NK Sends Thousands of City Dwellers to Work the Fields
Another sign that famine may be returning to North Korea, from today’s New York Times:
To combat growing food shortages, the North Korean government is sending millions of city dwellers to work on farms each weekend, largely to transplant rice, according to foreign aid workers.
“The staff that work for us, the staff that work in the ministries, are going out to help farmers,” said Richard Ragan, director of World Food Program operations in Pyongyang, referring to North Koreans who work for the program. Speaking by telephone on Wednesday, he said that in terms of food supplies North Koreans “are inching back to the precipice.”
“It does happen every year,” he said of the mobilization of workers to the fields, “but the difference this year is that everyone is involved.”
Gerald Bourke, a World Food Program spokesman, said Wednesday that on a recent visit to the port of Wonsan, “We saw thousands of people who were marching out of the city.”
“Later, we saw them digging out irrigation canals,” he said, speaking by telephone from Beijing.
Nicholas Eberstadt defines “economic collapse” as the point where the division of labor breaks down. He closely associates it with de-urbanization–the migration of hungry city-dwellers to rural areas where the food is. This doesn’t appear to be a migration; it appears to be regime-driven. Yet those city-dwellers must be wondering why they are being sent to the fields in higher numbers than ever. One wonders how long this mobilization will last, and how many will actually return to the cities when it’s over.
The reports of maintenance breakdowns are particularly interesting, because I’ve heard a rumor that train service in North Korea has deteriorated dramatically over equipment and maintenance issues in the last several months. If any readers can confirm or refute that, I’d greatly appreciate it. It’s hard to see how the regime can continue to function and feed its urban population if the trains don’t even run.