In late September 2020, North Korea issued an order to all fishing companies on the east and west coasts to accurately record all processes to prevent people from going to sea and to tighten restrictions to ensure that “no one appears in their waters.”
The order came shortly after North Korea shot and killed an unidentified individual from South Korea who illegally entered North Korean waters off the coast of Kumdong Village, Kangnyong County, South Hwanghae Province.
Residents of Kangwon Province, who made their living fishing in the East Sea, were gripped with fear – so much so that they said they were more afraid of the government than of COVID-19.
In particular, people complained that they had no idea how to make a living when the state was directly threatening their livelihoods by cracking down on people going out to sea. For people who barely make a living from fishing, a ban on going to sea was nothing less than a death sentence.
However, North Korean authorities applied a double standard to certain fishing entities. They allowed boats belonging to the Central Committee’s Fishery No. 8 and the military’s July 27 Unit Fishery Enterprise – an agency that generates foreign currency for the military – to go to sea.
Operating with government approval, the two groups monopolized the fishing grounds of the East Sea, their boats returning full of fish each time they went out. The two units made a fortune selling what was left of their catch to wholesalers after giving up their government quota.
Meanwhile, the locals, who were in secret communication with the two fishing companies to get their fish wholesale for resale in the market, began to compete fiercely with each other to give the biggest bribes. If they had no money, they would offer anything they had, including saleable items such as their home electronics.
In addition, the North Korean authorities caused an untimely stir by telling locals devastated by the fishing ban that they could get cheap fish or dried seafood if they collected burlap bags that Fishery No. 8 and the July 27 Unit Fishery Enterprise needed to package their catch.