Posted on 07/26/2011 7:26:25 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
N.Korean Students Forced into Construction Labor
Some 100,000 North Korean college students have been press-ganged into construction work. "The regime is trying to finish redevelopment of the Mansudae District in Pyongyang by April next year," a source familiar with North Korean internal affairs said on Monday. "Because it couldn't finish construction before the deadline, the regime ordered colleges in Pyongyang and other major cities last month to close for 10 months and drafted students to construction sites."
The regime twice before changed the academic calendar for a "200-day struggle" in 1988 and an "Arirang" mass calisthenics performance in 2008. But mobilizing so many students for construction work is unprecedented.
The North has been carrying out a campaign since 2009 to build 100,000 new homes in Pyongyang ahead of regime founder Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15 next year, the target year to become a "powerful and prosperous nation." But only nine apartment buildings with 500 units had been built as of late last year due to a shortage of money and building materials.
When it became clear that the goal was unreachable, the regime recently drew up a new plan to redevelop at least the Mansudae District. It wants to spruce up the district, home to a 23 m Kim Il-sung statue, with 77-story apartment buildings with 3,000 units and recreational facilities including theaters and parks.
But the mobilization of the students is unlikely to make much difference. "The problem is not manpower shortage but lack of money and materials," the source said. "Building sites are overflowing with laborers, but most of them are doing nothing because building materials don't arrive in time."
The regime is not even giving the students a proper meal, the source added. Instead, it is reportedly forcing them to donate materials, such as sand, cement and gasoline, in exchange for a promise of membership in the Workers Party or a youth honor award when construction is complete.
There are rumors that the real reason the students are being forced to work on building sites is to avoid an uprising emulating the Jasmine Revolutions in the Middle East, since students are among the most likely to have heard about the uprisings.
P!
I wish we could make college students work construction in this country.
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
These losers are about as pathetic as Hitler in his bunker as the Soviet tanks closed in, unopposed, for the kill. "Where are my divisions? Why do they not attack?
They have to force people to work to spruce up a block of Pyongyang and meanwhile free enterprise does it better for everyone else.
Boy, what genius thought this up?
Drag 100,000 students out of school, transport them
away from home, put them on a worksite then give them
little to do and little to eat, and no doubt unceasingly
propagandize them. Did they just think
they all were going to sit around and take that?
Sparks will be struck.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
“I wish we could make college students work construction in this country.”
No, we mustn’t do that. For the kids might actually get some useful skills...
As though they might have been asked.
“Be Happy in your Work”
Who knew college kids had stashes of sand, cement and gasoline to cough up for the good of the State?
Learn something everyday around here.
I think this will be Obama's plan to solve the unemployment problem, at least for suburbanites and rural folks.
From each according to his ability. College students generally have a lot of energy.
I think those rioting anti-American South Korean university students should join in with their comrades in the north and help out. I’m sure they’d be elated to donate ten months of their lives for the “Dear Leader”.
“I wish we could make college students work construction in this country.”
Because forced labor is the hallmark of a free society. /sarc
I’ve often said it would be good for every student to work a crap job for at least a year after high school, just so they get their noses rubbed in a little reality. Pay them the same as anyone else, but make sure the most disgusting, unpleasant and demeaning jobs go to them. Maybe make it an entrance requirement for colleges, trade schools, and employer training programs. It might cut down on the sense of entitlement so many kids either enter or leave college with. It might even help them better handle life’s disappointments; a bad job is a world of opportunity to learn about human nature.
Sounds like Cambodia in the 70s.
oh...LIKE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED STUDENT LOANS AND PELL GRANTS ARE! by the way, you and your entitlements have ruined this economy, so shut it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.