A university in Hungnam district in Hamhung city, South Hamgyong province, mobilized students for three days of trench-digging work in late August 2026. The students were tasked with burying communication cables for a new campus intranet network.
The source told Daily NK on Friday that the university began mobilizing students on Aug. 25 to dig trenches for cable installation. The project aims to build a campus intranet linking the school’s central information technology office to every building on the grounds. Students reportedly packed lunches and headed to the work site each day. Many hoped to finish their assigned sections quickly enough to earn a rare day off.
According to the source, the university needed new communication lines connecting its central information technology office to buildings across the campus. To complete the system, administrators divided the digging work by class and assigned each group a specific section. Every class was required to finish within a set period.
Students ate lunch at the work site so they could keep digging through the day. Some who fell short of their daily quota stayed at the site late into the evening to finish. The source said the results of the digging work factored into each class’s overall evaluation. This scoring system sparked a fierce competition among classes racing to finish first.
Some class leaders pressed their students to move faster. They told students that the time for helping one another had passed, urging them not to embarrass their classmates by falling behind. A single student’s delay could drag down the entire class’s evaluation. This turned finishing the work into a collective rather than an individual burden.
The source said school officials monitored the digging directly, and that visibility intensified the rivalry between classes. The class that finished its section first earned praise from the university’s party committee as an organization with strong “combat capability.” North Korean authorities commonly use that term to describe units regarded as disciplined and effective.
Mobilizing students is a familiar demand
Mobilizing students for campus construction or environmental cleanup projects is not unusual in North Korea, and this project was no exception. University administrators reportedly told students that a university is not a place only for studying, and that students should also help build up their own school.
School officials said the newly built intranet will eventually be used to access educational and scientific and technological materials. This gave students a practical stake in the project’s completion. Students reportedly understood why the network itself was needed, though many privately resented having to carry out the physical labor themselves, the source said.
The source added that students had wanted to pool money and hire day laborers to dig the trenches in their place. University administrators denied that request, insisting the work had to be handled internally because it took place on campus grounds.
The refusal fueled complaints among students, some of whom openly asked why they had to dig the trenches themselves for a project meant to benefit the whole school. Others questioned whether such labor was truly necessary at all.
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.
Maintaining these secure communication channels and protecting source identities requires specialized protocols and constant vigilance. Daily NK serves as a bridge between North Koreans and the outside world, documenting what’s happening inside one of the world’s most closed societies.
September 9, 2026 at 07:08PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)