Party to hold annual review meetings early this year… Members fear public criticism
Press Release on the Enlarged Meeting of the 8th Plenary Session of the 8th Central Committee [Photo/ NK Times]
Ruling Workers’ Party members in the regions have been instructed to hold their annual year-end party “review meetings” earlier than usual and are braced for criticism.
According to reports from the 8th Enlarged Plenary Session of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the meetings of the grassroots Primary Party Committees are being held in early December.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told NK Times that the authorities recently issued instructions to provincial, city, and county Party Committees nationwide to carry out the Primary Party Committees’ year-end review meetings. Accordingly, local Party Committees will begin holding them sequentially from early December, depending on their readiness.
Primary Party Committees in factories and enterprises in Hoeryong and other parts of North Hamgyong Province began preparations on November 24, reportedly instructing Party cells to submit members’ activity reports by early December for inclusion in the meeting report.
“The year-end review meeting is where each factory or enterprise Party Committee evaluates and sums up members’ annual activities,” the source said. “Exemplary cases are presented and those subject to criticism undergo public censure, which is why members are generally tense.”
“Many people are anxious about being selected as targets of criticism,” he said. “Some members, fearing their names might appear in the meeting report, have even resorted to offering money or gifts to Primary Party Committee officials or cell secretaries.”
Because the year-end review meeting is designed to evaluate and summarize members’ annual conduct, being singled out for public criticism can lead to social disadvantages. As a result, Party members appear to be experiencing significant psychological pressure.
Han was born in 1989 in Taehongdan county, Ryanggang province, North Korea. She graduated from Hyesan Teacher's College in 2012, after which she worked as an elementary school teacher. She defected to South Korea in 2016 and works as a reporter at NK Times in Seoul.
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