A North Korean manager at the Samsu Power Plant in Yanggang Province has been punished in connection with his son’s transgressions, Daily NK has learned.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Monday that a manager at the power plant was summoned to a company-wide struggle meeting earlier this month because of his son’s non-socialist behavior. The manager, who is in his 50s, was declared unfit as a father, official and party member, and was expelled from the party, dismissed from his job, and relocated to a rural area.

The manager’s son, in his 20s, was discharged from the army for tuberculosis and malnutrition after only three years of military service. After returning home, he earned a living through non-socialist activities until he was arrested by the police, the source said.

After his release, the manager’s son was unable to perform normal work, so he was assigned to a physically undemanding job. He needed some money to treat his condition, but his father was busy working and the family was struggling financially. Eventually, the manager’s son began earning money any way he could.

The son’s first job was transporting food, such as rice and corn, in Samsu County, but it paid only a pittance. So he went to Musan, North Hamgyong Province, in search of other work. From there he went to Chongjin, where he again transported electronic goods and imported food. But even that was not very profitable.

Manager’s son turns to under-the-table businesses to make money

While staying in private boarding houses and flophouses in Chongjin, the manager’s son met some pimps and learned that prostitution was a business that did not require capital.

So the son began introducing prostitutes to men visiting Chongjin on business and keeping a lookout for the police. Another way he made money was by helping to obtain adult films and other pornographic content from South Korea, the source said.

Eventually, Chongjin police received a tip from a concerned citizen and arrested the manager’s son. Angry that a country bumpkin from Yanggang Province had come all the way to Chongjin to stir up trouble, the Chongjin police beat him up and handed him over to Samsu County police, the source said.

“The son’s non-socialist behavior brought down his old man, who was a manager at the Samsu Power Plant,” the source said.

“The manager was castigated during an ideological struggle meeting at the power plant earlier this month. The authorities said that a man who raised his son so badly was not qualified to work at the Samsu Power Plant, one of the country’s most important power stations.”

In the end, the manager was expelled from the party and fired from his job, and the whole family was forced to move to Pungso County. The manager’s son is now serving a four-year prison sentence, the source added.

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