DPRK land rezoning policy
For at least a decade the DPRK has been rezoning state-owned agricultural land into organized grids in a effort to increase productivity. Here is a good example of the policy as seen from Google Earth:
Before After
The Handure Plain is one of the most “popular” areas where this policy has been carried out:
Here are some KCNA stories about the policy:
Rural Community of Korea Conspicuous with True Feature of Socialism
Pyongyang, July 6 [2009](KCNA) — The three revolutions, ideological, technical and cultural, have been pushed ahead and the assistance to and leadership over the countryside by the government stepped up, making it possible to assimilate the peasantry to the working class and industrialize agriculture rapidly and change the looks of the countryside day by day.The fields under cultivation have been standardized like a paduk (go) board and unique gravity-fed waterways and many dwelling houses have been constructed across the country to convert the countryside into a socialist fairyland good to live in.
Typical of such model farms are the Migok Co-op Farm in Sariwon City, North Hwanghae Province, the Sinam Co-op Farm in Ryongchon County, North Phyongan Province, the Chongsan Co-op Farm in Kangso County, South Phyongan Province and the Samjigang Co-op Farm in Jaeryong County, South Hwanghae Province and others.
The Migok Co-op Farm has constructed dwelling houses in tiers so as to see the vast field and the road leads to each block and each house. A large orchard has been arranged in front of the village and a resting site built on the hill covered with forests.
Wonderful is the landscape of the Ryongchon Plain in North Phyongan Province where life-giving water is flowing along the Paekma-Cholsan Waterway and rice plants are growing well in the standardized paddy fields.
Poman-ri, Sohung County, North Hwanghae Province, was once an out-of-the-way place with nothing to show except wild geese flying over it. But it, with a fishing farm in front of it and a forest of fruit trees in the rear, is now called one of the eight beautiful spots in the Songun era.
The horizon in Handure Plain and sea of potato-flowers at Taehongdan are also well known among the Koreans as ones of the above-said beautiful spots.
Electricity finds its way to all parts of the country and methane gas has been introduced to villages. Increasing in number are apricot tree villages and houses with many pear trees and persimmon trees where all sorts of flowers are in full bloom in spring and are pervaded with fruit aroma in summer and autumn.
While giving field guidance to the Tongbong Co-op Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province some time ago, General Secretary Kim Jong Il said that the farm village with cozy modern dwelling houses built on a sunny hillside and the co-op fields where green crops are swaying and farm machines are working look like a beautiful picture. He stressed that this is the laudable real feature of our socialist rural community.
Today the agricultural working people of Korea are all out to bring about a turn in the agricultural production with the responsibility for being in charge of the main front for the building of a great, prosperous and powerful nation.
Land leveling and rezoning completed
Pyongyang, May 16 [2000](KCNA) — The appearance of the land in North Phyongan Province, the northwestern part of the DPRK, has changed beyond recognition.Not only the cooperative fields on the west coast from the 40 km-long Unjon plain and Pakchon plain to Ryongchon plain but the fields in in-between and mountainous areas from Kwanha plain in Nyongbyon and Handure plain in Thaechon to Hongnam plain in Uiju have turned into a vast expanse of fertile rice fields.
At least 50,000 hectares of rice fields were leveled and rezoned into standardized fields, each with a thousand or hundreds of Phyong (one Phyong is six square feet).
Thousands of hectares of land came under plough after the disappearance of a lot of ridges between paddies and swamps.
This great change in the land in north Phyongan province is a shining fruition of the gigantic and bold operation and plan of the great leader Kim Jong Il.
After finding great possibilities of increasing grain production at present in the land leveling and rezoning project, he wisely led the overall project. He set the target and stages of the project and clearly taught details of the project such as order of work to be done, the area of a field and even the issue of increasing the fertility of the rezoned fields. He saw to it that necessary forces and means for carrying out the project were sent there and it was undertaken as a movement involving the entire party and army and all the people.
As a result, the gigantic nature-transforming project was successfully completed under the difficult conditions where the province was hard pressed for everything.
Farming preparations are now in full swing in these fields.
Active land rezoning in North Phyongan Province
Pyongyang, November 30 [1999](KCNA) — Land rezoning is in full force in North Phyongan Province, northwestern part of Korea.This project is being carried on the basis of the experience of last year’s land rezoning in Kangwon Province with the nation-wide attention and support. Through it, land covering more than 9,000 hectares was readjusted in the last one month.
In particular, the Kangwon provincial workers engaged in land improvement in Tongrim county removed the soil of 1.062 million cubic metres and rearranged 1,100 hectares of land in a short span of time by displaying mass heroism and devotion.
The workers from Pyongyang are now carrying out their daily quota 2 times that in October and have readjusted in the main the Handure plain in Thaechon county covering some 1,600 hectares, in 40 days or 50.
Thus as many as 13,000 fields were reduced to 3,000 fields and scores of hectares of cultivated land obtained.
The workers of Nampho city and North Hwanghae Province in charge of land rezoning in Nyongbyon and Ryongchon counties have achieved successes in their work by introducing working methods suited to the topographical peculiarities and soil conditions.
Thanks to the efforts of the workers from different provinces, the patches are being rearranged into the standardized fields, 1,000-1,500 Phyong each, one after another in every part of North Phyongan Province.
Unfortunately, these types of policies, even if successful, are only a third- or fourth-best option for feeding the people. These policies will never deliver the levels of food and wealth that are possible through opening up the country to investment and trade. Even without opening up to foreign investment/trade there are a number of policies the DPRK could enact to increase the efficiency of domestic food markets. It does not take a nobel prize winning economist to realize that the DPRK does not have a comparative advantage in food production.
Thanks to Google Earth and KCNA.