North Korea orders factory workers to watch loyalty film, report on colleagues

Workers at the Rakwon Machine Complex, one of North Korea’s flagship heavy equipment manufacturers, have been ordered to watch a state-produced film about rooting out internal enemies and submit written ideological reflection papers by the end of the month — and the pressure is taking a visible toll.

A Daily NK source in North Pyongan province reported Wednesday that a directive from the central authorities reached the Sinuiju-based complex on March 10, requiring all employees to watch both parts of the Korean feature film “One Day, One Night” and submit written reflections to their organizations by month’s end. “Workers are having trouble making sense of the sudden directive,” the source said.

According to the source, the complex followed through immediately: for one week beginning March 10, employees were required to watch the film in study rooms before they could leave their shift or begin work. Day-shift workers had to complete the screening before clocking out; night-shift workers had to watch upon arrival before heading to the production floor.

The two weeks that followed were designated for writing the reflection papers, to be submitted individually through each worker’s organizational unit. Because the film’s central themes are “defending the leadership to the death” and “rooting out internal enemies,” the State Security Department has been closely involved at every stage, monitoring and calibrating the content of what workers submit, the source said.

Film’s political message drives the campaign

“One Day, One Night,” released in February 2022, is based on a true story set during the post-Korean War reconstruction period of the mid-1950s. The film follows protagonist Ra Myong Hui over the course of 24 hours as she stumbles upon a conspiracy by anti-party, counter-revolutionary factionalists plotting to overthrow the state and fights to relay the information to the party’s central leadership.

The film carries a pointed political message: vigilance against internal enemies and opposition forces, and the imperative to protect the leadership through any hardship.

“An order to watch a film about how reactionaries plotted against the Great Leader right after liberation — and then write a reflection paper on top of it — is not a simple directive,” the source said. “It is ideological education hammering absolute loyalty to the party and the supreme leader, and the atmosphere across the entire complex has turned chilling.”

Management at the complex reinforced the message directly, telling workers that “the enemies hiding nearby right now are more dangerous,” and urging employees to identify and report anyone behaving suspiciously — at the workplace, in their neighborhood watch units, or anywhere else.

The source said the mood inside the complex is one of simultaneous resentment and fear. Workers already exhausted by the physical demands of heavy equipment production, and stretched further by the drive to fulfill the tasks set at the Ninth WPK Congress, are now burdened with an ideological campaign on top of everything else. Complaints are circulating quietly.

The reflection papers themselves are the sharpest source of anxiety. Workers have been told the submissions must include specific self-criticism as well as accounts of surveillance of others — a requirement that has driven psychological pressure to an extreme. “Workers are calculating who they can name as a reactionary in order to protect themselves,” the source said, “and everyone is watching everyone else.”

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