North Korea’s State Hydro-Meteorological Administration is undergoing a sweeping, party-ordered ideological review this month after a string of forecasting failures worsened storm and heat wave damage across the country in 2026. The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea has ordered agency staff and workers at related institutions to hold monthlong self-criticism sessions starting in mid-August.
A source told Daily NK on Thursday that the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea recently held the State Hydro-Meteorological Administration responsible for a series of forecasting failures. The committee ordered agency departments and cells to hold general assemblies for one month and to produce strongly worded self-criticism statements, according to the source.
The order, issued Aug. 8, applies not only to the State Hydro-Meteorological Administration but to all related institutions nationwide, including local weather observation stations, the source said.
The committee sharply rebuked the agency for failing to accurately forecast the abnormal weather that persisted from June through early August, saying the failure worsened damage across the country, according to the source.
This year’s monsoon season ran unusually long, and the country was hit by a record heat wave. The agency failed to properly predict the timing of localized heavy rain and sudden temperature spikes, leaving the country unprepared for the resulting damage to farmland and infrastructure, the source said.
Party blames ideology, not aging equipment
The committee also focused criticism on the agency’s failure to carry out a core party directive to overhaul the country’s early warning system. It sharply criticized delays in reporting and lapses in scientific analysis as well, the source said.
“Behind the party’s sweeping ideological review targeting the entire weather-related establishment is an intent to blame the damage from the forecasting failures on workers’ ideological laxity and negligence in carrying out party policy, rather than on technical or environmental limitations,” the source said.
Agency workers and technicians are currently struggling to focus on their regular duties because of the harsh, monthlong ideological review, and they are anxiously watching how the process unfolds, the source said.
The Central Committee is requiring workers to dig through the past three months of their work for errors and submit harsh self-criticism statements. Depending on the outcome of the review, some workers could face personnel penalties or even “revolutionization,” a punitive measure in North Korea that typically involves reassignment to hard labor. That possibility has added to the sense of unease inside the agency.
Some State Hydro-Meteorological Administration workers have complained privately that the review ignores deeper problems, the source said.
“Underlying problems like aging observation equipment and a shortage of satellite data are being left untouched, while forecast errors are being blamed on ideology. That only breeds resentment and a sense of futility,” the source said, describing the workers’ complaints.
Other workers voiced exhaustion at having to write self-criticism statements and criticize each other for hours each day throughout the assembly period, the source said.
“If we spend all day writing self-criticism statements and tearing each other down in general assemblies for an entire month, how are we supposed to handle the critical overnight weather monitoring duties of summer?” the source said, relaying workers’ concerns.
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August 21, 2026 at 07:34PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)