{"id":5817,"date":"2022-05-14T21:39:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T12:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/?p=5817"},"modified":"2022-05-16T17:14:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T08:14:32","slug":"corona-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2022\/05\/society-economy\/corona-3\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cInside N. Korea\uff1e Theft of car parts is rampant in North Korea. Thieves immobilize vehicles by stealing tires, mirrors to sell on the black market...Few car parts make it over the border due to the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

A checkpoint manned by North Korean soldiers and a dump truck on a road near the China-North Korea border. This photo was taken in July 2021 on the Chinese side of the border by ASIAPRESS.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u25c6 An increase in vehicles immobilized by the lack of parts<\/h2>\n

Throughout North Korea, the stealing of vehicle parts, including the mirrors and tires of parked cars, is rampant. After official cars of the Workers\u2019 Party of Korea and state-run companies were victimized by thieves, the country\u2019s Ministry of Social Security has started a massive crackdown throughout the country. The rise in the theft of car parts has been caused by the scarcity of the parts following the closure of the China-North Korea border because of COVID-19, leading to skyrocketing prices of car parts. (KANG Ji-won<\/em>)<\/p>\n

A reporting partner in North Hamgyung Province told ASIAPRESS in early May the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cA car that entered the county I live in near Chongjin on April 30 had all its tires and side mirrors stolen while the owner was sleeping at night. The vehicle was owned by the Chongjin party organization, which led the Ministry of Social Security to immediately hand down an order to find the culprit. Police officials conducted multiple house searches of people who do vehicle repairs to check and see if they had purchased any of the parts illegally.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

However, this case is just the tip of the iceberg. Robberies of car parts across the country has become so common that the Ministry of Social Security has put the full force of its organization into identifying the culprits and putting them in prison.<\/p>\n

\u25c6One Chinese-made tire costs 470,000 won!<\/h2>\n

In principle, private individuals in North Korea are not allowed to own cars. North Koreans began purchasing trucks and vans from China in the 2000s to make money ferrying people and goods. They would pay bribes to register these imported vehicles as being owned by state-run enterprises and government agencies. However, the authorities began strongly cracking down on this business activity starting 3-4 years ago calling it \u201canti-socialist phenomena.\u201d As a result, businesspeople have had to either pay fines or see their vehicles confiscated.<\/p>\n

Currently, most vehicles in North Korea are made in China. Naturally, car parts are also imported from the country, but North Korea\u2019s closure of its borders in early 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 led to a drastic decrease in the supplies of car parts. The extreme scarcity of vehicle parts in the country has led to many cases where even vehicles owned by companies and party and government organizations cannot be driven anymore: when they break down, there\u2019s no parts to repair them.<\/p>\n

One reporting partner in the country told ASIAPRESS:<\/p>\n

\u201cCar parts go for whatever the seller asks for them. A single tire for a van can goes for around 2,500RMB (368USD). There\u2019s many cases where completely immobilized cars are taken apart and their parts are sold.\u201d <\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

\u25c6 All four tires can be taken off a car in just 10 minutes<\/h2>\n

There are frequent burglaries at factories and companies, which has led local management officials to take off their vehicles\u2019 side mirrors when they park or place alarms on tires to prevent theft. Many organizations have hired guards to keep watch over the cars at night. The guards are paid 20,000 North Korean won (around 4,000 South Korean won) per night.<\/p>\n

North Korea's largest iron mine is in North Hamgyung Province\u2019s Musan County. A reporting partner who lives in the county told ASIAPRESS that there are many thefts in the area, explaining:
\n
\n\u201cAround 30% of the vehicles affiliated with transporting supplies (for the mine) have been immobilized because their tires have been stolen. There\u2019s a car repair shop located nearby run by a pair of brothers, and when the authorities did a search of their house, they found a lot of stolen car parts in their kimchi pots.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During an inminban (people\u2019s unit) meeting, we were told that both those who steal and trade in stolen parts of cars, which are considered state property, will face punishment. They also said there are (illegal) organizations that focus solely on stealing car parts, and that members of these organizations must be reported to the authorities. They say that it doesn\u2019t take even 10 minutes for four tires to be taken off vehicles. The police have declared an effort to eliminate the frequent thefts of car parts throughout the country and that checkpoints are keeping an eye out (for suspicious behavior).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u203b ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u25c6 An increase in vehicles immobilized by the lack of parts Throughout North Korea, the stealing of vehicle parts, includ\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12],"tags":[31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}