North Korean authorities are addressing a labor shortage by conscripting ordinary residents and students as young as 12 to work on state-mandated construction projects, sources inside North Korea told Radio Free Asia.
In the northern province of Ryanggang, officials In Kimhyongjik county have required students to work on factory construction sites as part of leader Kim Jong Un's plan to accelerate industrial development under the so-called "20×10 Local Development Policy" that was announced in December.
The policy calls for 20 North Korean counties to construct modern factories every year over the next 10 years to improve people’s “material standard of living.” Each corps of the Korean People’s Army was ordered to mobilize troops to contribute to the construction projects.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Kimhyongjik factory took place on March 10, but the military was only able to provide about 700 personnel, a Ryanggang resident who asked not to be identified told RFA.
With a population of less than 60,000 people, Kimhyongjik county is having a hard time finding workers to build the factory, she said.
“All of the young people are serving in the military, so there is a severe shortage of manpower needed to build the local factory.”
Looming deadline
The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea announced that all 20×10 factory construction projects must be completed by Sep. 9 and begin normal operations on Sep. 10 to coincide with North Korea’s independence holiday.
Another resident told RFA that regional authorities are turning to students, older women and ordinary laborers to meet the deadline.
“Students are not an exception. As of April 5, middle and high school students between the ages of 12 and 17 are being mobilized for pre-meal work to collect sand and gravel for the factory’s foundation,” he explained.
“From 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., they are collecting sand and gravel,” he said. “They are in school from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., then they collect sand and gravel again from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. They are forced to work even on Sundays, which are rest days.”
Older members of the Socialist Women's Union of Korea are also being mobilized seven days a week to collect foundation materials from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., while local laborers are tasked with constructing blocks for the factory’s walls.
Residents have expressed concerns about the effect of the harsh labor on the health of children. They argued that high school students should not be working on construction sites before school, and that middle school students should not be working at all.
Some parents have even begun keeping their children home from school under the pretense of illness to protect them from forced labor, the sources said.
Threats and bribes
Meanwhile, authorities in the capital of Pyongyang are struggling to retain laborers for Kim Jong Un's "10,000-home project."
Launched in 2021, the plan calls for 10,000 homes to be constructed per year in Pyongyang for a period of five years. So far, 30,000 homes have been completed.
When the 10,000-home project began in 2021, many Pyongyang residents volunteered to become “stormtroopers” – what North Korea calls soldiers or ordinary people engaged in construction projects – with the hope that they would be assigned housing as a reward,” one Pyongyang resident said.
However, many residents who have yet to receive homes after years of intense labor now wish to return to their original factory jobs and are trying to desert their construction work. And residents who have already been assigned homes since becoming stormtroopers are no longer motivated to continue working on the construction sites.
Pyongyang officials have responded to the desertions with both threats and bribes.
One worker who decided to return to his factory job after receiving a home due to health concerns had his Workers’ Party status threatened by a low-level party secretary.
“If you have received the party’s consideration, you should think about repaying the favor,” the official told him, according to the RFA source. “Why do you pursue your own comfort first? You are not qualified as a member of the party.”
Losing the favor of the party can have serious consequences for individuals and their families, making it difficult for workers to disobey the demands of party leaders.
Other officials have attempted to retain stormtroopers by promising them that if they stay on the construction project until its completion in 2025, they will be rewarded with homes.
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Claire McCrea and Malcolm Foster.