Residents of northern border city Sunuiju say they were made to donate copper to a loyalty fund used to construct new monuments of the country’s late leaders. DailyNK reports

Residents of the North Korean city of Sinuiju were made to donate metal to a “loyalty fund” to erect two new statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, sources inside the country told DailyNK.

“There was a campaign in June on the pretext of generating loyalty funds. They collected copper from everyone in Sinuiju,” a source in the city said, on condition of anonymity.

“They had a campaign to gather copper. No exceptions were made, everyone had to pay in kind within a fixed period,” the source said.

Metal is in short supply in North Korea, meaning most residents had to go out and buy their share on the open market. This caused the price of the metal to spike, and traders to respond to the resulting demand by bringing in supplies from China.

North Korea does not officially have a system of taxation, after it was abolished with much fanfare in the 1970s. Residents are instead obliged to make offerings to the state from as early as elementary school, and then throughout their adult lives. These de facto tax payments may be made in goods such as gold, copper, rabbit pelts, or medicinal herbs, and/or the equivalent value in cash (calculated at market rates, not according to state prices).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A fisherman sets his trap in the Yalu River, opposite the North Korean city of Sinuiju. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

North Korea does not publish reliable economic data. It’s GDP per capita was estimated as $1800 in 2011. Millions are believed to suffer from malnutrition.

According to the source, the price of copper averages 9,000 won ($69) per 100g, but this skyrocketed to 13,000 KPW during the statue campaign, which reached out to all enterprises and every inminban, or people’s unit, in the city of 350,000 people, the sixth largest in the country. The resulting metal was then shipped to Mansudae Art Studio, which manufactured the new twin statues.



“People had no idea what it was all going to be for, but after the unveiling ceremony they realised what had been going on,” said the source.

Established in November 1959, Mansudae Art Studio is famed worldwide for its high quality, low budget monuments. Operating under the direct oversight of the Chosun Workers’ Party Central Committee, it employs approximately 3,700 people, around one hundred of whom bear the esteemed title, “merited artist” or “people’s artist.”

The source claimed that the statues were formed from composite stone and then coated in a layer of bronze, an alloy primarily made of copper. Customarily, cast metal sculptures would be produced by setting liquid alloy in a mould, but this is more expensive and would require a significantly larger quantity of metal. Although North Korea has large copper reserves in its northerly mountainous regions, these are a valuable export resource.

The twin statues are situated in the plaza in front of Sinuiju Station, surrounded by Sinuiju Customs House (the main portal to and from Dandong), hard currency stores and the Amrokgang Hotel.

Residents say the new statues have brought the region an even higher level of security surveillance than there was previously.

A North Korea soldier sits on a patrol boat on the Yalu River which separates the North Korean city of Sinuiju from the Chinese border town of Dandong. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

“[Kim Jong-un’s] grandfather and father came along, but things also got a lot more uncomfortable,” as the source put it. “Before the statues came there were many photographers who could take pictures of people there to earn money, but now only the ones with state approval can visit the site to take photos for commemorative events such as weddings.”

North Korea’s official news agency KCNA reported on the unveiling ceremony of the new statues on 24 July. It said: “On November 27, Juche 34 (1945) when he was exploring the un-trodden path of nation-building, Kim Il-sung exchanged greetings with people of the province at the Sinuiju City mass rally. Since that historical day he visited hundreds of units in the province on more than 460 occasions, indicating the tasks facing the province and ways for fulfilling them, and wisely leading the efforts to carry them out.”

“The erection of the statues in the city represents another significant event in eternally glorifying the revolutionary careers and exploits of the peerless great men of Mt Paektu and unfolding a new history of immortalising the leaders.”

The article also cited the unveiling speech given by Kim Yong-nam, the head of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, who declared: “Thanks to the outstanding leadership of Kim Il-sung who worked miracles by always believing in the people and relying on their inexhaustible strength, power, machine-building and light industrial bases appeared in different parts of the province, a previously unknown island turned into a silk island and thousands of hectares of tideland were converted into fertile fields.”

He added that on his first visit to the area, Kim Jong-il “provided energetic field guidance to it, weathering ordeals during the arduous march, the forced march unprecedented in history and ushering in the new era of building a thriving socialist nation.”