Good Friends: Mysterious Disease Spreads in N. Korea; More Signs of Discontent

Good Friends Newsletter No. 137 is here:  nkt137-eng1.pdf

Highlights:

• Rising mortality in both South and North Hwanghae provinces from famine and the effects of “alternative” foods made of grass;
• Mysterious disease spreads, kills kids near Chinese border regions; doctors guess  it could be  avian flu or hand-foot-and mouth disease;
• Frost kills crop seedlings in North Pyongan;
• Amid fertilizer shortage, regime set quota for human excrement (seriously) that starving people can’t meet;
• Hungry North Koreans express resentment at growing class divisions, official corruption, forced labor, taxation to pay for weapons: 

“The ocean can float the boat, but angry sea can sink the boat too. If the government loses people’s goodwill, there could be no good results in future.

“Where in the world is there a country that bind their people with military rules and harass them? If one wants to be excused [from forced  labor], one had to pay 10,000 won penalty. Those without money normally cannot afford meals and are physically feeble. These poor and feeble people must work while those with money are exempt from physical labor, and that’s so unfair.

Some residents whisper, “The state ought to use the money to improve lives of people rather than on producing nuclear weapons or missiles. That will reduce the burdens of people tremendously.  

Toward this kind of attitude, a high ranking party official made a comment, “Central party officials believe that ignorant people do not realize that people cannot exist without the State. The gap between central party officials and the ordinary people is enormous.

• Some Pyongyang textile workers too hungry to work:

The uneven food distribution in Pyongyang City has brought a food shortage to some areas. It was confirmed that the food distribution, which had been discontinued temporarily and resumed in May in the level of about 70% of the normal quantity, but even that had not been given to all households. Some families have not received food since March when the food distribution was stopped. Poor families, who have been excluded from the food distribution, barely live on one or two rice porridge a day, similar situation as in the farms. While rural area people could look for some edible grass, these factory workers have to report to work and their food situation is as dire as the farmers. For example, women workers of Pyongyang Textile Factory (평양방직공장) in Sunkyo District (선교구역) report to work but unable to any work because they haven’t eaten. They either sit or lie down on the worktable, just waiting for their shift to end, then go home. Majority workers bring porridge for lunch but as the month of May progresses, the number of workers that could not even bring porridge has increased.

The usual cautions apply, particularly to the direct quotations. Generally, however, Good Friends’s reporting has been  consistent with other known evidence  as to economic and food supply trends, even if I question some of their more dire predictions and most of their policy recommendations.  That said, Good Friends provides an invaluable service that no one else can.