A tragic accident saw dozens of soldiers with the 9th Corps of the Chosun People’s Army [KPA] lose their lives in a construction accident at the end of

December, Daily NK has recently learned.

“The entire army started combat training back in

December with the exception of the 9th Corps,” a source in North Hamkyung

Province reported to Daily NK on January 9th. “Instead, they were mobilized to construction efforts in Yangkang Province, namely land

readjustment projects, a ski resort, and Samjiyeon airport.”

Units comprising the North Hamkyung Province 9th Corps,

stationed in Kyongsong County, are tasked with defending the entirety of the

Province–from areas bordering China to the coastal regions. For these tens of

thousands of soldiers to halt their military training and be mobilized to a

different jurisdiction is highly unusual.

According to the source, soldiers with the 9th Corps were

forced to traverse 200km by foot in order to be closer to the aforementioned

construction sites. Rigorous schedules and frigid conditions led one soldier

after the next to continuously develop frostbite. In northern mountainous

regions such as this in North Korea, the temperature dips to 15 degrees below

zero Celsius even at midday, and often plunges to 20 degrees or more below zero

Celsius.

The troops dispatched for these construction projects were

allegedly headed back to their unit at the end of last month, according to the

source. “Land readjustment projects have been going on for decades, but until

now, they have been wholly the responsibility of provincial departments dealing

with rivers and streams maintenance or construction in farming areas,” he

explained. “This is the first time that any troops in the army have missed

winter training and instead deployed for construction projects.”

Unfortunately, this mobilization would see a tragic accident

take the lives of many of those soldiers. “On the construction site, a sudden

collapse of dirt pinned dozens of soldiers from the 45th Division of the 9th Corps underneath,” the source said.

He added that the state made special mention of one soldier

when addressing those who perished due to the tragedy, saying he, in the

authorities’ words, “was the archetype of loyalty, safely preserving the image

of the Suryeong [Kim Il Sung] and the General [Kim Jong Il] until his very last

moment.”

Just prior to the tragic accident, the state narrative

claims that one soldier wrapped his badge, which bears portraits of both Kim

Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, in protective white paper and clutched it against his chest as he died. State propaganda has employed his death to teach military lessons “of protecting the greatest figures of Baekdu

Mountain with one’s life,” broadcast via the fixed cable Third Broadcast

system, to which only the North Korea people are exposed.

This propaganda is thought to be an attempt by the

authorities to cover up the fact that they forced droves of soldiers to engage

in rigorous work in frigid temperatures and put to sleep public criticism by

lauding their deaths as heroic sacrifices. Residents, however, have responded

to the propaganda with resounding skepticism, according to the source.

“How would he have even had the time to even think to wrap

the badge in paper and it in his pocket when mounds of dirt are suddenly

collapsing on him?” they point out. “Where would they have gotten a sheet of

white paper while out there working? If he had the time to think about doing

all that, he might as well have used it to move and avoid getting caught under

the mounds of dirt.”

The source surmised the construction projects to fit into the grand set of achievements Kim Jong

Eun seeks to see completed before the 70th founding anniversary of the Chosun

Workers’ Party this year in October, explaining the unprecedented

mobilization. “Because Yangkang Province is the most severely cold place in

North Korea, it’s likely the troops were mobilized so suddenly in a bid to finish jobs requiring dirt before the ground froze completely,” he

concluded.