As winter cold tightens its grip on North Korea, public frustration is growing over the shortage of firewood for heating and cooking. Authorities have been cracking down hard on unauthorized tree-cutting under the banner of forest conservation, making it increasingly difficult for residents to obtain fuel. In mid-February, a reporting partner sent us an account of conditions in the northern region. (JEON Sung-jun / KANG Ji-won)
◆ Bribes Demanded at Forest Control Checkpoints
According to the reporting partner, tighter controls on illegal winter firewood cutting have ironically turned the situation into a money-making operation for local forestry management offices.
"They're strictly controlling illegal tree-cutting for winter firewood, and the forestry management offices are using that to line their pockets. At the checkpoints they've set up, you can get through by paying a 100,000-won bribe per cubic meter of wood."
※ 10,000 North Korean won = 0.2 USD (as of March 13)
※ Forestry management offices fall under the Ministry of Land and Environment Protection and are responsible for the planned development, protection, and use of forests in each city and county.
"Unless the wood is already dead and dry, the checkpoints confiscate it — and then the forestry management office turns around and sells it at the market. The rule is supposed to be that confiscated wood goes to households in need, but they're ignoring that and using it to make money."
◆ Firewood Confiscated at Markets Too, with Sellers Ordered to Prove Its Origin
The reporting partner said that tightening controls have reduced the supply of firewood coming from nearby timber-rich areas such as Baekam County, which had been a key source of fuel for Hyesan residents.
"It's so cold that everyone — young and old — is heading into the mountains for wood, and the number of people enforcing the rules is growing too. Unless the wood is standing deadwood, you simply can't get through a checkpoint. Even byproducts of trees felled for construction — branches, bark, and the like — are subject to enforcement if you don't have a forestry management office permit."
Market vendors selling firewood have not been spared either.
The reporting partner described an intimidating scene at the markets: "From the crack of dawn they're cracking down on firewood sellers, demanding they prove where the wood came from. If they can't, it gets confiscated."
