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Date : November 30, 2015
Women's Union members forced to fork over more cash
   http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=13575 [734]
   http://www.dailynk.com/korean/read.php?cataId=nk04505&num=107306 [839]
As the weather turns chilly and the year draws to an end, North Korean residents have been kept quite busy by mandatory year-end self criticism  sessions. In particular, women who are members of the Korean Democratic Womens Union are doubly busy since they must balance their family responsibilities, undergo the criticism sessions, and raise money for the union to pay the regime.   

In a recent telephone conversation with the Daily NK, a source from Yanggang Province reported, Members of the Korean Democratic Womens Union are extremely busy attending to year-end tasks for the union, while also being forced to participate in the self-criticisms. The tasks of the Womens Union include earning cash for the regime under the loyalty foreign currency campaign and supporting the Korean Peoples Army (KPA). These assignments are forcing the members to crack open their wallets and are therefore resulting in considerable discontent. 

Daily NK crosschecked this news with an independent source in the same province. 

According to the source, Womens Union members are being asked to contribute between 10,000 and 15,000 KPW (approximately 1.16- 1.74 USD) apiece to support the KPA. Yanggang Province Womens Union members also contributed about 30,000 KPW (approximately 3.5 USD). to be excused from the agricultural and social mobilizations earlier this year. The women will sell in the market to earn money for the army, but it is by no means a small sum for the majority of them, he noted.

Additionally, these women are forced to contribute money for the construction of [Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Sung] statues and to support loyalty foreign currency movements.  Accordingly, they are being pushed to the limits in the marketplace just to make these payments. Party loyalty is assessed by ones ability to fulfill these obligations, so even though nobody wants to give away their hard earned income, they are forced to bite the bullet. 

Korean Democratic Womens Union members are duty-bound to attend year-end general assembly sessions. Primary groups within the entire organ meet in November, while district committees and county-level field committees will gather by early December, and each provincial guidance committee will meet by mid December.  Building off these regional conventions, the central committee gathering of the Korean Democratic Womens Union will be held thereafter. 

If the low level groups fail to complete a given task, the leader of the local group will receive close questioning and scrutiny from field commission officials," he pointed out. 

"If the group leader is unable to complete the fundraising tasks by the end of the year, they will be punished. These sorts of coercive relationships exist at every rung of the ladder, so every piece of the machine has incentives to deliver on its objectives. 

Most feel for these women, because they see how difficult it is for them, he explained.  It normally costs just 5,000- 6,000 KPW (0.58-0.70 USD) to be excused from a mobilization, but these women are forced to pay more than all these mobilization excuse fees put together at one time. 

Burdened by these fees in the midst of kimchi making season, some of the Union Members are asking around for small loans so that they can pay the fees and also buy the necessary ingredients to make enough kimchi before the winter sets in, the source concluded.

[Source: Daily NK]

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