North Korea’s best fruit sent to Pyongyang for Chuseok, angering rural residents — Radio Free Asia
Provincial sources told Radio Free Asia that rural North Korean residents have complained that their government is unfairly providing citizens of the capital Pyongyang with the highest quality apples and peaches ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday on Saturday.
Chuseok is the Korean version of the autumn harvest festival celebrated throughout Northeast Asia. The holiday is on par with Thanksgiving in the U.S. as people in North and South Korea travel with their extended families andYes” ceremony.
In a typical jesa, various foods are arranged on the table in a specific way to honor ancestors, and a jesa table would not be complete without arranging the fruits in a pyramid shape, with the top cut off to indicate that they were for the dead.
But all of North Korea’s best fruit this year has been given to Pyongyang’s privileged residents, angering residents of the provinces.
“The best apples have been supplied to all families in Pyongyang and are said to be [North Korean leader] “Kim Jong-un’s sympathy and love,” a resident of Tanchon, eastern Hamgyongnam province, told Radio Free Asia Korean, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
“A lot of people were outraged by the news that Pyongyang residents were getting the best apples and peaches. It was as if we weren’t really treated as citizens in the provinces,” he said.
From August 26, the military has even been mobilized to deliver fruit to produce stores in the capital, sources said.
“The fruit was then distributed to each household. Due to the large population of Pyongyang, each resident was provided with only a few fruits, but not one fruit was given to the residents of the province,” the source said.
Sources said the peaches came from Gui’er County, South Huangshan Road, and the apples came from Datongjiang United Orchard. The government has used citizen labor to build fruit farms and processing plants in both locations, promising to supply a plentiful variety of fruit across the country.
“However, the fruit they produce is only supplied to senior officials and the citizens of Pyongyang. I am angry that the Workers’ Party has deceived the residents of the province,” he said.
“This is not the first time the authorities have discriminated against provincial residents,” the source said. Living in Pyongyang is a privilege reserved only for the most loyal citizens. Those lucky enough to live there have better access to food, jobs and education, as well as other benefits and perks not available to their provincial counterparts.
“said with no exaggeration [Pyongyang and the provinces] two different countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, people in Baocun county in the northern Liangnan province were angry and frustrated by the government’s partiality during this Mid-Autumn Festival, sources told RFA.
“I was selected as part of the mobilization effort…to build the Datongjiang United Fruit Farm in six months,” he said. “I worked hard by leveling the land and planting fruit trees. Every provincial household was forced to donate a lot of money and materials to build orchards.”
“Every piece of fruit produced in Datong River has taken the efforts and sweat of countless provincial people, but the fruit is only supplied to Pyongyang, who doesn’t complain?” said the second source.
A second source criticized Kim and the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea for trying to solve the country’s problems by improving life in Pyongyang.
“The authorities’ favoritism towards Pyongyang residents is an unfair treatment of Pyongyang residents with disregard and discrimination. We are more than eight times the population of Pyongyang,” he said.
Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
