Mobilized Storm Trooper of the Youth Union for construction of 100,000 households in Pyongyang. Taken by Koo Gwang-ho at Daedonggang District in August 2011.
Mobilized Storm Trooper of the Youth Union for construction of 100,000 households in Pyongyang. Taken by Koo Gwang-ho at Daedonggang District in August 2011.

The Youth Union(*), an umbrella social group of DPRK Worker’s Party, is strictly checking teenagers for their cloths or whether they have put on Kim Il-sung badge at market places or on street since March. Violators are often moved to remote region for labor without a chance to notify their family. The parents of the detainees are protesting together at the Party office. Followings are reports from reporting partners in North Korea. (ISHIMARU Jiro/ Kang Ji-won)

◆<Blue jeans, piercing, and ponytail prohibited>

Our reporting partner in North Hamkyung Province said “subjects of control are tight pants such as jeans (called ‘pants without line’), dyed hair with yellow or brown color (‘soaked in capitalist culture’).”

There is a similar report from Yanggang Province. Reporting partner B in Hyesan City reported the target costumes for cracking down are as follows; “Blue jeans, tight cloths, ponytail hair style and dying are the subject of control. Earrings are fine but piercing is prohibited. They also check on whether they are wearing Kim Il-sung badge or not.”

◆Caught juveniles are sent to force labor

The reality is that the caught juveniles are legally arrested and sent to the labor site. ‘A’ said “Storm Trooper office of the Youth Union detains caught youth up to 30 and then sent them to ‘6.18 Storm Trooper’ in Kangwon Province.”

‘Storm Trooper’ is a labor force formed to work for large construction projects of the nation. They are organized and managed under the Youth Union and workplaces as a work force for the construction of rail way, power plants, and so on.

‘6.18 Storm Trooper’, belonging directly to the Worker’s Party, was organized by the order of Kim Jong-il to construct Samjiyon District on June 18, 1999. Each workplace gets the allotment of personnel to dispatch and the base is Kangwon Province.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS