North Korean people across the country were mobilized for pre-dawn street cleaning and forced to cover the costs of building repairs and flower baskets ahead of the April 15 birthday of founder Kim Il Sung as rising prices in 2026 deepened the financial strain.
A Daily NK source in South Hamgyong province reported on Wednesday that people in Hamhung had been mobilized from 5 a.m. daily for street cleaning and neighborhood beautification work ahead of the holiday, which the state marks as one of the country’s most important political occasions. The source said the mobilization extended well beyond Hamhung, with simultaneous campaigns unfolding across North Korea.
Schools, workplaces, and neighborhood watch units — the grassroots surveillance and administrative cells that organize daily life at the block level — each received separate “neighborhood beautification” assignments, leaving households facing compounding demands from multiple organizations at once.
At schools, students were mobilized from 5 a.m. to clean statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and to wipe portrait photographs inside classrooms in what the regime calls “devotion work” — a loyalty ritual performed in honor of the ruling Kim family. While absences from routine devotion work are generally overlooked, the source said attendance was required without exception in the days leading up to April 15, leaving students exhausted.
Costs passed down to ordinary households
Workplaces conducted similar rituals, including managing portrait photographs, whitewashing exterior walls, and tidying courtyards. Neighborhood watch units separately mobilized their members for street cleaning and beautification from the early morning hours.
The burden extended beyond physical labor. The source said the cost of repair materials for building work was passed directly onto ordinary households, compounding the fatigue with financial pressure. Because cheap materials are used repeatedly for the same walls, repairs quickly deteriorate and the cycle of costs begins again.
In one Hamhung neighborhood watch unit, each household was assessed 10,000 North Korean won ahead of April 15. Even buildings that had already been repaired were added to the list of targets, forcing those households to pay again.
On top of this, a separate fee was levied for flower baskets required at April 15 ceremonies. With schools, workplaces, and neighborhood watch units all issuing flower basket orders simultaneously, individual households effectively bore the cost two or three times over.
The accumulating demands prompted open expressions of frustration. North Korean people have long understood state holidays not as days of rest but as periods of intensified mobilization and expenditure. The source said the strain felt sharper than usual this year because of ongoing price increases.
“Earning money gets harder every day, prices keep rising, and the holidays only bring more fees,” the source said. “With all the mobilization and expenses carried out in the name of loyalty, the faces of people greeting this holiday are dark.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
Daily NK operates networks of sources inside North Korea who document events in real-time and transmit information through secure channels. Unlike reporting based on state media, satellite imagery, or defector accounts from years past, our journalism comes directly from people currently living under the regime. We verify reports through multiple independent sources and cross-reference details before publication.
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April 15, 2026 at 02:48PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)