North Korea waging propaganda-heavy, 80-day labor campaign

North Korea waging propaganda-heavy, 80-day labor campaign

SeattlePI.com

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Before fleeing authoritarian North Korea in 2009, Kang Mi-Jin was regularly mobilized by the state for military-like productivity campaigns that were a source of both pride and pain. She was happy to be chosen to give a speech pledging loyalty to the ruling Kim family; less so when a tunneling construction project left her with a head injury.

Now living in rival South Korea, she has watched with deep interest the news of North Korea's 80-day productivity campaign that began last month.

“When they pushed us to work so hard, I wonder if they should have also paid us something,” Kang, 52, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “North Korean people have gotten used to providing such (free labor) for so long. They know they have nothing to gain by raising an issue with that.”

North Korea occasionally stages such all-out national campaigns, which the state media call “battles.” They are meant to more firmly unite citizens around the Kim dynasty, press them to work harder and report bigger production numbers ahead of major political events. The current campaign is aimed at greeting a ruling party congress set for January, the first of its kind in four years, with “fiery enthusiasm and brilliant achievements,” according to North Korea’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper.

There's widespread outside doubt that short-term campaigns of this sort can address the fundamental economic problems facing the impoverished country. But North Korean leaders are seen as needing these campaigns to cement their grip on power in times of economic trouble or tensions with the outside world.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un faces his share of trouble: crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and damage from devastating typhoons and summer floods. In August, in a highly...

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