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Thursday, December 5, 2024

N. Korean flood victims seek shelter as housing promises fall short

North Korean flood victims in Sinuiju, initially promised swift housing reconstruction, are now abandoning their temporary shelters as hopes of moving into new homes by year’s end fade. Facing the onset of winter, displaced people have begun seeking heated cohabitation residences.

According to a source in North Pyongan province recently, flood victims who expected to move into new homes by the Oct. 10 Party Foundation Day had their hopes dashed when Kim Jong Un, during his Nov. 4 visit to recovery sites in Uiju and Sinuiju, pushed the completion deadline to December’s party meeting.

With plummeting temperatures and frequent autumn rains, people can no longer tolerate the cold and are uncertain whether they can move into new homes in December.

Though the authorities have housed vulnerable flood victims like the elderly, children, and pregnant women in public buildings and inns, many displaced residents still live in tents, according to the source. Even if homes are built by Kim’s December deadline, residents expect further delays as they would need to furnish the houses themselves, leading many to seek shared housing arrangements before winter intensifies.

However, some displaced people cannot leave the tents due to the cost of shared housing in the Sinuiju area and the high seasonal prices for winter supplies, the source said.

“You have to pay at least 20 kilograms of corn a month for a single room, and with the season changing, kindling — which you have to pay for yourself — is so expensive it costs as much to heat your home for the day as it does to eat,” he said. “So, moving into a shared home is inevitably a heavy burden on displaced people.” 

He added: “Displaced people with a bit of means are leaving to find shared houses first, while those who can’t afford it are simply watching what the state does, hoping they will do something for them.”

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

November 15, 2024 at 12:00PM

by DailyNK(North Korean Media)

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