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Covid, poverty force secret burials in North Korea

Harvard expert believes at least 50,000 people have died in pandemic, despite official claims of low death toll
A student has her temperature taken as part of anti-Covid-19 procedures before entering a school in Pyongyang on June 22, 2021
A student has her temperature taken as part of anti-Covid-19 procedures before entering a school in Pyongyang on June 22, 2021. (Photo: Kim Won Jin/AFP)
Published: August 02, 2022 03:58 AM GMT
Updated: August 02, 2022 04:01 AM GMT

Extreme poverty intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing people in remote areas of communist North Korea to bury dead loved ones secretly in unmarked graves in forests at night to avoid high funeral costs, reports say.

North Korea recorded “zero” new infections over the previous 24 hours and the death toll remained at 74, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on July 30, citing officials. The total number of cases was put at 4.8 million out of a total population of 26 million people.

If true, the death rate of 0.0016 percent, is the lowest in the world.

The claims, however, are disputed by foreign experts who say the government is hiding the real infection figures and death toll to ensure North Korean leader Kim Jong-un retains a firm grip on a nation facing a staggering economic situation, Associated Press reported.

Other outlets report that the pariah state is recording increasing deaths from the pandemic, prompting helpless Koreans to go for clandestine burials for family members — something very unusual as filial piety and reverence to ancestors are important in Korean culture.

Traditionally, the head of a family ensures family members are buried or cremated properly and graves of ancestors are well maintained. The pandemic that further worsened the economic conditions of many North Koreans are behind the deviation from cultural norms, the Korean service of Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.

“City and district authorities have strict rules about how the dead can be buried”

“The death toll has risen sharply in our city due to Covid-19 and waterborne diseases,” a resident from Chongjin city in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA on condition of anonymity. “City and district authorities have strict rules about how the dead can be buried.”

This debunks claims by North Korean officials who boasted the country has won a victory over the pandemic.

Until April, North Korea maintained the nation was “virus free” for the first two years while nations with advanced health systems grappled and were being ravaged, triggering widespread doubts.

However, in May, Pyongyang admitted that a large military parade at the end of April was blamed for spreading the virus nationwide. Consequently, the nation was placed under a draconian state of emergency.

The country’s official death toll remains extremely low, while the government is blamed for a sluggish vaccination drive. In June, North Korea reportedly received vaccines from GAVI, the global alliance for vaccines.  

Media reports say as people keep dying from Covid-19 symptoms, they are buried or cremated quickly before the cause of death can be confirmed. Moreover, people are hit with high burial costs.  

“The authorities demand that family members deal with the bodies. They must be taken to their hometown, where the family gravesite is, or to remote country villages. Otherwise, a body must be cremated here in town,” a source told RFA.

“But people are reluctant to use a crematorium because it takes too long and is really expensive,” he said.

North Hamgyong is home to 2.3 million people, but Chongjin city has only one crematorium in the entire province.

"They bury the bodies without any marker or a burial mound to avoid the eyes of the authorities"

The scarcity of cremation sites is compounded by high costs. Cremating a body costs about 430,000 won (US$61), about 50 liters of diesel or 120 kilograms of corn, the source said.

The cost is extremely high for many locals who earn only 3,600-7,600 won (US$ .50-1) a day.

Global anti-poverty group, Borgen Project, noted that 40 percent of North Koreans live below the poverty line, and the pandemic has pushed millions below the poverty threshold of less than US$2 dollars a day.

The cost of transportation of bodies to the countryside poses another financial challenge for many people.

“Not only is the cost of cremation a problem, but the cost of transporting a body by car to the countryside is also high. Ordinary residents who cannot afford the costs are secretly buried [by their families] at a nearby hill in the early dawn. They bury the bodies without any marker or a burial mound to avoid the eyes of the authorities,” he said.

However, the clandestine burials have not gone unnoticed by the authorities. To prevent secret burials, a band of “forest supervisors” has been formed to patrol forested areas near Chongjin’s cemetery.  They reportedly, won’t allow these secret burials without hefty bribes.

“If you are caught by a forest supervisor, you can’t just talk your way out of it, you also need to bribe about 50,000 to 100,000 won (US$7-14),” the source said.

He said officials don’t understand the gravity of the situation, so they don't allow the use of the crematorium for free, causing outrage among people who are dismayed by the fact that people who struggled throughout their lives amid hardships are not entitled to a plot of land for a proper burial.

“It bothers me that my family’s graves are on flat ground, but I have no choice but to bury them in flat graves"

The situation is similar in other parts of the country, mostly in rural areas where access to crematoriums is difficult.

A resident of Pukchong county in the eastern province of South Hamgyong said the authorities allow burials with strict conditions.

“Authorities prohibit the burial of bodies in the mountains if they can be seen from town or from roads and railroad tracks,” he said, adding that there is no crematorium in other regions except in the city of Hamhung.

“The authorities allow burials in a nearby public cemetery if there is a death in a rural area without a crematorium nearby. Those must be flatground tombs without burial mounds,” he said. 

The order is in contrast to traditional Korean graves, which are usually marked by a small earthen mound, upon which grass eventually grows.

On major holidays such as the Lunar New Year and Chuseok, which celebrates the autumn harvest, Koreans perform jesa, a memorial service for the deceased that includes a feast with the extended family at the burial mound.

“It bothers me that my family’s graves are on flat ground, but I have no choice but to bury them in flat graves,” he said.

“Instead, it is becoming fashionable to erect tombstones in concrete or stone on flat ground so that the graves of one's family can be easily identified. As the number of flat graves increases, it is not surprising that residents who have not yet erected a tombstone get confused and hold jesa in front of someone else’s tomb,” he said.

The authorities are reportedly attempting to prevent secret burials to stop the spread of the coronavirus and other waterborne diseases, while the actual number deaths remain a mystery.

In June, William Hanage, associate professor of Epidemiology at Harvard University, wrote in the Lancet medical journal that the death toll in North Korea is likely around 50,000 or even higher.

He said the figure was a “ballpark estimate for what we would expect if North Korea were to see mortality like New York City did in the first wave. Essentially to illustrate a baseline for how serious it would be.”

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