{"id":2964,"date":"2017-02-01T11:25:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T02:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.01.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang-2\/2017\/02\/report\/20160726-photo-report-old-people-01\/"},"modified":"2021-07-09T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T03:28:08","slug":"20160726-photo-report-old-people-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2017\/02\/photo\/20160726-photo-report-old-people-01\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cPhoto Report\uff1e Abandoned Elderly (PART1) Collapsed Social Welfare System Has Left the Elderly on the Streets."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elderly people are selling bread and rice cakes on the street in Pyongyang. They earn cash from doing this kind of business. October 2007, in Rangrang District, Pyongyang. Taken by Lee Joon (ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

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2016\/Jul<\/span><\/span>\/26<\/em><\/p>\n

Children and the elderly are the biggest victims of the chronic economic difficulty in North Korea, which has stifled the entire population.  In particular, I witnessed a number of elderly people starving to death during the massive famine in the 1990s.  After the food rationing system had collapsed some elderly people started to work in manual labor jobs and some joined in on small businesses, if they did not they would become like many others, waiting for death.  The Kim Jong-un regime hosted a self-congratulatory event for the \u201cInternational Day of Older Persons\u201d in an effort to show off the \u201cwell-developed social welfare system for old people.\u201d  Despite the fact that the elderly who live in poverty have significantly suffered from terrible living condition.  This photo report is an introduction to the unfortunate reality of their lives. (Paek Chang-ryong)
\nRelated article: \uff1cPhoto Report\uff1e Kotchebi, the Homeless, Under the Kim Jong-un Regime (PART1) A girl and a boy\u2013probably siblings\u2013sleeping on a street<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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An 80 year old woman slowly and aimlessly walking on the street. She uses a tree brunch as a walking stick. February 2011, in a suburb of Pyongyang. Taken by Kim Dong-cheol (ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u25c6<\/strong>An old woman is roaming around after being kicked out of <\/strong>her <\/strong>house.<\/strong><\/p>\n

January 2011, an old woman\u2013wearing a thick jacket\u2013walking on the street with a walking stick in a suburb of Pyongyang.  She told an ASIAPRESS reporting partner that her son kicked her out of the house.<\/p>\n

Reporter:<\/strong> Excuse me, ma\u2019am, how old are you?
\nWoman:<\/strong> 80<\/p>\n

Reporter:<\/strong> Don\u2019t you have children?
\nWoman:<\/strong>  I started to live with my son three years ago because I had 700 kilograms of corn.  (Now that we had eaten up all the corn) He kicked me out.<\/p>\n

Reporter:<\/strong> Did your son kick you out?
\nWoman:<\/strong> He said, \u201cGet out of here.\u201d I cannot walk (due to leg pain).  I didn\u2019t think things like this could happen.
\nRelated article: [Video Report] The hidden homeless of Pyongyang<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In North Korea, article 72 of the Socialist Labor Law guarantees to provide elderlies with free medical services and sufficient access to social welfare systems based on a social insurance.  However, this appears to just be a formality.  There is no care facilities anywhere in local cities.
\nNext page: An elderly person, aged over 80, said \u201cI have to work like cattle, painfully engaging in farming.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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An elderly person (on the right), aged over 80, \u201cI have to work like cattle, painfully engaging in farming.\u201d June 2013, on a mountain in a rural area. Taken by our Team \u2018Mindeulle\u2019 (ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

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According to the \u201cSocialist Labor Law\u201d in North Korea, men aged over 60 and woman aged over 55, who had worked over a certain period of time, are entitled to pensions. The amount of their pensions are supposed to be 60 to 70% of their monthly salary.  However, after the food rationing system (distributing food at the state-fixed price) collapsed, the pension system also broke down.<\/p>\n

The law mandates that 500 Won to 1500 Won would be granted to the elderly for their pension payout.  However, as of October 2016, the price of  one kilogram of rice is around 4500 Won.  A monthly pension is equal to only 100 to 300 grams of rice, not nearly enough to survive on.
\nRelated article: \uff1cInside N. Korea\uff1e Kotchebi, the Homeless, Under the Kim Jong-un Regime<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Children are unable to take care of elderly parents due to extreme poverty themselves, while the government irresponsibly ignores their plights.  This has caused healthy, able bodied, elderly people to take on businesses within the jamadang markets or as street hawkers as well as manual labor jobs just to afford food, or worse, to not turn into \u201ckotchebi,\u201d the homeless, like the lady in the photo below.<\/p>\n

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An old woman is selling grass and tree brunches that she collected on a mountain. They are used as fuel for fire. March 2013, in Pyongsong City, South Pyongan ProvinceTaken by our Team \u2018Mindeulle\u2019 (ASIAPRESS)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u25c6<\/strong>    Elderl<\/strong>y people<\/strong> earn money by engaging in manual labor<\/strong> jobs<\/strong> and <\/strong>street of market <\/strong>businesses<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The picture above was taken in Pyongsong City, South Pyongan Province in March 2013.   An old woman carrying tree branches and grass on her back.  She carries twice or three times the amount of her own body.  According to an ASIAPRESS reporting partner, she earns money by collecting firewood on a mountain.<\/p>\n

These photos clearly show a nonexistent social welfare system for the elderly, contrary to what the government-made propaganda states.<\/p>\n

The state has been incapable of providing old people with their basic needs, even their own children will give up on them due to the extreme food shortages in the country.<\/p>\n[Note: The Socialist Labor Law states that the government must take care of its elderly and disabled peoples\u2013who have no income and no caretakers\u2013at care facilities around the country for free.]\n

\uff1cAbandoned Elderly\uff1e View article sections<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"rimjingang_banner001\"* <\/span><\/a>Editor\u2019s notes on North Korean reporters<\/a>
\n<\/a>ALL REPORTS >>><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>
\n ARCHIVE(pdf) >><\/a><\/span>
\n DPRK MAP >><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  2016\/Jul\/26 Children and the elderly are the biggest victims of the chronic economic difficulty in North Korea, w\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}