Daily NK
Yang Jung A
11/24/2007
It turns out that the North Korean regime asserts to its people that the South has decided to invest in the North because the South’s shipping industry is doomed.
The North Korean authorities argued such at public lectures held in October to report on the results of the second Inter-Korean Summit, according to a report released on Wednesday by Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid organization for North Korea.
The report says that a cadre from Pyongsung delivered a public lecture saying, “South’s shipbuilding industry is on the verge of doom, and that is why it has decided to build a shipyard in Anbyun of Kangwon and to establish cooperative complexes for shipbuilding in Nampo in the West Sea.” The cadre also announced that two Koreas have agreed to transform the military demarcation line in the waters of the West Sea into ‘peace line’ and create a joint fishing zone there, the report says.
Nevertheless, the report says, “Most participants had no interest in the lecture. They could only care about putting some bread on the table and making money, instead of wasting time on discussing the country’s affairs”
According to the report, the North Korean people strongly oppose the recently market regulatory measures. It has been reported that the number of individuals who violate the measures is increasing.
“Lately, the chairman of People’s Committee in Pohang district of Chongjin was fired and demoted to a regular worker’s position because the chairman had complained about the state’s measure, which bans females under 45 years old from doing business in the market starting with December 1st this year,” the report says. The chairman is quoted as saying, “In today’s society, women are breadwinners. If women under 45 are banned from making a living in the market, who is going to earn bread and butter for their households?”
“In Sinam district of Chungjin, a female was arrested after having expressed discontent about the regulation. She was pulled along to a Social Safety office and underwent all sorts of hardships. Later, she was made to take criticism at a regular evaluation meeting of a women’s unit in her district, and then released,” says the report.
“In Pyongyang, agents on a mission to crack down anti-socialist activities are going the rounds of the households of individuals who do business in the market. The agents ask the individuals when and how they started business, what their children do, and where they procure sales items,” says the report.
The report also tells an account of an old couple who has retired from the party and recently visited by inspection agents. The report says, “Although the couple spent most of their life serving the party, they had to come to the market to make a living at their old age. The old couple felt very bitter about their situation. They grumbled against the regime saying that it frequently regulates the market and inspects those engaged in the business. The old couple was at a loss what to do.”
