ANKARA 

North Korea will send nearly 300,000 young people to “live and rebuild” in a major flood-hit zone along the Chinese border, NK News reported Wednesday, citing the Korean Central News Agency.

It is part of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s recent campaign to instill “obedience through hard labor.”

Kim presided over a ceremony Tuesday in Pyongyang to encourage enlistees before he sent them to rebuild the floods-raked cities of Sinuiju and Uiju in the North Phyongan province.

The restoration project will be a “gigantic revolutionary construction campaign for giving a complete facelift” to the disaster-stricken area in the Amnok River (Yalu River) basin, Kim was quoted.

During a visit to the area last week, he reportedly ordered the construction of 4,400 new homes as part of the recovery project after thousands of homes and farmlands were flooded in late July, NK News reported.

According to Kim, “nearly 300,000 young people motivated by patriotism, dedication to promoting socialism and familiarity with struggling to repel obstacles blocking their advance,” have “volunteered” for the project following his orders.