◆ Preference for Forced Labor: Delinquent Youth, Unemployed...
As farm burdens increase, there's a growing trend of reluctance to accept workers indiscriminately, according to Reporting Partner A:
"Since providing money or meals becomes burdensome, farms prefer to handle things themselves when possible and only accept help during critical periods like weeding."
Meanwhile, Reporting Partner B reported an interesting phenomenon related to this:
"To reduce their burden, farms try to use forced labor from unemployed people, delinquent youth, etc. These require no additional wages—just meals—so they even bribe the safety department (police) to get such workers."
Reporting Partner B added that since late April, 'youth units' composed of delinquent youth and unemployed people specializing in such forced labor have been operating in North Hamgyong Province.
While the new agricultural reforms are positive in terms of overcoming primitive large-scale mobilization methods and improving labor management efficiency, exploitation of vulnerable groups is becoming more systematized in the process.
Whether such measures will continue remains to be seen.
※ ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.
