"We were told that to defeat the American imperialists, our country would need to buy weapons abroad, so we were sent out for hours each day gathering scrap iron, bottles, and other recyclable products that could be sold for foreign currency. We were assigned quotas to fulfill, and children who failed to do so were admonished publicly. Who could gather the most became a great source of competition among us.

"We were also instructed to search about and to collect the skins of rabbits and dogs, as well as (to this day I don't recall why) maggots. Maggots were most commonly found in the dungheaps at the public outhouses, where the toilets did not flush, and again we competed intensely. As for the dung itself, we were also required to collect that! When great heaps had accumulated, it was eventually shipped to farmers for use as fertilizer, and each person would be graded according to the quantity and quality of the dung collected. Later on, when rationing tickets were issued, these grades with which we had been rewarded were taken into account.

"And yet the most difficult thing of all was to collect flowers. These we were required to place in front of the many statues of Kim Il Sung around our neighborhood. Since there were no flower shops in North Korea, the only way we could fulfill our quotas was to bribe the local greenhouse custodian.

"These were the sort of activities that filled our days..."