SEOUL, Dec. 22 (UPI) — North Korea is forcing its youth military units to repair a railway in subzero degree weather while extolling the virtues of North Korea’s young people for their contributions to the Workers’ Party.
Pyongyang’s youth assault troops were tasked with renovations but were not provided with proper equipment and had to work with their bare hands, South Korean television network KBS reported, after acquiring exclusive footage taken inside North Korea.
The video, taken in the city of Hyesan directly across the border with China, shows a snow-covered construction zone where workers are being mobilized by the dozens to work on railway renovation. The line runs from Hyesan to Samjiyeon, the city closest to Mount Paektu, an up-and-coming tourist attraction.
The soldiers are seen using their bare hands to put shoveled dirt into bags, and because only one or two trucks have been provided, many workers move the bags of dirt by foot.
The temperature the day the video was taken was minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the videographer who smuggled the footage out of the North.
Evidence of youth soldier deployment in harsh weather conditions comes at a time when North Korea is celebrating its young people for achieving state goals. Pyongyang previously has extolled youth assault troops for their high-speed work on a power plant near Mount Paektu, flood recovery in the city of Rason and Pyongyang’s lavish Future Scientists’ Complex.
But the deployment of inexperienced construction workers or engineers tasked with fast-paced renovation projects has led to accidents, including at the Paektu power plant and at least one collapsed apartment building, KBS reported.
Choi Sung-kuk, a North Korean defector who left in 2011, said the problem arises when workers show up just to fill quotas.
In the era of Kim Jong Un, North Korea has stepped up propaganda exalting “youth heroes,” but South Korean outlet Newsis reported North Korea’s military is shrinking in size.
Seoul had released a National Defense White Paper in 2014 that estimated 1.2 million troops in North Korea, but a study from Chung Young-chul of Sogang University on Tuesday showed that the actual number might be between 500,000 and 750,000.
Chung based his findings on United Nations-supported population surveys of North Korea.
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