＜Inside N. Korea＞ Farm Officials Illegally Transfer Children to Cities... Avoiding the Despised Farmer Status of Poverty and Contempt

As farm officials' movements to send their children away from rural areas to cities have spread, North Korean authorities are conducting intensive investigations and crackdowns. In North Korea, there exists a "class system" where those born into farming families must live their entire lives as farm workers for generations. Cases are being continuously detected where farm officials commit fraud using education or illness as pretexts to somehow get their children assigned to urban workplaces. This information was provided by a reporting partner in North Hamgyong Province in early September. (HONG Mari / KANG Ji-won)

◆University Enrollment as Gateway to Urban Employment

The reporting partner explained the trigger for this large-scale investigation as follows:

"At one farm, an official's child entered a trading company in the city after enrolling in university, and when someone reported this to the Workers' Party organization in North Hamgyong Province, intensive investigations began."

They continued to explain the details of the investigation:

"A 'group' (detection team) dispatched from North Hamgyong Province’s party organization is conducting intensive investigations throughout rural areas. They are detecting many cases of people who entered urban workplaces directly after enrolling in vocational schools. Among these, there are people who came to cities by creating false medical certificates for conditions like arthritis or spinal diseases, disguising themselves as social security recipients (exempt from work)."

◆Strict Class Society - Children of Farmers Remain Farmers for Generations

North Korea is clearly a class-based society. Farm workers in particular have been despised as the poorest occupation with no future possibilities, representing the lowest class. Those born into farming families cannot escape their "farmer status" for generations and must live in rural areas. Therefore, even if they graduate from vocational schools or universities, in principle, those with farmer status are not allowed to be assigned to urban workplaces and must return to their rural hometowns.

However, farm officials desperately trying to achieve "status conversion" for their children to become urban people are being detected in large numbers for committing fraud, such as bribing officials at the labor bureau of the People's Committee (local government) who decide job assignments, to enable work in urban positions.

The reporting partner said, "The People's Committee Labor Bureau is also investigating urban people with rural connections. Many farm officials will lose their heads through this investigation."

◆Those without Money Go to Rural Areas - "Gap Widening"

Meanwhile, though a minority, there are also people who want to transfer their registration to rural areas - the urban poorest. Since the COVID pandemic, the Kim Jong-un regime has strictly restricted individual economic activities such as commerce. As a result, cases of urban people who lost cash income and became impoverished hoping to transfer to farms are increasing.

The reporting partner reported:

"People in cities who have nothing want to go to rural areas, while people in rural areas who have something want to go to cities. The wealth gap is becoming increasingly severe."

※ ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.