A ship docked at Nampo Port. (Wikimedia Commons)
As the end of the year approaches, North Korea’s ruling party has sent inspectors to major shipyards in Chongjin, Rajin, Sinpo and Nampo to check on the progress they have made over the past five years on major initiatives called the “three revolutionary movements.” Shipyard managers are worried that these inspections will culminate in their punishment.
“Inspection teams from the Central Committee were simultaneously dispatched to four shipyards on Nov. 15. The teams are supposed to spend the rest of the month carefully scrutinizing these shipyards’ progress on revolutions in ideology, technology and organizational culture over the past five years,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK recently.
According to the source, each of the inspection teams consists of five officials from the Central Committee.
North Korea encourages competition by praising administrative units that make exemplary progress on these three revolutions. The main assessment criteria include (1) level of achievement of party policies, (2) level of technological innovation, (3) degree of participation in organizational life, (4) rate of progress on production quotas and (4) level of organizational integrity.
The source added that in regard to the technological revolution, shipyards are assessed on (1) modernization of equipment, (2) regular maintenance records, (3) operation of technology classes and students’ performance, (4) absence of falsified or duplicated reports on technological level and (5) establishment of the material and technical foundation for boosting productivity.
Officials worried about possible repercussions
Shipyard staff expect that the work attitude of shipyard officials may come under scrutiny during the inspections.
“Since the launch of the Choe Hyon and Kang Kon destroyers, Kim Jong Un has had his eyes on the work attitudes of shipyard officials. The scuttlebutt among officials is that the primary goal of this inspection is to determine whether their attitudes live up to the Workers’ Party’s expectations,” the source said.
As a result, shipyard officials are anxious that they may be portrayed in a poor light during the inspections.
But regular workers at the shipyard are more nonchalant about the Central Committee’s inspections.
“Workers aren’t getting stressed out over the inspections because they’re only expected to submit behavior records and study notes. The inspectors from the Central Committee are planning to interview workers individually, which has motivated shipyard officials to treat the workers with kid gloves,” the source said.
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