In early January 2007, Fiona McLysaght, Country Director,
DPRK, travelled to South Pyongan Province in North Korea (crosslink to DPRK) to chart the progress of Concern's work during what is the harshest season of the year for rural communities.In her own words "In early January, we travelled to Dokchan and Hoichang Counties for three days. A journey that normally takes two hours took five, as the drive was across roads covered
with snow and ice. Although the landscape is picturesque when carpeted in snow, it hides the reality of the daily poverty and hardship experienced by rural communities, which is exacerbated further
during the long winter months when temperatures plummet to -20ºC."The agricultural land is frozen solid and rivers and streams are frozen over. The children travel several times a day to
collect water for household consumption. They first dig through the thick ice and make an opening large enough for a vessel to scoop the water and fill their two water buckets. Once the buckets are
filled they carefully balance the buckets across their shoulders and make their way home. "Concern's intervention will especially improve the lives for these children and for their mothers who
wash clothes in rivers of freeing temperatures; but will also result in the improvement in the health and the quality of life for the entire community.
"The people in South Pyongan are
kind, friendly and hospitable; and genuinely participate in the planning and implementation of the projects with Concern. The communities wish for a better life for their children, a life where they
attend school and are free of the burdens of hard labour, to play, to be children. "The communities are strong and very resourceful, yet it is evident that the people are overstretched. They
still to endure another three months of winter and it is six months before the next harvest, a minor harvest, with the main harvest of staple foods of rice and maize not occurring until October."We left the communities and travelled back to the capital Pyongyang where the situation is very different, although also suffering from years of lack of infrastructural investment, it is evident
that there is a clear urban (Pyongyang) rural divide within North Korea. "When I broached the subject of inequality in a county that espouses equality with a Korean colleague, he explained the
situation through the following analogy, 'when one gets up in the morning one washes one's face first because it is seen by the world – unlike the body, which is covered'. I responded with, 'if
you don't look after the body does it not eventually show on the face,' he just smiled."
