NK residents are unhappy with farm mobilization
On the back of North Korea’s mandate to mobilize workers as part of a “40-day farming battle,” many residents are also being rallied to pitch in on large-scale construction measures to combat the threat of drought.
“As the peak of farming season is approaching, there are efforts all over the nation to preclude the damages wrought by drought,” a source from South Pyongan Province said. “State-run enterprises, housewives, young students--basically everyone is being sent to the construction site to ‘fight’ against the drought.”
North Korea has long suffered the debilitating effects of almost annual droughts, typically falling in May and June. This year, the North Korean authorities estimate a 50-75% decrease in precipitation over last year--thus the mad scramble to do everything possible to stave off, at the very least, the severe losses seen in prior years.
“There are no machines that we can use in this [drought-related] construction, so we have to use only shovels and pickaxes to dig out hundreds of cubic meters of soil. It’s a massive construction undertaking...and ineffective,” he explained.
Supplies are so short, in fact, most resort to using wash basins typically used in homes for bathing purposes, as an alternative to buckets. Moreover, an overt lack of safety regulations means such efforts are not without a number of construction accidents; cave-ins and injuries from young children forced to wield and harness potentially dangerous tools are among the most pronounced issues.
Naturally, this has made for further disgruntled residents, who point out among themselves that all their toiling to save the rice harvest ends up shoveled into the mouths of those in power, murmuring among themselves, “What, are we all farmers now?"
