Land Reform in the North

The North Korean Provisional People’s Committee confiscated land without compensation and distributed it free to farmers.

In February 1946 the North Korean Provisional People’s Committee was set up with Kim Il Sung as chairman. In March it decreed a land reform that confiscated, without compensation, holdings over 5 jeongbo and land owned by Japanese and collaborators, and gave it free to farmers. The distributed land could not be sold, rented out or mortgaged.

A law on equality of the sexes and the nationalization of major industries followed. Many landlords, religious believers and others moved south.