Earlier this year, in a declaration of

“love for future generations”, Kim Jong Eun pledged better treatment for the kkotjebi, North Korea’s large population

of homeless children of whom many beg for food around the country’s public

markets, but Daily NK has learned that the ones benefiting are not the

children, but residents after the benefits they can receive by caring for them.

A source in South Pyongan Province reported to

Daily NK on August 19, “As aid from the UN and South Korea ebbed, the numbers

of kkotjebi dying from malnutrition

rose, but concerned residents were few and far between.” He added that after the news of Kim Jong Eun’s visit to an orphanage spread, “societal interest is up

again.”

Most kkotjebi

are products of abandonment by parents lacking the economic means to care for

them, broken homes, or a combination of the two. “The donju [the new affluent middle class] use the orphans to gain

market influence,” he explained, adding that 40 something women take in as many

as 30 of the orphans to receive benefits like restaurant operating licenses.

“State and privately-run restaurants are

all required to contribute 10% of their total monthly profits to the inminban [people’s unit], but those with

orphans in their care, are exempt from additional taxes and even receive electricity

provisions.” As Daily NK previously reported here , electricity can be hard to come by, especially without the proper connections and funds.

Kim Jong Eun recently ordered all regional inminban to form a 9.27 task forces,

separate the kkotjebi in their

respective quarters, and send them to designated orphanages. The 9.27 task

force asserts to provide temporary residence to the homeless, but the

comprehensive 9.27 operation origins are more ominous, some of which is still

apparent in the recent initiative. The 9.27 Committee, an ad hoc control

mechanism initiated by the authorities in the 1990s, during the apex of the

North Korean famine, was charged with the task of removing corpses on the

streets during the night so that people would not perceive the magnitude of the

mass starvation.

At the beginning of this year, Kim Jong Eun

declared “there should not be a single weak child under the care of the Party,”

as reported by Chosun Central News Agency. The report went on, “After learning

about the work at the baby homes and orphanages across the country in February

last, he was told that there were physically weak children at the baby home and

orphanage in South Phyongan Province. He gave an instruction to the KPA to

bring them to the Taesongsan General Hospital and take care of their health

there.” He called for continued efforts by orphanage employees “to pay

deep attention to their nutrition” after the children were released from the

hospital.

Repudiated by Daily NK’s source, these

claims run contrary to the situation on the ground, where no evidence of the

purported aid for the kkotjebi is

readily apparent.

Beset with concerns about the Party’s

image, there is tacit pressure on the donju

[new ascendant middle class] to get the kkotjebi

off the streets and prevent them from begging around the markets and city centers.

As compensation, they enjoy relatively unhampered freedom from regulation on

their activities. Traders, also privy to special benefits under the measure,

actively seek out these homeless children to take and care for in their homes,

diminishing the number of those in orphanages, though this practice is

technically illegal. However, as oft-reported, it, like many other of the

country’s statutes, continues unobstructed.

“One trader can bring enough rice, clothes,

and flour in from China to send to their required share to the children’s home

and still raise 17 orphans at home, he said.

“Because of that, the authorities grant them the privilege of increased

trade activity.”

This collaborative effort by authorities, the

donju, and traders should not be

construed as “volunteer work”, he is quick to note, but instead as a

remunerative measure, creating a new onslaught of societal problems in the

North.

“In many cases these disenfranchised

children are performing forced labor on pig farms and contract diseases as a

result. Rather than sending them to receive the proper treatment, they are

exchanged for a healthier child at the orphanage.” As is often the case by a

country replete with corruption, “this kind of behavior goes unpunished; the

authorities just look the other way.” He went on to explain that when orphanage

employees fail to receive their salaries, a fairly common occurrence, they

often use the children to perform personal tasks in their stead.

Moreover, the cessation of the food

distribution system leaves the kkotjebi

wondering, “How is this any different than when we were begging?” Miserable in

the abject conditions, many attempt to flee, resulting in skirmishes with

guardians desperate to keep them on for the advantages they afford.

“The funds to maintain operations for these

orphanages does not come through inminban

units but instead through provincial Trade Department channels,” which the

source notes as another cause for concern. “The emergency supplies and funds

sent from the Trade Department are utilized by the orphanage employees as

bribes to pay off the proper authorities,” he concluded.