- Defenses constructed every year, flooding every year
- NK authorities indifference demonstrated in resource allocation
- Resulting defenses shoddy and useless


A source in Sinuiju reported June 22nd, "Citizens have been ordered to help construct defences in their districts against the river and stream flooding which follows hard on the heels of the rainy season. However, they are expressing their disgruntlement at the lack of help with which they are expected year on year to construct the embankments."

The defenses are supposed to last ten years after their initial construction, but regularly collapse after the first rains of the summer deluges. Ordinary people complain that a pigs ear is made of the task and the embankments collapse like a child's sandcastle.

The source said that with the annual rains schools, workers, and factories are corralled through their province or military to construct embankments and dams using sand, cement and various materials. However, the cement is not properly processed and the resulting product is a slipshod job ineffective against the downpours

The kind of strong cement required for the job of building dams and embankments is made in the Sunchon cement factory. However, the cement allocated is that usually given to the military for small jobs which is usually of a lower grade.

"Because North Korea's anti-flooding protective construction is so weakly put together, farms and homes are overwhelmed by the waters and great damage is caused as soon as the rainy season begins," said the source. "In some neighborhoods homes are flooded annually." So construction of the embankments is a crucial matter for many North Koreans, but the parlous financial states of the regions are leaving people essentially defenseless and consequently disaffected with the authorities.

The floods also force North Koreans to chop the trees on the mountainside for fuel and for the cultivation of agricultural land. Nevertheless the regime has as yet failed to implement a national flood defenses plan, which is the root cause of people's annual misery.

"The North Korean authorities," finished the source, "loudly proclaim their eternal preparedness for any eventuality, but that only applies to maintaining the opulent survival of the Kim family regime. They've done nothing for the people."



Translated by Danny Lee