◆Medical students dispatched to the special tourist zone
Samjiyeon County, which Kim Jong-un plans to turn into a world-class tourist zone, is a woodland area at the foot of Mt. Baekdu. However, as the current workforce is insufficient, prospective graduates of Hyesan Medical University are being 'dispatched in mass’ to the site.
According to a reporting partner, "Since the Yanggang Provincial Party unilaterally decided to mobilize the medical students, substantial discontent has surfaced among the students and their parents. Some parents are making their children drop out of school, claiming illness, to avoid the forced mobilization. Only a few will be able to do this, however, as the mobilization is a very strict order."
North Korea operates under a ‘One-Ideology System,’ where the entire population must pledge absolute loyalty and obedience to a single leader. High-ranking officials who fail to carry out prescribed tasks are often demoted, stripped of their post, or banished. (Kang Ji-won)
※ ASIAPRESS contacts its reporting partners through Chinese mobile phones smuggled into North Korea.
- <Inside N. Korea> Train derails on the Hyesan-Samjiyeon line ... Officials rush to get construction of Samjiyeon tourist zone back on track
- <Inside N. Korea> Kim Jong-un's tourist zone project hits serious financial troubles
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Editor’s notes on North Korean reporters
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