Authorities in Chongjin have recently been pressuring people to submit their quota of scrap metal for the first quarter, Daily NK has learned.
“Citizens of Chongjin are angry at being pressured by their neighborhood watch units to submit their 20-kilogram quota of scrap metal or pay an equivalent amount in cash if they can’t come up with the scrap,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The North Korean government has neighborhood watch units assign each family quotas for materials such as scrap metal, scrap paper, dried feces powder, and oil crops at the beginning of the year and then track their progress toward their quarterly quotas.
These government demands are part of the country’s system of “non-tax burdens,” which are levied on ordinary people to help achieve various projects, including the construction of housing.
This year, the scrap metal quota for each family in Chongjin is 60 kilograms, but they are supposed to turn in 20 kilograms in the first quarter. With the arrival of March, the last month of the first quarter, neighborhood watch units are urging families to meet their quotas.
“The annual scrap metal quota used to be 30 kilograms. But the quota went up during the pandemic, and recently it has been different every year. This year’s quota is lower than last year’s, but it’s still double what it was before COVID-19,” the source said.
What makes the task especially difficult, the source explained, is that scrap metal quotas are assigned not only by neighborhood watch units but also by workplaces and schools.
And now, neighborhood watch units are demanding that families struggling to meet quotas must pay KPW 1,000 for each missing kilogram.