＜Inside N. Korea＞ Even Heatwave Countermeasures Risk Your Life… Family Buried Alive While Sleeping in a Pit Dug to Escape the Heat — ACs for the Wealthy, a Blatant "Cooling Gap"

Heatwaves come for everyone alike, but not everyone can endure them alike. As record-breaking high temperatures blanket the globe, North Korea too is seeing a continuing string of accidents and damage caused by the heat. The gap between those who can afford cooling equipment (air conditioners) and those who cannot has been thrown into sharp relief by the heatwave, at times becoming a matter of life and death. (Intern reporter HAN Gaon / KANG Jiwon)

◆ How North Koreans Are Coping with the Extreme Heat

Record-breaking heat continued in North Korea as well this summer. According to Korean Central Television, from early July to early August this year the highest temperatures reached 33 degrees Celsius in the northern region, 37 degrees Celsius in the eastern region, and 38–39 degrees Celsius in the southern region. In early August, a reporting partner in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, said, "Many farms say this year's harvest is a complete write-off. Even corn that had grown tall is drying up and dying before it can ripen because of the drought. And it's not just crops. The authorities are telling people not to work more than three hours during the day and to work at night instead, but there have also been deaths from heatstroke."
※ The extent of heatwave damage to crops will be covered in a separate article.

When Seoul's highest temperature reached 39 degrees Celsius this summer, residents of Seoul crowded indoors to escape the heat. But residents of Hyesan headed instead to pits dug about one meter into the ground, shaded storage sheds, or the riverside. Some among the wealthy and privileged cadres own air conditioners and receive priority access to electricity, but ordinary households have, at best, a fan — and even that is hard to use because of power shortages. People have no choice but to find other ways to cope with the heat.

As a countermeasure against the heatwave, North Korean authorities instructed people to avoid outdoor activity from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and to work in the morning and at night instead. Beyond that, about all they offered was advice to wear a hat or use a parasol, wear sunglasses, and drink plenty of water.

◆ A Pit Instead of an Air Conditioner, a Shed Instead of a Fan

Simply following the government's advice obviously does nothing to help people escape the heat. People try to find alternatives however they can, but this sometimes leads to tragedy. A reporting partner in Hyesan said, "It's too hot both inside and outside the house, so there's nowhere to sleep. There was a case where an entire family died, buried in soil, while sleeping in a pit dug inside a storage shed."

The reporting partner added, "The inside of apartments feels like a furnace, so people lay out bedding in front of their apartment buildings to sleep, or go sleep in storage sheds."

A defector who lived in Ryanggang Province until 2019 said, "In the summer, ordinary people would wrap cloth or cardboard around their storage sheds to block out the sunlight and make a place to sleep there." Seven years on, it seems that people’s' countermeasures against the heat have barely changed.