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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Norks Campaigning to Increase Farming Workforce |
| 2010-03-09 |
| North Korea has launched a massive campaign to persuade people into farming to make up for a shortage, giving them ideological indoctrination and offering large benefits, sources say. Come for the fresh air, the invigorating labor, and the opportunity to give away at gunpoint everything you grow ... Civic group North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said the party held seminars at party chapters on Feb. 23 promising W10,000 in cash and 120 kg of food for households if they voluntarily move to farms. The Workers' Party recently distributed copies of a training manual for senior officials on fortifying rural bases. "To increase grain production the most important thing is to make up for a shortage in the rural workforce. This is why blue-collar workers and office workers in urban areas, senior officials in particular, should lead the vanguard in the campaign." The regime is urging the wives of senior officials in the party and security agencies to set an example for others. The regime is afraid of the possibility of mounting public discontent if it forces people to relocate at a time when they are seething in the wake of a disastrous currency reform. The regime is giving indoctrination classes to senior officials to move to rural areas and urging them to set an example, news media speculated. But the group said such efforts would not be effective in persuading ordinary North Koreans to move to rural areas because living conditions there are very bad. "It's very likely that the regime will end up forcibly relocating them," it added. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #10 My history professor spent about 2 years in a reeducation camp in Hungary in the 1940s. He told us about the tiny garden plots the Soviets allowed farmers for their own families. These plots provided 95% of the vegetables consumed in the country. The collective farms, of course, failed; why work hard for something you won't be able to profit from? I suspect that Kim et al haven't even permitted a postage stamp sized veggie garden for anybody. |
| Posted by: mom 2010-03-09 16:57 |
| #9 gorb, the Ukrainians were the first to discover that being a peasant is no defense against starvation in a Communist state. Totalitarian regimes are really, really good at confiscating foodstocks, hidden or otherwise. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2010-03-09 16:42 |
| #8 Unlike the Khmer Rouge, the North Koreans are in it for the long haul, Frank. Besides, they've got their multigeneration concentration camps should they need additional labour battalions. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-03-09 12:02 |
| #7 sounds like the Khmer Rouge's softer cousin |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-03-09 09:51 |
| #6 Even when the French ran Haiti as close to a slave labor death camp, they knew that they had to feed their slaves *something*, even if it was just a minimum of rice and some locally caught dried fish. Still, when the slaves revolted, it was not a polite affair. One can hope that if the Nork people revolt, they will be equally harsh on their masters. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-03-09 08:42 |
| #5 like hunger isn't enough of a reason too farm, but I guess when you're starving it's hard too work a farm |
| Posted by: chris 2010-03-09 07:49 |
| #4 Lead by example? Are you kidding?!? |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-03-09 05:52 |
| #3 A yes, the way to success: having a politruk tell you what, when, and where to plant. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-03-09 02:34 |
| #2 I would have thought that just about everyone with access to land in North Korea would have been into farming. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-03-09 00:32 |
| #1 I suppose they have to do something. The military traditionally does much of the planting and harvesting and with the army on "full alert", who is going to prepare the fields for planting? Recent lifting of all restrictions on farmers markets might help keep kids on the farm if they can make some money but there have been reports of some destroyed stores of grain when prices were fiddled with by the government. If storage space must be rented and the return from the product can not meet the rent, it pays to get rid of the product and shed the rent payment. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2010-03-09 00:18 |