While the Supreme Leader struts his stuff on the international stage, life is getting harder for ordinary North Koreans away from the cities. From the Daily NK:
Despite North Korea’s promises of an “agricultural revolution” announced at a key party meeting in late 2021, the country’s rural areas remain mired in poverty with inadequate food supplies and substandard living conditions—a reality that state media coverage of new housing construction and happy rural families systematically misrepresents.
“Many city residents believed the country was changing based on the new homes and bright lights in the countryside that they see every day on television or in the newspapers. But when they actually come to the countryside, they’re astonished by the awful reality of life there,” a source in South Pyongan province told Daily NK recently.
Many rural residents live in ramshackle homes that barely qualify as shelter, while their children walk around barefoot. The gap between propaganda and reality often astonishes urban visitors.
“There are still many people in the countryside with unpowered homes that leak in the rain and creak in the wind. These are people who know little about what is happening inside North Korea, let alone overseas. What sort of ambition could these adults, or even children, have for their lives?” the source said.
Photographs obtained by Daily NK show people in rural areas walking barefoot on dirt roads and children eating plain noodles with salt water in dimly lit homes that rely only on natural light. The images document the backward conditions in North Korea’s countryside, with no sign of children who have “nothing to envy in the world”—as state propaganda claims—or the happy families featured in government housing stories.
Some vendors at North Korean marketplaces are struggling to make a living, sometimes going days without a single sale. Business has collapsed due to soaring prices and empty wallets.
“Vendors at Hamhung marketplaces have been feeling the pinch lately. Several have quit after failing to sell anything for days,” a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently.
“Vendors selling hand-wrapped cigarettes are nervously considering new lines of work. The working-class people who typically buy these cigarettes are so broke they’ve stopped smoking entirely. Some vendors barely see any customers during a full day at their stalls,” the source said….
A similar situation exists in Hyesan, Ryanggang province.
“Market vendors nowadays all look like they’ve been to a funeral"…
Leave a Reply