Lean Season _________________________________________________________________________ Overseas Representatives to “Come and Leave Silently” Central Party has recently sent a recommendation to the overseas representatives that officials “avoid entering the motherland during this time.” In short, the officials are being requested to not enter North Korea. In the event officials need to enter the country, they are requested to do so quietly and then leave. According to one Central Party official, this request comes as a result of government worries about the attitudes of the people toward officials’ lifestyle. When overseas officials return to North Korea for short periods after a stint overseas, they are usually busy wining and dining with both their friends and family. However, the government is worried about the reaction of regular citizens when they see the cadres’ relatively well-off lifestyle; this at a time when regular citizens are unable to obtain regular food rations. The result has been a government effort to change the lifestyle of cadres. The same ‘request' to adopt a low-profile has also been given to officials in local parties, and the Central Party has ordered officials to gather in no more than two when going to a restaurant to eat. However, many Central Party officials are troubled by this new order, which has followed other orders by the government to avoid gathering in groups of more than two, or talk on the street for long periods of time. Officials are questioning the new order saying they realize the importance of considering the attitudes of the people, but ask how it is possible to go to a restaurant alone. They consider the order to be unrealistic because it prevents them from being able to talk or eat together. "I know that the poor food situation has made the government worry about public sentiment, but this is too much," said one cadre, speaking frankly about his discontent with the new policies. "If we can't be trusted, who do they expect to trust to lead the country?" Directive Instructs to Make Sure Nobody Starves to Death During the Spring Lean Months, But… The Central Party delivered an emergency directive to each province and instructed to “resolve the food issue as soon as possible and prepare a thorough measure to prevent outbreak of malnutrition in spring lean months.” To simply put, it means to “make sure nobody starves to death.” Since they don’t use the expression “starve to death,” they phrase it “stop malnutrition” instead. Each provincial party instructed city and county parties to “vitalize trade with China by concentrating their capacity and prioritize food purchase in all sectors.” Provincial parties added a warning that if hunger death does occur, those in charge will be penalized. City and county parties emphasized that each local public enterprise and unit “should assist those in need after investigation. Particularly, rations for laborers should be provided at all cost.” The emergency directive was delivered promptly, but people do not seem to take it seriously. Central Party has instructed to mobilize all capacity to reach out overseas and secure food through foreign trade. Foreign currency earning business, which was only allowed to a couple of special public enterprises, is now expanded to city and county level units. Passports for the purpose of government affairs are now issued to service networks in order to allow them to travel to China conveniently. The current directive is in line with previous efforts to promote self-sustenance and is not completely unexpected. Last February, a similar directive instructed all sectors to mobilize all their capacity and complete the food production requirement. Overseas representatives are also receiving a series of directives telling them to purchase food and agricultural supplies such as fertilizers, pesticides and vinyl film. The overseas representative officials are buying the requested items on credit and promising to pay back in fall since they don’t have enough cash. This is another burden for them, who also suffered from military provision collection obligations. The officials explained their local situations and pleaded for a favorable handling of the obligations at the general meeting of overseas representatives in February. Their plea was accepted and all overseas offices were instructed to stop mobilizing for military provision collection campaign. Rice Collection for Military Resumes While Saying, “Do not Force it on People.” An order has been issued saying, “Collection of rice for the military should be done in an organized fashion, but do not force it on people.” After being briefed about the suffering of people caused by rice collection for the military, the Central Party issued an order specifying, “No matter how urgently rice is needed for the military we should not forcefully collect rice from destitute people. The collection should be a voluntary donation so that those who are better off contribute more and those who are worse off can be exempted.” As a result, the Province Party issued a lecture note to each City and County Party based on the instruction of the Central Party. Nevertheless, a strong emphasis was given at the public lecture with a notion of “Donate rice for the military with civil consciousness in mind” rather than giving the message of “Those worse off should not be forced to contribute.” An official at Pyongsung city, South Pyongan Province expressed the predicament saying, “They are asking for in-depth learning designed to reinforce ideological mobilization project. With that request given they would continuously press and nag if we fail to achieve the target amount of rice collection for the military. As such, we have no choice but to collect rice in forceful manners.” Another City Party official in Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province says, “The rice collection request has to be met no matter what. Nobody will give up their rice if we make a plea and say ‘Don’t do it forcefully’ or ‘Contribute more if you are better off than others.’ As such, we have no choice but to rely on forceful means by creating nuisance and make people give up rice in order to avoid problems.” That is the only way they can meet even some of the target amount. At local Parties some officials are speaking out saying, “It is unrealistic to collect rice for the military when people are about to face the tough spring lean season.” Their point is, “They could not collect much rice for the military during January-February period even with an extensive military rice collection campaign. How can they possibly collect rice unless rice falls from the sky?” People in Ryanggang Province are clamoring especially. They are saying, “Those in Daehongdan and Baekam Counties barely survived by eating ears of frozen potatoes for all winter long. Because there were no grasses they had to eat the roots of grass. Now, telling us to contribute rice for the military means telling us to die.” The Provincial officials in Ryanggang Province also say that “The military food condition is really bad. So, let’s use our civil conscience and make donations voluntarily.” Nevertheless, in reality, rice collection is done in forceful manners. An official in Baekam County admitted that “There is a tendency that collection is forced on poor people who have nothing to eat for themselves simply because the higher ups are pressing on us while saying make it a voluntary donation based on conscience.” He added that the Central and Provincial Parties are asking to make it a voluntary donation, but those in lower unit have no choice but to do it in forceful manners because of the pressure of meeting the target imposed by the higher ups. The “Exemplary” Farmers in Kangseo County Suffer in Silence due to Military Provision Obligation As a movement to resume the support of military provision spreads nationwide, farms in Kangseo County, South Pyongan Province are busy with the “Military Provision Support Political Project”. The farmers feel weary about this campaign because many of them had received 2-3 months’ less worth of food than last year due to the bad harvest. Farmers in Kangseo County suffer in silence because it is the place where famous ‘Cheongsan-li spirit’ came from while farmers in other areas speak up about their difficult situations. The Party suggested, “Our county has the renowned Cheongsan-li, and it’s the most recognized county by the Party and the nation. We should lead the military support campaign. Shouldn’t we contribute 50kg per household at least?” Many farmers are perplexed by this. 50 kg is 3 month supply of food for an adult, based on 600g of daily intake. In reality, adults and children eat less than 400g per day these days, and 50kg can support a family of four for a month. Some households received seven to eight months’ worth of food rations and some others received four to five months’ worth of food.