N. Korea tackles corruption involving “experimental fields”
North Korean authorities recently instructed farm and agricultural management committees across the country to eradicate “illegal and corrupt activities” involving “experimental fields” located on farms, Daily NK has learned.
Experimental fields are parcels of farmland administered by “test production units” under the supervision of each cooperative farm management committee’s technical guidance officer.
Unlike regular farm production units, which must meet yearly agricultural production quotas set by the state, test production units conduct long-term research projects on new ways to develop seeds, the latest farming methods and innovative ways to enhance soil quality.
The orders to eradicate corruption around these experimental fields is likely tied to the “frontal breakthrough” campaign that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un unveiled at the year-end Central Committee plenary session of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
“Although various WPK decrees relating to agriculture have been issued in the past, this is the first time that the experimental field issue was singled out and orders given to eradicate corruption so early in the new year,” a North Hwanghae Province source told Daily NK on Wednesday. ......
[Source: Daily NK]
