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<Photo
Report> - 5
- Debilitated Soldiers -
Malnutrition Rampant Among The People’s
Army
Written by LEE Jin-su : Photo by Gu
Gwang-ho
(July, 2011)
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This
video image reveals the critical
situation of the People’s Army.
It
was taken by Gu Gwang-ho, a North
Korean working as an undercover
reporter for Rimjin-gang.
The video was recorded in July,
2011, in South Pyongan Province.
In a small square near the market,
a group of around ten young men,
all soldiers, are sitting; all look
seriously debilitated. Their cheeks
are sunken; arms, legs and trunk
shapes are obviously skinny which
can be easily recognized even while
wearing their military uniforms.
Some of them are looking at nothing
with out-of-focus eyes, and some
are utterly absent-minded. There
is a soldier who can hardly move
his body.
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A group of young soldiers who are
going to be transferred to the rear-echelon
because of malnourishment. Some skinny
soldiers stagger and can hardly walk.
The troop commander told them to stay
behind the wall so as not to be seen
by the public. (Taken by Gu Gwang-ho,
July, 2011. South Pyongan Province)
(C)ASIAPRESS |
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When
I received these 30 minutes of footage
from Gu in China, he told the story.
“It
was painful to see such a group of emaciated
soldiers. They were obviously malnourished.”
Gu approached the group commander and
tried to ask where they were going to
be taken, but he was not successful. Gu
conducted a couple of interviews with
local inhabitants to get information.
According to them, these soldiers belong
to the sapper unit. Because of malnutrition,
they had to have treatment and were going
to be taken to another place. The sapper
unit of the People’s Army comprises about
half
of the 1.19 million troops of the People’s
Army, and mainly engages in construction
of important state infrastructure.
“These malnourished soldiers looked to
be around their early 20s, but the group
commander told me that some were even
younger,” Gu said.
In the other part of the footage, a military
policeman observing the unit was telling
soldiers to stay behind the walls. It
seemed the unit commander had an order
that the group should not to be seen by
local people while transferring the malnourished
soldiers. Gu added that these soldiers
won’t live long since they looked seriously
ill.
“It is not unusual to see soldiers die
of malnutrition. The family receives the
death announcement when their son in service
dies of disease. They easily recognize
it was because of malnutrition because
the body is wasted away to skin and bone.
This kind of story spreads around quickly.
So everybody knows about the situation
in the People’s Army.“ |
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Malnourished
soldiers with sunken cheeks
and dull eyes. (Taken by Gu
Gwang-ho, July, 2011. South
Pyongan Province) (C)ASIAPRESS |
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Two
reasons for malnutrition in the military
According to the information from
Gu and other inside reporters, the
food situation in the military has
become prominently worse this year.
Some troops even suffer for the procurement
of salt. In response, the military
has launched a massive campaign of
seizing rice. On the other hand, many
people have lost their source of sustenance
since the disruption of food rations.
People try to earn their basic standard
of living by purchasing food with
cash they earn from doing private
business. In the current situation
of food shortage in North Korea, one
needs to differentiate between the
ordinary people who can somehow earn
their living and soldiers whose lives
rely on the government.
Then the question rises - Why does
malnutrition occur in the military
even under the state’s “military-first
policy”?
There are two major reasons.
Firstly, the government is not able
to ensure that there is enough food
to maintain the People’s Army. Military
rice is basically procured by domestic
production, such as delivery from
cooperative farms and harvests from
military-owned farm fields. If the
amount is insufficient, then the shortfall
has to be imported or purchased from
the domestic market under the responsibility
of the state. But the state cannot
manage it because they don’t have
enough money.
Secondly, the government has not been
successful in preventing the embezzlement
and illegal sale of military foods
and materials in the market by high
ranking officials of the military.Officials
are making a large profit through
the illegal sale of food rations which
have a material cost of zero. While
military goods are skimmed off by
the private moneymaking schemes of
officials, most of the troops are
required to make a “self-solution”.
This means that troops have to solve
the scarcity problem themselves.
The state cannot afford to procure
the necessary materials, such as gasoline,
to maintain military activities, so
again military goods and rice are
illegally sold to earn cash to buy
other necessary items for the troops.
The malnourished soldiers recorded
in this video are proof
of the destabilization of the government
which cannot run the military, North
Korea’s most important state organ.
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Photo Report PART
1 - PART2
- PART3
- PART4
- PART5
Lee
Jin-su is Rimjin-gang's editor
>>>
Gu Gwang-ho
is our North Korean reporting partner currently resides
in Pyongyang.
Gu in his thirties and lives in Pyongyang. He has successfully
carried out three video reports in Pyongyang and South
Pyongan Province. The report of the malnourished soldiers
in the summer of 2011 had a great impact on the global
community after the footage was aired on major TV stations.
Back
to Report >>
* Editor's
notes on North Korean reporters |
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