Jan. 24 (UPI) — A North Korean newspaper is using stories of construction workers, toiling away without safety gear, to encourage loyalty to the Kim Jong Un regime.
Korean Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun stated on Monday the workers’ “indomitable mental power [on display] was the outpouring of deeply held sentiment” for the North Korean leadership.
The article focused on workers at the Wonsan power plant, where a temporary dam structure was being removed.
The North Korean report included details of dangerous underwater operations.
“Traversing water that came over their shoulders, across a distance of 1,000 meters, the workers turned on a valve on a drainpipe, and out poured 10 meters of a spout of water,” the article read.
The newspaper described the work as “dangerous” and that the workers narrowly escaped an area that was increasingly becoming submerged in more water.
The Rodong article also made a rare acknowledgement about the work site, stating the Wonsan power plant is the site of the “worst adversities and difficulties” where many “suffered the loss of life.”
The deployment of inexperienced construction workers or engineers tasked with fast-paced renovation projects has led to several accidents, according to North Korean defectors.
In early 2016, North Korea aired footage of soldiers creating a “human bridge” in the course of construction.
