North Korea ‘volunteers’ young people for hard labor, but kids of elite can get out
North Korea calls them “volunteers” who willingly toil for free in coal mines and on farms as an __EXPRESSION__ of their love for the country and its leader.
But in reality the young people – mostly from poor families or those who grew up as orphans – are forced to do the grueling work to help shore up an economy battered by the pandemic and international sanctions for the country’s nuclear program.
“The truth is that the authorities are forcing them,” said a resident of Hoeryong in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong on condition of anonymity for fear of being punished. “There is no young person who would willingly volunteer to go to such a place.”
And rich kids or those with political connections can get out of the hard labor, sources in North Korea told Radio Free Asia. ......
[Source: RFA]
