Dongbong Co-Operative Farm
A few days ago I shared some pictures of The Cutest North Korean Soldier taken during our visit to the Dongbong Co-Operative Farm outside Hamhung, North Korea. Below are more photos from that visit showing how farmers and their families live and work under the Juche-communist style of cooperative farming:
Info on the North Korean co-operative farm system is hard to find online, web searches on the subject bring up this blog as a top hit, but I do remember learning from books I read for my pre-trip background studies that those who live and work on co-operative farms have a fantastic standard of living (by North Korean standards), with the farms being profitable enough that the workers and families living within the cooperative system typically have more material goods and higher savings compared to average workers from Pyongyang.
Related articles
- The Cutest North Korean Soldier and Our Visit to the Dongbong Co-Operative Farm (americaninnorthkorea.com)
The Cutest North Korean Soldier and Our Visit to the Dongbong Co-Operative Farm
The Cutest North Korean Soldier
On our visit to the Dongbong Co-Operative Farm cooperative farm outside Hamhung, we were allowed time to interact with a group of young children during their preschool recess activities. Waddling around, tugging at our beards, and pawing at our cameras to look at our digital pictures, our experience with these kids was a highlight of the trip. After about 15 minutes the children were called back to the schoolyard for some marching and saluting practice lead by their teachers and minders.
Some people in my group felt this entire interaction and schoolyard display was some sort of playacting show put on by citizen actors for us foreigners, but I tend to not be so pessimistic and believe we were fortunate enough to witness some authentic rural scenes of life not commonly glimpsed by foreigners.
All photos by Joseph A Ferris III – more photos from this series linked below.
(more…)
American in North Korea 