North Korea has annually made its citizens

collect and contribute steel scrap and waste under the slogan, “Let’s defend the steel war front.” However,

the authorities have ratcheted up the initiative this year, resulting in a series

of counterproductive side effects, not least of which have thrown a wrench in factory operations.

“The collection of steel scrap and waste has

taken place since Kim Jung Eun’s 2015 New Year Address,” a source in South Pyongan Province reported to Daily NK on March 25th. “Contrary to the past when quotas were calibrated

for individuals, this year quantities are based on the total number of workers at a given enterprise. This means large factories are

having to procure hundreds of tons of steel to hand over to the state.”

He added, “The Party is trying to infuse residents with a sense of loyalty with this order–sending steel to Gangsun Steel Mill and Sungjin Steel Complex– particularly since this is the 70th anniversary of Korean Peninsula’s liberation from Japanese rule,” adding that the collected steel will be employed to build tanks and artilleries for use at propaganda events, keeping in line with a similar order from 2012 that utilized the steel to build tanks for the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the nation’s military.

Failure to fulfill the directive’s quota can result in severe repercussions for factory managers and

affiliated party secretaries. Party secretaries are subject to black marks in

their permanent file, of which more than three is grounds for expulsion from the Party. Legal implications include a warrant of detention to await penal administration, which can include

transfer to a labor-training camp. The watchful eyes of a provincial inspection team patrol enterprises to ensure they toe the line.

Lacking sufficient scrap metal and waste, factory managers are left with little choice but to grudgingly dismantle presently unused or older machinery to fulfill the steel quotas. “The scrap metal collection yard near the train

station is filled with more functional pieces of machinery than actual steel waste and scraps,” the source said. Instead of fixing the machinery for it to function and yield long-term results, much of it is being stripped for parts.

He explained that the situation is “analogous to not using a rice cooker because you don’t have any rice. You wouldn’t throw away the rice cooker–you’d just wait until you found a way to get rice.” Along the same lines, many of the workers and enterprise heads have been pretending to cart the materials to the drop site for transfer to steel-production locations, only to craftily evade the prying eyes of the inspections teams and return the machinery back to the factory for repair and future use. These attempts, however, are met with limited success.

Residents unaffiliated with factories see no exemption from the decree; these individuals are required to obtain 20kg per month to hand over for the cause. ”Young

children and university students are turning in their steel-based household appliances and some have been breaking into factories at night to try to find suitable parts to turn in,” he said.

The looting further undermines an already grave problem, for which the source points out there is no viable solution. “Residents and workers alike are only going

to benefit if factories can actually operate and produce goods. How are these

places going to function if we break down intact machinery because of this

mandate,” he said.“I really feel like it would be better if they just sold the whole building off.”

North Korea has annually urged factories and organizations to “pay more steel to the socialist war front,” using group names–such as the Chosun Democratic Women’s Union or the Children’s Union–for the resulting tanks ready “for inevitable war.”