There’s a good chance you’ve never heard the name, Cha Ji Yon. She was an 18-year-old worker in North Korea who’s dead and shouldn’t be. She passed away last July 9, and her death is celebrated throughout North Korea.
North Korean State Media described her as “an 18-year-old virgin girl soldier” working at Kim Jong Un’s Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm. Kim’s orders were to build the world’s largest farm in the world in the shortest amount of time.
The North Korean media has elevated an 18-year-old “virgin girl soldier” who died from overwork while fulfilling Kim Jong Un’s orders to carry out rapid construction on a greenhouse last year.
Cha was recovering from an illness or accident that required emergency surgery. She died after working all night in severe pain to meet the strict daily quotas Kim Jong Un required. A journal supposedly written by Cha indicated her apology to Kim for failing to meet her daily tasks and promised to double her work output.
Kim conscripted thousands of soldiers in Feb. of 2022 to complete the project despite widespread death and illness from an outbreak of Covid. During the first ten days of the “great quarantine war,” work was 2.5 times higher than normal. The facility was officially opened by Kim in Oct. 2022.
Cha’s death was reported much later as an example of the types of sacrifice North Koreans make in service to Kim. Construction deaths or accidents are rarely reported unless North Korea can use them to embellish country leaders with propaganda.
One media report chronicles a man who died from working harder than anyone else on a construction project in 2022.
North Korean Media often reports on citizens dying in floods or in shipwrecks who died trying to save portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The sacrifice of lives pales in comparison to preserving the pictures of their dictators.
Cha Ji Yon is dead, and she shouldn’t be. North Korea exploits another young, innocent citizen for their own agenda.
