Inspectors from Kaechon’s commerce department have confiscated goods from state-run stores after discovering they were selling privately-sourced salt and salted seafood. The crackdown comes as stores had turned to private investors to meet high winter demand for these essential items in the South Pyongan province city.
According to a source in the province recently, the issue was that the managers of state-run stores had not reported their purchase of additional items to the city’s commerce department because they intended to keep the proceeds for themselves.
“The government bans individual transactions to prevent retail distribution outside of the state’s control. But since the stores struggle to make ends meet with products supplied by the state, their managers keep making hush-hush deals with individuals who provide other items to sell,” the source explained.
“At the time of the inspection, the store managers appealed to the inspectors from the commerce department not to have the extra items confiscated. But the next day, staff from the supply department of the Kaechon Area Coal Mining Company came by and carted off all the items,” he said.
The stores ultimately had to allow their stock to be confiscated since they had obviously disobeyed state regulations. The individual investors who had supplied the products in the first place agreed to write off the cost of the salt and salted seafood, which were not too expensive anyway. The investors decided not to make a fuss about the loss because they need to keep working with the state-run stores in the future.
Even so, the store managers have expressed their annoyance at the city commerce department. They say the department went too far when it confiscated all their extra products despite knowing full well state-run stores have to diversify their products if they are to meet state-mandated quotas.
“Quite a bit of salt and salted seafood was confiscated in the inspection. But when managers looked into where the confiscated supplies were taken, they found that most of them had gone to the dormitories of workers at coal mines under the Kaechon Area Coal Mining Company.
The workers’ dormitories are communal living areas for mine workers without families who have volunteered to come here from other areas.
The authorities have stressed the need for party and government agencies to proactively supply these workers who have volunteered for jobs at mines and other hardship positions.
After learning that the confiscated goods had been sent to the mine workers’ dormitories, the state-run stores lodged a complaint with the city that the inspection had been used as an excuse to nab supplies the city was supposed to provide the workers.
“The state-run stores have been private stores in all but name for some time now. But the city commerce department occasionally comes up with various excuses for ‘inspecting’ the stores and confiscating their goods. The reality is that store managers can do little but grin and bear it,” the source said.
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November 19, 2024 at 07:13AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)