North Korea soldiers forced into soybean farming say officers take the best of the harvest

North Korean soldiers stationed in Hamhung, the capital of South Hamgyong province, have been mobilized en masse for soybean planting on military-run auxiliary farms, with a deadline set for the end of May 2026. Even as military authorities frame the farming work as a way to improve soldiers’ nutrition, troops have responded with open cynicism, saying the best of the harvest goes to officers while rank-and-file soldiers see little benefit.

A Daily NK source in South Hamgyong province said on Tuesday that units under the Seventh Army Corps, one of North Korea’s major regional military commands headquartered in Hamhung, had deployed nearly all available personnel to auxiliary plots to complete soybean planting. “The corps command issued an order that soybean planting on auxiliary plots must be finished by the end of this month without exception,” the source said.

According to the source, North Korean authorities have emphasized soybean cultivation on military-run auxiliary plots since the early 2000s, citing soybeans as a source of protein and basic ingredients such as tofu and soybean paste. Units have carried out soybean farming every year since, and this year is no different.

The work is far from simple. Units must secure their own plots by negotiating with nearby collective farms or clearing new land on hillsides, and must independently obtain seeds, compost, and fertilizer. “Military units are farming through self-reliance, just like the rest of society,” the source said.

Farming on top of training pushes soldiers to the limit

Soldiers are now juggling military training, auxiliary farm work, and mobilization for the broader spring rice transplanting season, and the cumulative burden has become extreme. “With soybean farming, rural mobilization, and training all running at the same time, soldiers are saying their fatigue has reached the sky,” the source said.

Troops have also voiced deep skepticism about whether the farming effort benefits them at all. “The good soybeans all go to the officers and we only see the scraps,” soldiers have been heard saying. Others have put it more sardonically: “Even the soybean seeds in the ground are malnourished, just like us.”

The source said tofu, a primary product of the harvest, almost never appears in the mess hall. “Apart from the occasional side dish that an officer’s family brings in, tofu at the unit canteen is something you might see once at a holiday,” the source said. “Since soldiers can’t tell where the soybeans they worked so hard to grow end up going, it’s only natural that they see the farming as just another exhausting burden.”

The source added that soldiers’ frustration over auxiliary farm obligations will not ease unless the chronically poor state of military rations improves.

Read in Korean

A Note to Readers