Former soldier North Korea now ordered Kim Jong-un farming as part of the country’s strategy to increase agricultural production. Many of them have complained about having to return to work even after retiring from the military.
Every North Korean male must serve seven years of military service after graduating from high school. However, retired soldiers currently provide a minimum of ten years of military service.
“The authorities made this decision at the fourth plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea at the end of December. They will send a group of soldiers who have stopped (to farm) into the fields,” an official from North Pyongan told reporters. Radio Free Asia on January 3.
“They are soldiers who just quit at the end of 2021 or just want to quit. Many of them feel dissatisfied,” said the source again.
There was a group of 200 veterans who were sent to the city of Chongju when they were traveling back to their hometowns. Hundreds of other soldiers who quit in November and December are still awaiting their assignments.
“The reason the authorities are placing veterans in the countryside on such a large scale is because they perceive aging rural workers to be the cause of the decline in grain production,” the official said.
However, many observers consider the decline in production to be caused by natural disasters, shortages of fertilizers and modern machinery, as well as other issues related to the shutdown of North-China trade due to the coronavirus.
The source also said that a lot of bribes took place among veterans so that their names were not included in the assignment list.
“In response, the Central Committee warned that such acts as a deliberate evasion, would be considered an anti-party act, and the perpetrators would face severe punishment. Many officials feared they would be arrested if they accepted bribes.”
Meanwhile, a resident from Hyesan city said as many as 140 new veterans in Ryanggang Province will be deployed to potato fields in rural areas.
“The Central Committee has ordered each field to guarantee their lives and environment for the stability of the veterans’ lives, so even field owners have been very busy since the start of this year,” the source said.
The veterinarians were very dissatisfied with the Central Committee’s order regarding the assignment to rural areas. The soldiers left their hometowns as teenagers and devoted ten years to the military, but what they got instead was another difficult and exhausting task, namely working in the countryside. .”
(pwn / bac)
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