South Pyongan province’s party committee has distributed an investigative report on local fishing companies to provincial organizations as an educational resource. The investigation of fishing companies under the province’s fishing management bureau will continue through November’s end.
According to a source in the province recently, the province’s party committee began planning an investigation of fishing companies after learning that they were behind quota in July, August, September and October. The committee launched its investigation in early November.
Early on, investigators discovered that several fishing companies in the province, including Mundok Fishing Company and Kamapo Fishing Company, were not properly carrying out the government’s plans for protecting and effectively managing maritime resources.
Investigators said the biggest reason for fishing companies’ failure to meet quotas was managers’ negligent attitude to their work. As soon as investigators arrived, managers of the fishing companies hastened to explain that they could not meet their fishing quotas because of difficult circumstances.
But as investigators dug deeper, they turned up more serious examples of corruption. They learned, for example, that managers at the fishing companies were appropriating maritime resources through unofficial channels for their own private gain.
Another problem discovered by investigators was that maritime resources were basically in the grip of private ship owners who were reaping the rewards — an arrangement more reminiscent of socialism than capitalism.
It appeared that the private ship owners had a huge influence on the industry. They were giving fishing company managers kickbacks so that they could flout official protocol and maximize their profit.
The investigators have alleged that the repeated failure to meet the province’s fishing quotas is due to the habitual negligence and corruption of fishing company managers who have failed to keep the private ship owners under control.
“After being briefed about investigators’ findings, the provincial party committee analyzed the issues at hand, concluding that none of the Workers’ Party’s fishing policies are being meaningfully implemented and that the reports being filed are purely perfunctory and do not reflect reality,” the source said.
“Deeming that immediate action is needed, the provincial party committee is distributing documents compiling these irregular practices as study materials to organizations throughout the province and ordering that organization members study the critical sections in detail.”
Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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