15 Items on 4.15 Distribution List

According to the Daily NK:

The North Korean authorities have ordered Party cadres to ensure the distribution of at least fifteen specific products to the people to celebrate this weekend’s 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. Local cadres are trying everything to meet the target, having been made aware that success or failure will be taken as a measure of their Party loyalty.

According to a source from North Hamkyung Province, the fifteen compulsory items on the list are: glutinous rice (2kg), soybean oil (1kg), pork (2kg), sugar (1kg), soju (2 bottles), fish (1kg), snacks (1kg), candies (1kg), 10 eggs, fruit (1kg), seaweed or Chinese cabbage (2kg), bean sprouts (1kg), wild herbs, soap and toothpaste. The list stands in stark contrast with ordinary years, when distribution generally consists of two or three products, frequently including alcohol and soybean oil.

Moreover, there are plans to ensure that items including soap, towels, socks and shoes are available for purchase from state stores at low prices.

“Party secretaries in factories are totally lost; I mean, they have received the special instructions but haven’t been given any money,” a source from North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK last night. “Some are borrowing the money, while others are even collecting it from their workers to buy pork in the market. Bean sprouts are being cultivated privately by factories.”

However, the source also relayed news of trading organs that have been doing well in the run-up to the holiday period adding items to the distribution list, including Chinese DVD players worth more than $100 and Chinese-made bicycles worth up to $180.

The authorities have also reportedly mobilized the Union of Democratic Women to produce cabbage and spinach in vinyl greenhouses. Women have also been ordered to gather wild herbs from local mountainsides.

Read the full article here:
15 Items on 4.15 Distribution List
Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2012-4-11

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