North Koreans face mounting financial burdens for flood recovery as the regime rejects international aid, sparking widespread discontent.
Speaking anonymously, a source in North Pyongan province recently said that regional party organizations have been collecting cash from people to purchase flood relief supplies and help displaced families.
In Sinuiju, several organizations, including enterprises and the Socialist Women’s Union of Korea, started collecting 20,000 to 30,000 North Korean won per person from residents from Aug. 1, calling on people to come together to obtain clothing, necessities and repair supplies for displaced people.
That amount of money is enough to buy 3.5 to 5 kilograms of rice in a North Korean market, placing a heavy burden on the public.
On Aug. 8, the Sinuiju people’s committee ordered neighborhood watch units to collect cash from people to provide fingerless gloves to Paektusan Hero Youth Shock Brigade members dispatched to flood recovery efforts.
This burdened people who were already skipping meals because they had no money to buy food.
With the North Korean authorities turning down offers of aid from overseas, people are complaining that the state “is ultimately squeezing the money out of the people after rejecting aid from other countries.”
Speaking to displaced people in the Uiju flood zone in North Pyongan province on Aug. 8 and 9, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that “several countries and international organizations were offering humanitarian aid” but that the North would “open its path forward with its strength and effort.”