North Korea is rushing to survey and reinforce flood-prone areas ahead of the summer rainy season, mobilizing factory and enterprise workers for large-scale repair work at rivers, embankments, and mountain slopes across North Pyongan province.
A Daily NK source in North Pyongan province said Monday that the Land and Environmental Protection Management Department of the Unsan county people’s committee — a local administrative body responsible for land use, environmental protection, and infrastructure — conducted field inspections in early May targeting areas at high risk of flooding and landslides along the county’s rivers, streams, and hillsides.
From mid-May onward, workers from local factories and enterprises were mobilized to carry out embankment repairs, drainage channel maintenance, and riverbed clearing. Work-site inspections have been conducted frequently throughout, with officials applying steady pressure on those overseeing the repairs.
“In the past, the work amounted to reinforcing riverbanks and tidying up the surrounding area,” the source said. “Now the approach involves detailed pre-season surveys to identify specific high-risk stretches, and the intent is to carry out large-scale repairs using heavy equipment.”
The intensified effort reflects the political fallout from flood damage in recent years. Officials in Unsan county and other cities and counties across North Pyongan province have received formal party notifications of cases in which local Workers’ Party of Korea and people’s committee officials were punished for failing to put adequate flood prevention measures in place. Those cases appear to have concentrated minds at every level.
Workers bear the cost as officials focus on inspections
As a result, preventing rainy season damage has become the top priority for officials across the province, and repair and reinforcement work is being pushed more aggressively than in previous years.
The burden, however, falls heavily on the workers mobilized to carry it out. The scope and duration of work assignments have expanded compared to prior seasons, while the frequency of oversight inspections has also increased. Compounding the frustration, the state is not supplying the heavy equipment needed for the work. Factories and enterprises are expected to source their own machinery, and workers must provide their own basic protective gear such as gloves and arrange their own meals.
“The workers mobilized for the repair work say they are being given more to do, for longer, under closer inspection, while the authorities refuse to supply the equipment they need and just keep issuing orders and sending inspectors,” the source said. “They say things just get harder every year.”
The source noted that while the grievances are real, some workers have expressed a cautiously positive view of the more substantive approach. “Since they have to be mobilized anyway, some people say it is better to do it properly than just go through the motions,” the source said.
Reporting from inside North Korea
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June 4, 2026 at 02:10AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)