After North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised that 15,400 flood victims from North Pyongan, Jagang, and Ryanggang provinces would be brought to Pyongyang for shelter and education, party committees in each province have been struggling to decide who gets to go.
According to a source in North Pyongan province recently, the province’s party committee is currently choosing people to be housed by the state in Pyongyang. However, since quotas mean that only a few people from each area will get to go to Pyongyang, the selection process is proving difficult.
The provincial party committee is prioritizing the selection of the elderly, the sick, wounded veterans, and children for the trip to Pyongyang based on the categories mentioned by Kim in his speech before the flood victims. When extra slots are available, the committee also considers those who have provided meritorious service to the state and those who have personally met the supreme leader (a category given special treatment in North Korea).
However, since the number of people allowed to visit Pyongyang is extremely limited, committee officials encourage eligible individuals to turn down the trip. “If everyone heads to Pyongyang for fun and games, who is going to build our homes and workplaces?” one official reportedly said.
According to the source, officials are working to persuade the flood victims that “everyone needs to roll up their sleeves and work together to rebuild homes, roads and workplaces.”
However, that has not stopped locals from fighting tooth and nail to be selected for the trip to Pyongyang. People with mild illnesses are pretending to be fully disabled, and parents are passing off their children as younger than their actual age, all in the hope of earning tickets to Pyongyang.
The flood victims expect that if they make it to Pyongyang, they will have all meals provided and stay in lodgings more comfortable than the current tent shelters. They will not be expected to help rebuild after the flood.
“Lots of flood victims want to go to Pyongyang, but there aren’t a lot of available slots. Since the (selection) standards are unclear, people who aren’t selected are bound to be very disappointed,” the source said.
