N Korea Trumpets Success of Labor Drive
But Watchers Skeptical
BY KIM HYUN, Yonhap News
Seoul — North Korea trumpeted the success of a crucial 150-day labor campaign that wraps up on Wednesday, but outside watchers were divided over its impact on the country’s frail economy.
The so-called 150-day Battle, launched on April 20, ordered North Koreans to work harder and put in longer hours to help revitalize the state’s moribund economy. Similar labor drives have been typical of the North’s strategy for economic growth and cementing the regime’s control in the isolated country, where access to international assistance is strictly limited.
A construction equipment factory in Sariwon, south of the capital Pyongyang, “accomplished its production goal by 128 percent with a technology innovation movement,” while a cement factory in the town of Seoheung “increased output 1.2 times more than planned with a revolutionary spirit of self-reliance,” the Korean Central Broadcasting Station, a state-run radio network, said.
North Korean media earlier boasted increased production in electricity plants, farms and mines. The country is also building 100,000 new homes in Pyongyang, in what appeared to be a dramatic economic package reminiscent of the U.S. New Deal program in the 1930s.
The nationwide drive is part of the country’s larger goal of building a “great, prosperous and powerful” nation by 2012, the birth centennial of its late founder Kim Il-sung.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has voiced confidence, saying the goal of increasing the nation’s prosperity is “sure to be successfully accomplished.”
But many watchers in South Korea were skeptical of the North’s success.
Chang Yong-seok, a North Korea expert with the Institute for Peace Affairs, a non-governmental think tank in Seoul, said the labor drive may yield short-term growth by concentrating the country’s resources into selected areas, but overall development is unlikely. Energy and food aid from South Korea and the U.S. have been drained, and the country now faces U.N. sanctions over its nuclear test in May, which limits cash flows into the North.
He noted a similar campaign launched in 1958, called the Chollima movement, which yielded unbalanced development and prompted factory closures for machinery repair.
“North Korea has no other choice but to resort to its internal resources when external input remains suspended,” Chang said.
“This intensive growth strategy, not an extensive one, makes it difficult to yield comprehensive results. Its economic impact is meek, although there will be political benefits to internal unity,” he said.
But Pyeonghwa Motors Corp., a South Korean automaker in Pyongyang, claims to be a major beneficiary of the North Korean campaign. Over the last 150 days, its 400 North Korean workers worked night shifts until 11 p.m., instead of leaving at 6 p.m., and have produced 1,500 units so far this year, said spokesman Roh Byoung-chun. Sales reached 1,000 units, compared to 653 sold during the same period last year, he said.
“You need a car to do ‘battle.’ You can’t do that on foot,” Roh said.
“And we have no problems in bringing raw materials from China. The U.N. sanctions may be affecting munitions firms, but they are few, and ordinary ones like ours have nothing to do with them,” he said.
The 150 days officially end on Wednesday, but the Choson Sinbo, a Tokyo-based paper that conveys North Korea’s official position, said last week that there will be a renewed “100-day Battle,” which will stretch the labor drive through to the end of December. North Korean media have yet to confirm the new campaign.
According to the Bank of Korea, the central bank in the South, North Korea’s per capita income last year was 1.17 million won, which converts roughly to US$1,065. The amount was 5.5 percent of South Korea’s per capita income.
By 2012, North Korea aims to raise its per capita income to $2,500, according to a Seoul expert who attended a recent international forum with North Korean scholars in China.
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