Nobody can accuse Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un doing anything half-assed.
That’s because North Korea’s economic decay has reached such new lows, citizens are now forced to steal each other’s feces to meet government-imposed ‘compost’ quotas.
In a bizarre — and foul — turn of events, Supreme Leader Kim has demanded an impossibly high amount of human waste from his people to use as fertilizer, showcasing the failures of communist policy in one of the world’s most repressive regimes.
The regime’s annual campaign requires each adult to contribute 500 kilograms of human feces and each schoolchild 200 kilograms — an unattainable goal considering the average person produces just 145 kilograms per year. That’s notwithstanding widespread hunger and food shortages that limit what the average person can reasonably produce.
Those who fail to meet their quotas face severe punishment, including public humiliation or detention in the country’s notorious prisons.
The shortage has sparked literal “turf wars,” with residents brawling over the precious commodity of excrement.
In Unsan County, a fight over stolen feces escalated into a violent clash involving axes and shovels, leaving two men hospitalized, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
In another incident, a schoolboy caught raiding a public toilet saw his cart of stolen poo overturned by a local watch leader, prompting his mother to confront the man in an altercation that devolved into a full-scale fight.
“This is the world’s only country where people fight over human feces,” lamented one resident. “The authorities can’t provide us with food but demand compost.”
Women have been particularly burdened, often tasked with collecting a full metric ton of waste, according to local sources. Locked communal toilets and limited access to other waste sources have driven desperate citizens to raid pig pens and private outhouses, causing more frequent and chaotic confrontations.
North Korea’s reliance on human feces as fertilizer began after the collapse of the Soviet Union which ended subsidized imports of a variety of products — with disastrous consequences for public health.
“This grotesque practice is a symbol of North Korea’s profound economic failure,” said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. “The use of untreated human waste has led to rampant intestinal worms and other health crises.”
The regime’s obsession with controlling every aspect of citizens’ lives, including their bodily waste, underscores the extreme measures it takes to maintain control over an increasingly impoverished population, he added.