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Local farmers and flood relief teams in Uiju county at odds over land use

North Korean party members assigned to flood relief work in Uiju county provoked conflict with local residents by digging up private farmland for clay needed for construction projects. The incident occurred Sept. 6 in Kangun village, where North Pyongan province “shock troops” clashed with villagers over the disturbance of their farmland.

According to a source in the province on Thursday, North Korea’s party shock troops are racing to build more than 1,000 houses in Kangun village before the Oct. 10 celebration of the party’s founding anniversary. They are extracting clay from surrounding ravines and hillsides for construction.

Most of the ravines and hillsides are already being cultivated by local villagers. This has led to scuffles between members of the shock troops assigned to collect the clay and villagers determined to protect their growing crops.

The authorities have already ordered the flood relief shock troops to minimize damage to crops and farmland during reconstruction. But the shock troops have little choice but to dig up private fields to find the clay needed for the accelerated housing project.

“At first, the villagers just watched (the shock troops) and thought they had no choice. But as the shock troops dug up more of their fields, they started to get angry. The villagers complained that the shock troops’ digging was weakening the earth and increasing the chances of a landslide,” the source said.

Villagers acknowledged that their private fields were not officially recognized as farmland, but they said that if the shock troops dug up too much of the soil, the damage would almost certainly cause a landslide during the next heavy rain.

Locals fear excavations may trigger more disasters

The villagers are angry that ostensible efforts to rebuild after the flood may actually increase the risk of another natural disaster.

The villagers strongly objected to the shock troops’ excavation of the clay. “Digging into the hillside like this will create the conditions for a landslide, even with light rainfall. Can’t you see that?” the source quoted one villager as saying.

“You think we don’t know that? Where are we going to get our clay?” one of the shock troops snapped back, according to the source. 

In the end, the leaders of the shock troops promised the villagers that they would reinforce the slope to prevent a landslide, but the villagers did not find that very reassuring.

“The villagers are very nervous about whether shoring up the slope will prevent a landslide after the soil has been damaged by so much digging into the side of the hill,” the source said.

“The shock troops are invading private fields in search of clay and demolishing perfectly good structures that they promise to rebuild. Villagers criticize the shock troops for being so focused on the task at hand that they’ve forgotten the whole point of flood reconstruction.”

The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.

Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

Read in Korean

September 16, 2024 at 06:30AM

by DailyNK(North Korean Media)

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