Volunteers and the "Well Talk"

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North Korea Prayer Bulletin 2007 September-October

Students Doing Volunteer Work in Chosun

Students in Korea are busy people. In Chosun (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea/DPRK, commonly known as North Korea), students do a lot of volunteer work. The DPRK is a workers society, as are all communist nations. Work is highly emphasized. Students are required to do a lot of community service as part of their curriculum. Many things in communistic countries are done voluntarily.

In the spring and fall, most students help with planting and harvesting in the fields. During May, almost all students help the whole month with rice planting. Rice planting is hard work, with a lot of bending over, to transplant the little seedlings by hand into fields covered with water. This is done throughout Asia, in Thailand, Malaysia, China – and Korea. In Chosun, the students work with farmers groups. The students also help with harvest in the fall. The farmers supervise the students and sign statements attesting that the students met their quotas. In the South, middle school and high school students also have to do some community work and report on it. In the North, too, the leaders of the farmers groups have to sign papers saying that those students did their community work and met quota. Volunteer work in the South and in the North has its similarities, but it also has its differences.

In Chosun, the students do the volunteer work during the day and then attend meetings with political content in the evenings. The government uses this time to teach the students more of the nation’s values. As a communist government, the state decides what is best for the people. In the DPRK, the state decides that it is best for the students to not only study books but also to do manual labor that benefits the nation.

In the old communist USSR, university students had to do community work, although they were paid a small wage for doing so. In the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), Mao emphasized the importance of the people working with their hands, and students took regular time during their studies to work on the farms. This emphasis in the PRC probably influenced the DPRK to adopt the practice of having students do field work in the North. Many students were working manually during school breaks in the late 1950’s in Chosun. Some groups built several of the buildings found in Pyongyang at that time. With construction work, the students could see the results of what they did.

Even though it was manual work and not very interesting at times, students could still make it fun or somewhat enjoyable. It was a time for young men and women to meet each other and for friendships to begin that sometimes lasted a long time. This gives us a picture of some of what the students, especially university students, do in their school breaks in the DPRK. What do university students in your country do? Who decides what they do? Thinking of these things can help us think of some of the similarities and differences between the students in our countries and the students in the DPRK. How can we pray for the university students in Chosun?

In the Bible, manual work is not looked down upon. Paul said to the church in Ephesus, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need” (Ephesians 4:28). Paul said to the church in Colossae, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24). Christians in any country can do manual work with pride and as unto the Lord. Let us pray that Christian students in the North will do this manual labor as unto the Lord and, through this, attract other students to the Lord.

(Source used: Andrei Lankov, “Status of Volunteer,” #191 in “Another Korea” series, Korea Times, 2006 February 21. Lankov is originally from the USSR and has lived in the DPRK and Australia.)