A wave of break ins has hit rural areas of South Hamgyong province in April. Families leave homes empty during the day to prepare corn fields. A source in the province said losses local people suffer are beyond description. Corn planting runs from late April through early May. Consequently, virtually all working age people stay in fields during daylight hours. The rural thefts spiked as a direct result of this seasonal absence.
Thieves break padlocks and steal stored food and solar panels. They also take batteries, imported fertilizer, seeds, and aluminum cooking pots. Some households have lost almost everything they owned. Electricity supply in rural areas remains far less reliable than cities. Therefore, solar panels serve as essential household items for residents. People scraped together what they had by paying high interest rates. Nevertheless, thieves are taking everything despite these families’ desperate sacrifices.
Some families had already purchased imported fertilizer and seeds. Thieves stole those supplies before planting could begin. In one instance, a thief made off with an aluminum pot. That pot still had cooked food inside it at the time of theft. The Ministry of Social Security has responded with deliberate indifference. Safety officers only get moving when something benefits them personally. They do not catch thieves or reduce harm to local people. Instead, they mostly leave the problem alone completely.
Local people contrast this behavior with autumn harvest season policing. During autumn, safety officers deploy heavily across rural areas. They prevent any grain from leaving state hands at that time. They are so aggressive that people compare them to Japanese colonial police. However, when locals beg them to catch thieves now, the response is helplessness. Officers claim there is nothing they can do to help. Consequently, people’s opinion of safety officers is getting worse daily.
The toll on impoverished rural households continues to deepen significantly. Rural people’s difficult lives keep failing to improve at all. Their situations are only becoming more desperate over time. Many people borrow food or money at high interest rates already. They struggle just to keep their families fed each day. The rural thefts spiked alongside these existing food shortages. Now thieves target the few valuable items these families own. The future outlook remains grim for rural residents across South Hamgyong province. Spring planting will proceed but with fewer resources available. Many households face the season with stolen fertilizer and seeds. Their ability to grow food this year has been severely compromised.
