Border guards borrowed soybeans from nearby residents to pass a November inspection, then kept some to trade for alcohol and cigarettes despite promises to return them.
A source in Ryanggang province told Daily NK recently that the leaders of the Border Guard’s 25th Brigade had gone around each unit in late November to check on their soybean crop.
Since the crop had been particularly small at one company in the 3rd Battalion, the company commanders went around to the homes of nearby civilians before the inspection began and explained the situation. The civilians lent the company bags of soybeans that helped it pass the inspection without comment.
Given the chronic food shortage in North Korea, military units have long been managing farms to make up the shortfall in cereals and vegetables.
Soybeans are an important part of these agricultural efforts. Each year, the brigade leadership reportedly gives units a soybean crop target and checks on their performance after the fall harvest.
Civilians afraid to refuse commanders’ requests despite burden
While soybean farming isn’t, strictly speaking, a military matter, the crop tallies are a factor in evaluations of unit commanders’ capabilities. As such, the source said, commanders are anxious about being written up for not meeting the year’s crop targets.
“In the past, commanders would just pass along falsified reports, but this time they were notified that the brigade leaders would be dropping by to check on the crops in person. So the company commanders rushed off to ask for help from the civilians they know,” the source said.
Unfortunately, locals don’t feel comfortable refusing requests made by the company commanders.
“Civilians with ties to the company commanders or commissars are not keen to turn down requests of this sort. People who live next to a military garrison are afraid that bad blood with the military commanders could negatively impact their lives. So while lending the soybeans is a burden, refusing to lend them would also be a liability,” the source said.
The civilians reluctantly lent the soybeans to the company commanders given their promise to return the soybeans after the inspections. But while the soybeans were in transit, soldiers apparently filched some of them, which they traded for alcohol and cigarettes for their own private use.
Locals seemed resigned to this kind of thing. “I knew that would happen,” one remarked. “What did you expect?” another said.
Others said that the incident is a stark illustration of the true nature of military-public relations, where civilians have to bend over backward to accommodate troops in the area.
Crop theft becomes survival strategy amid chronic food shortage
Relatedly, the theft of crops is a chronic problem in the military’s farming operations.
“Every year, military units plant corn, potatoes and vegetables, among other crops. But many soldiers who work the fields pocket some of the crops for sale at the marketplace to help them get through their military service. As the food shortage continues, such behaviors have basically become a kind of survival strategy inside the military,” the source said.
December 23, 2025 at 07:45AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)