Miner jailed for cutting down tree in “slogan tree” zone
A North Korean man who felled a tree in an area designated for slogan-inscribed trees in August has been sentenced to a correctional labor camp for five years, Daily NK learned on Wednesday.
The man, who is a miner in the city of Kumdok, South Hamgyong Province, cut down the free for firewood, according to a Daily NK source based in the province.
The tree the miner cut down did not have an inscription on it, the source added.
Daily NK sources in the area have confirmed that the area with slogan-inscribed Korean larch trees is located over two kilometers away from a residential area in Kumdok. A forest management official later found the stump of the tree the man had cut down and alerted local security and police officials. Their investigation led to the arrest of the man.
Sources say that investigators found tracks left by the miner as he hauled the tree to the bottom of the mountain, and after conducting a search of houses in the area, located the tree at the man’s house.
North Korea considers so-called “slogan trees” in the area to be national treasures that are “revolutionary legacies” of Korea’s anti-Japanese guerrillas. North Korean defectors have told Daily NK that anyone who cuts down a slogan tree is put to death along with three generations of their family. ......
[Source: Daily NK]
