North Korea is pushing a nationwide tree-planting drive under the banner of its “Second Reforestation Project,” but on the ground in South Hamgyong province the campaign is producing more eye-rolls than saplings, with workers going through the motions while quietly hauling firewood home, Daily NK has learned.
A Daily NK source in South Hamgyong province reported on Monday that factories, enterprises, and schools in Hamhung city have all been drawn into the tree-planting mobilization. March and April mark the official planting season, and North Korean people have been called out continuously with little rest.
Mass campaigns and competition for “model” titles
According to the source, two parallel mass campaigns are currently underway across the country under the reforestation banner: the “Socialist Patriotic Forest” drive and the “Model Forest County Title Competition,” in which administrative units at the city and county level compete against each other for recognition. Political organizations including Workers’ Party of Korea cells and workers’ associations are also taking part, generating their own performance competition within the broader mobilization.
“The whole country is caught up in the tree-planting drive,” the source said. “The streets are full of people carrying shovels and buckets.”
North Korean state media has framed the campaign in explicitly ideological terms. The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, reported on April 8 that the mass movement’s “fundamental purpose is not simply to create dense forests, but to cultivate true patriots who cherish every blade of grass and every tree as if it were their own flesh.”
Public reaction has been sharply skeptical. “Since the days of the Great Leader [Kim Il Sung], people have been taught to cherish every blade of grass and tree,” the source said. “But decades later, the only proper forests you can find are around restricted military zones. Now people are sarcastically asking: ‘They’re telling us to do the second reforestation project, but when exactly did the first one happen?’”
The gap between official goals and on-the-ground reality is stark. A significant number of people heading up the mountain to plant trees carry empty backpacks on the way up and come back down with them full of firewood.
“When there’s pressure from above, people outwardly go along with it while quietly looking after themselves. That is a long-standing way of life here,” the source said.
Perfunctory planting is also widespread. With quotas to meet and little genuine motivation, many workers simply stick their assigned seedlings loosely into the ground and leave.
“There are very few people who plant trees with any real care,” the source said. “In many cases, they just poke the supplied seedlings into the designated area and head home. People signal each other to take it easy, with the logic that working too hard only causes trouble and that ‘fighting to the last’ just means fighting among yourselves.”
Weekly mobilizations take a physical and mental toll
The frequency of mobilizations has escalated sharply compared to previous years, adding to the strain on ordinary North Korean people.
“Until last year, planting trees once or twice a year was the norm,” the source said. “Now people are going up and down the mountain every single week. The physical and mental burden has grown enormously, and people are far more worn out than before. They are being dragged from one mass campaign to the next, and both body and mind are exhausted.”
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.
Our sources remain anonymous because contact with foreign media is treated as a capital offense in North Korea — discovery means imprisonment or execution. This network-based approach allows Daily NK to report on developments other outlets cannot access: market trends, policy implementation, public sentiment, and daily realities that never appear in official narratives.
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April 13, 2026 at 03:05PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)