By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
SEOUL, South Korea – Scores of people caused unrest in Yongchon, North Pyongan Province in North Korea by shouting, “We can’t live! Give us fire [electricity] and rice!”
The event occurred on February 14, two days before leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday, when people fashioned makeshift megaphones out of newspapers and shouted those words.
“At first, there were only one or two people, but as time went by more and more came out of their houses and joined in the shouting,” the source added.
The State Security Department investigated the incident but was unable to identify the people who initiated the commotion when they met with a wall of silence.
“When such an incident took place in the past, people used to report their neighbors to the security forces, but now they’re covering for each other,” the source said.
Such demonstrations are extremely rare in repressive North Korea where information is tightly controlled by the state and people have no access to outside world. But as the regime staggers under international sanctions and failure of currency reform, people are showing signs of discontent.
“Discontent erupted because the regime cut off electricity that had been supplied to them only a few hours a day, and they had hard time putting food on the table due to soaring rice prices,” said one refugee.
In this particular case, the already infrequent electricity supplies were said to be diverted to the capital Pyongyang to light up the night there to mark Kim’s birthday, the paper said.
For two decades, since the collapse of a public distribution system that supplied food rations, Kim Jong Il’s government has neglected to care for its people. In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 2 million died in a famine.
Despite these signs of people’s anger, analysts, however, doubt the possibility of a popular revolt similar to those in North Africa and the Middle East.
“I don’t see anything in civil society that would lead to a kind of Egyptian phenomenon,” said Stephan Haggard, Professor at University of California San diego, at a Washington presentation last month.
For more information, please see:
The Chosunilbo – N.Korean Protesters Demand Food and Electricity – 23 February 2011
Radio Netherlands Worldwide – N. Koreans protest over power cuts: report – 23 February 2011
The Washington Post – Starving N. Korea begs for food, but U.S. has concerns about resuming aid – 22 February 2011