{"id":7379,"date":"2021-01-12T19:53:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T19:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=149185"},"modified":"2021-01-12T19:53:51","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T19:53:51","slug":"north-koreas-ruling-party-increases-wait-time-loyalty-fees-for-aspiring-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/12\/north-koreas-ruling-party-increases-wait-time-loyalty-fees-for-aspiring-members\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea\u2019s Ruling Party Increases Wait Time, \u2018Loyalty Fees\u2019 For Aspiring Members"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Revised regulations on joining North Korea\u2019s ruling party extend the candidacy period for prospective members from one to two years, effectively doubling the \u201cloyalty fees\u201d and other bribes required to join the elite, sources in the country told RFA.<\/p>\n

The regulations were approved during the Eighth Congress of the Workers\u2019 Party of Korea last week. The rare meeting of the entire party\u2019s leadership was last held in 2016, and that congress was the first since 1980.<\/p>\n

Membership in the party is seen as a status symbol that can also be a gateway to better housing, education and food in the impoverished country. Those who desire membership must be endorsed by two party members and demonstrate qualifications for the candidacy period, which has now twice as long and expensive, the sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome provisions of the revised party rules from the eighth party congress were reported in the Rodong Sinmun<\/em> newspaper. I read about it and only a bitter smile came to me,\u201d a food factory worker in Ryanggang province, in the country\u2019s northern region, told RFA\u2019s Korean Service Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cArticle 3 of the party regulations were revised to shore up the admission procedure, and now party members and candidates should dedicate to the party a higher amount of loyalty funds and bribes,\u201d said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.<\/p>\n

The source said that Article 3 also stipulates that only those \u2018fully qualified\u2019 would be accepted as candidates, and the period of candidate membership has been extended from one year to two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that if a candidate fails to properly dedicate the loyalty funds to the party during the two years\u2026 he or she will be disqualified from being a candidate,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was previously mandatory for the candidates to bribe party officials in charge of the screening process even before screening began. During the previous one-year candidacy period, they offered up loyalty funds from their foreign-currency-earning side projects,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n

In the North Korean economy, nearly everyone needs a secondary job to make a living, because the government salary they earn from their assigned careers is nowhere near enough to support themselves.<\/p>\n

Extension of the party\u2019s candidacy period to two years essentially means the cost of joining has doubled, according to the source.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who became candidates last year, who should have become regular party members this year, are complaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another source, from North Pyongan province in the country\u2019s northwest confirmed that change and other revisions to RFA Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA new provision has been added to the party regulations stating that if you do not faithfully fulfill your obligations as a party member for more than 3 years, you will be removed from the party,\u201d said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the party members had been neglecting party activities by bribing the party officially to be exempt from lecture sessions as well as weekly self-criticism sessions,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

The lectures and self-criticism sessions are the means by which the government tracks the loyalty of every citizen, but attending the weekly sessions takes away from the time the candidates would spend earning a living.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody would be so foolish as to stop making money to participate in party life out of any sense of loyalty, even with the threat of being ousted from the party,\u201d the second source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, the party members will just have to dedicate more money in loyalty funds to the authorities, and many are not happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported by Hyemin Son for RFA\u2019s Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revised regulations on joining North Korea\u2019s ruling party extend the candidacy period for prospective members from one to two years, effectively doubling the \u201cloyalty fees\u201d and other bribes\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7380,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7379\/revisions\/7380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}