State agencies and fishery enterprises are fencing off entire coastlines including military garrison zones under “20 x 10” development policy, leaving fishing community residents unable to gather seaweed and shellfish that once supplemented their income.
According to a Daily NK source in South Hwanghae province on Friday, the authorities have been planting markers to delineate the limits of aquafarms in coastal regions of the province’s seaside towns, including Kangnyong, Ongjin and Taetan counties. Aquafarms have even been established in the garrison districts in front of military guardposts on the coast.
“Most of the regions that produce seafood became aquafarms starting in the late 2000s, but never had even military garrison zones become part of them,” the source said. “The authorities are rashly designating the entire coast as an aquafarm.”
Coastal regions designated as military garrison zones strictly restricted public access, but partly allowed civilians to collect seafood within the zone in consideration of their situation. In return, the civilians shared their bycatch with the soldiers.
However, with aquafarms now penetrating even military garrison zones, locals can no longer collect seafood there.
Because aquafarm enterprises rent out fisheries to private individuals rather than operate the fisheries themselves, villagers who collect seafood in aquafarm zones are essentially engaging in illegal economic activity on private property.
Powerful state agencies secure independent foreign currency streams
According to the source, one resident of a coastal village in Ongjin county complained, “As recently as last year, whenever the seas were rough, I would go out the next day and collect seaweed or shellfish, but now I can’t collect the seafood that washes up.”
With not only fishery enterprises but also the army, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Social Security, and other powerful state agencies jumping into the aquafarm business to secure independent foreign currency streams, almost the entire coast is packed with aquafarms.
In other words, even powerful state agencies are taking possession of coastlines, with guards stopping locals from entering seashore areas.
Residents of fishing communities complain that the state “says it allows us to live well, but it steals our livelihoods instead,” that everything the authorities do “prevents them from living,” and that they “can’t experience the taste of the sea, despite living on the coast.”
The North Korean authorities say that the expansion of sea aquafarms, in line with regional characteristics and resources, brings regional development to coastal cities and counties and substantive improvements to the lives of their people. However, only the individuals or agencies that operate the aquafarms take the profits while local villagers receive only a meager amount as “wages” when they are mobilized to harvest the sea.
Because of this, residents of fishing communities who used to make a living collecting seafood complain that their lives are harder.
“With the entire coast being turned into aquafarms, locals cannot even approach the seaside,” the source said. “Residents of seaside villages complain that it has become tougher to make a living due to aquafarm expansion.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
