Hwasonggak, a major restaurant in the Hwasong district of Pyongyang, was subject to a year-end evaluation and ideological struggle session as part of a wider review of restaurants in the capital in late December, Daily NK has learned.
A source told Daily NK recently that Hwasonggak employees had to attend a bruising ideological struggle session—the first of its kind—on Dec. 27 that lasted all day.
“Restaurant managers had been told the session would be held to assess the past year’s business and discuss direction for 2026. But in reality, problematic employees were called up to be sternly warned and publicly humiliated,” the source said.
During performance evaluations and ideological struggle sessions held that day, between two and four individuals were openly reprimanded at each restaurant.
Some individuals were given stern warnings and sentenced to six months at a labor camp. Others were carted off on the spot, leaving the rest of the staff on pins and needles.
“The struggle sessions focused on finding problems about which each individual could be criticized. Some participants later remarked that the meeting felt less like a struggle session than a criminal trial,” the source said.
Public supplies, missed quotas, and private lives
The first employees criticized were those who had made false reports to conceal their looting of public supplies. Struggle session leaders heaped pressure on employees by listing specific dates and circumstances of their alleged behavior, leaving them without excuses.
Next to be criticized were those who had not met expectations in their participation in organizational activities or performance of government-mandated chores. The focus was on denouncing employees who were habitually tardy, absent, or repeatedly went home early, employees who procrastinated on meeting government quotas, and employees who skipped organizational activities.
“In the restaurant business, such attitudes are a crime,” one struggle session leader said, adding to the chill in the room.
Employees who had been reticent to engage in mutual criticism or who had gotten worked up over criticism and clapped back in retaliation were also subjected to severe tongue-lashings.
In addition, the struggle session targeted those who had stirred up trouble and aroused distrust among coworkers, engaged in gambling and superstitious behavior, or indulged in excessive banquets and drinking parties.
Employees’ private lives were even treated as fair game during the day’s struggle session. Those who had gotten divorced, frequently bickered with their spouses, or neglected their spouses or children were named as targets in the battle against “the failure of the revolutionization of the family.”
“Without exception, the employees called to the podium hung their heads in shame. The degree of their humiliation was almost inexpressible. After such a savage display of criticism, each unit held an end-of-year party, but there was little merriment. People ate in silence and went their separate ways,” the source said.
“Some employees who attended the day’s struggle session gathered in small groups on the way home and bemoaned ‘a day of terror and pressure’ and ‘the longest struggle session ever.’ Many people remarked that discipline and control are likely to grow even tighter in the days to come.”
January 16, 2026 at 07:07PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)