Pictured above (Google Earth): A bus depot in Rakrang-guyok, Pyongyang. See in Google Maps here.
According to the Daily NK:
Growth and improvement is evident in some areas of the private sector in North Korea, Ishimaru Jiro of ASIAPRESS revealed on the 16th, pointing to the growth of bigger, better private transit concerns and relatively productive coal mining operations as evidence of this trend.
In the past, trains were almost the only viable means of long-distance transportation in North Korea. Then, as private business began to grow and the railways fell into a deep malaise, vehicles such as trucks and cars belonging to military bases, state security and state enterprises were pushed into service to earn money for moving people; this, the so-called ‘servi-cha’ industry.
The servi-cha industry has long been fragmented and small scale; but now transportation companies run by rich individuals (‘donju’) which purchase several buses and hire drivers, guides and mechanics, are acting just as a transit company in a capitalist state would do.
With profit-sharing and bribery as the backbone, a large number of North Korean organs and enterprises have decided to lend their name to these individuals, fuelling the growth and development of a network of sorts.
“From the early 2000s, a high-speed bus network mostly between major cities began to emerge,” Ishimaru, revealing the latest research by ASIAPRESS internal North Korean sources, commented. “The companies are packaged as an enterprise affiliated to some state authority outwardly, but they are actually operated by individuals who pay kickbacks to that authority.”
The People’s Safety Ministry affiliated 116 Task Force Team is one such transportation company, Ishimaru says. It operates buses connecting Shinuiju, South Pyongan Province and Pyongyang. Ordinarily, the bus parks at a station or major public location, and then departs when it is full of passengers going to the next destination.
Here are previous posts on the servi-cha industry.
Read the full sotry here:
Green Shoots of Private Enterprise Growth
Daily NK
2011-8-17
