North Korean Economy Watch

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
8/3/2007

“There is no better way to make a living than being a driver in North Korea. By delivering food, vegetables and even lumber for winter use to companies, one can take a portion as a driver too. Even when transporting radishes or cabbages for Kimchi (Korean cabbage pickles) one can always put aside the ones of best quality in a plentiful amount.”

Defector Kim Choong Il [pseudonym] who had come to South Korea due an unavoidable situation had worked in North Korea as a driver for a company. Reminiscing his days as a driver in North Korea he smiled and even said that he missed the life.

“People who need cars come ask and even bring gas so there are no expenses on my part. I just need to drive. I rarely even ate at home. Most of the time I was treated out. Because there are no means of transportation, everyone wants to use cars. I even make some business when I drive long distances for company-related work. Sometimes when I drive a couple merchants on the road because they beg me to give them a ride, I get drinks and cigarettes for free.”

In South Korea, any healthy adult – male or female – is eligible for driver’s license. However in North Korea, there are several classes of driver’s licenses and they limit the training of drivers. Driver’s licenses are that much recognized in North Korea.

In South Korea, being a driver is not the ideal profession but in North Korea, a “car driver” is very popular. Once you obtain your driver’s license and get assigned to a truck, you never have to worry about making a living again. The income is fairly good.

Kim said, “There is just one time that I faced a difficult situation working as a driver.”

A Conscientious Accountant is the First to Starve

He said, “While transporting radishes and cabbages for the company employees’ use, I put aside 2 tons for an accountant and myself. If a driver takes it alone then he’ll be caught by the accountant so the two collaborate to embezzle goods. But the new accountant was a conservative and nice woman. She refused the 1 ton of cabbages that had been allotted to her and demanded that I bring back my portion too. I begged her “to turn the other way” but it didn’t go through. I ended up restoring the cabbages and radishes.

Moreover, he said, “this nice accountant was the first to starve when the food rations ended in 1995. She had been conservative and waited for rations from the Party but ended up dying. I survived. Even in the Great Starvation period, none of the drivers starved to death.”

To obtain a driver’s license in North Korea, one must learn about the basic structure of the car and simple maintenance operations along with a year of driving practice at an automobile driving school. After a year of education and passing the test, a diploma is given.

Only with this diploma the Automobile Management Bureau of the provincial Safety Agency (County Police Agency) gives out an official driver’s license. At this time a Grade 4 is given. With this “Grade 4”, one can’t automatically start driving.

There are heavy equipment driver’s license to operate excavators and tractors and automobile driver’s license. Heavy equipment driver’s license has 7 grades and automobile driver’s license has 4 grades.

Most “Grade 4” drivers work as assistant drivers to drivers with much experience for at least 3 to 5 years and gain experience and skills on driving and car repair. Even afterwards, one must give bribes to the affiliated company (factory) to receive one’s own car and drive.

Grade 1 License is Nearly Impossible

Once a driver who has been distributed a car drives without any accidents, their grade is raised once every 3 to 5 years. If they get into an accident, the promotion rate slows down.

According to the testimony of another defector Choi Young Chul [pseudonym] who had worked as a car driver, most drivers obtain a “Grade 4” status after 10-15 years of experience. However, from “Grade 3” it’s not just driving that one must excel at. From “Grade 3” regardless of years of experience and lack of accidents, one must pass the National Public Official Exam to obtain [higher levels].

“Grade 3 drivers are given the same license as a college graduate. In Kimchaek City where I lived there were only two people who had a Grade 2 driver’s license,” he said.

Choi said, “To obtain a “Grade 1”, you must be able to build a car. Realistically even if most drivers drive long-distance for more than 30 years, they remain at “Grade 4”. Even if you graduate from Dukcheon Automobile College (3 years), you’re only given a “Grade 4″. If you graduate with flying colors, you’re given a Grade 3.”

The reason it’s hard to obtain a “Grade 3″ driver’s license in North Korea is because drivers must have overall knowledge about maintenance as well as thorough knowledge and skills on repair.”

With a highway system that is deteriorated and the absence of a car repair system, the frequency of break downs or troubles are very high. Also, most civilian cars excluding military cars have a severe deterioration.

Choi also exposed, “There is an item that North Korean drivers never forget when they leave for a long distance trip. Lighters, rice, drinking water and a pot are integral. It’s like our life. When there’s a severe problem and it’s impossible to fix on the spot, they survive off of the rice and call the factory and wait. Most drivers who have driven for 10 years struggle from gastroenteric trouble.

It’s Choi’s explanation that if a car breaks down in an uninhabited area in the winter or a mountainous road, it can eventually lead to a human casualty. Thus it is the driver’s burden to take care of the damages and repair as well as the casualties from it.

On the other hand, the North Korean military trains army drivers for the military through a separate driving school in each troop. Recruits who had just graduated from middle-high school receive education for a year at the driving school to work as army drivers. In “Ohro Driving School” in Youngkwang, South Hamkyung Province and “Lanam Driving School” in Lanam-district, Chongjin, North Hamkyung are representative army driving schools in the Hamkyung Province areas.

Once they finish their rookie training and dispatched to a base, they fulfill their army duty by working as a car driver. After being discharged, these military drivers must go to the corresponding Defense Department Automobile Management Bureau and exchange their licenses with societal driving licenses.

The amusing fact is that at this time most army drivers receive societal driving licenses that is a grade lower than one that was given in the military. It is also evidence that the North Korean society does not trust the discharged soldiers who tend to cause accidents frequently.

Yonhap
8/1/2007

Pyeonghwa Motors Corp., a South Korean automaker with exclusive rights to produce cars for the North Korean market, said Wednesday it has been in talks with Chinese automaker Brilliance Automotive Holdings Ltd. to assemble trucks in North Korea, a company official said Wednesday.

In North Korea, Pyeonghwa Motors is assembling some 600-700 vehicles, including sport-utility ones, sedans and mini buses, a year at its plant in Nampo, near the capital Pyongyang.

The North has requested Pyeonghwa Motors to produce trucks for farmers and factory workers, the official said.

“We will soon select a truck model after consultations with North Korean and Chinese sides,” the official said on the condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

If the North Korean plant begins production of trucks, annual vehicle sales of Pyonghwa Motors in North Korea will exceed 1,000 units, the official said.

The North’s economy went into a steep decline in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to reports released by South Korea’s Bank of Korea.

However, since the late 1990s, the North Korean economy has been growing again, helped by an influx of foreign aid and better weather, the South’s central bank said.

Now available on Google Earth! 
(click above to download to your own Google Earth)

North Korea Uncovered v.3

Google Earth added a high-resolution overlay of the area between Pyongyang and Nampo.  In it, most of the Koguryo tombs listed with UNESCO are now distinguishable.  In addition, viewers can see the latest Kim Jong Il palace (including a yacht), the DPRK’s premier golf course, and the Chinese-built Taean Glass factory.  I have also made some progress in mapping out the DPRK electricity grid.

This is the most authoritative map of North Korea that exists publicly today.  Agriculture, aviation, cultural institutions, manufacturing, railroad, energy, politics, sports, military, religion, leisure, national parks…they are all here, and will captivate anyone interested in North Korea for hours.

Naturally, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of many locations since I have not seen or been to them, but great efforts have been made to check for authenticity. In many cases, I have posted sources, though not for all. This is a thorough compilation of lots of material, but I will leave it up to the reader to make up their own minds on the more “controversial” locations. In time, I hope to expand this further by adding canal and road networks.

I hope this post will launch a new interest in North Korea. There is still plenty more to learn, and I look forward to hearing about improvements that can be made.

Daily NK
Kwon Jeong Hyun
7/27/2007

An order was made by North Korean authorities prohibiting the use of all Japanese cars until the year 2009. Though this only applies to old cars manufactured before 2003, it seems that the orders are being enforced stronger than expected.

The drivers seat of cars manufactured after 2004 are being changed to the right hand side by the Japanese Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan), informed a source on the 25th.

In addition, all Japanese cars have been banned from entering Pyongyang excluding cars with permits (such as governmental or company cars). As a result, many Japanese delivery services are experiencing hardship.

This kind of order was made around Kim Jong Il’s birthday on February 16th by central authorities with inspection conducted by the transportation department of the Social Safety Agency in both the rural districts and Pyongyang.

These orders were made amidst a time when relations between North and South Korea had worsened and when a broken down Japanese car blocked the road while Kim Jong Il was on his way to worship at his the Kim Il Song Memorial.

Regarding this, one safety traffic official of Pyongyang city informed, “Cars which have been produced with the South such as the “Hweparam (whistle)” and “Arirang” are being regulated by the nation. National income is being increased by selling these. Further, the regulations were enforced to control the people who were making lots of money by trading cars illegally.”

The Pyeonghwa Motors which operates under the control of the Unification Church has been working in collaboration with North Korea. Since 2002, cars and mini buses have been supplied after parts had been put together at the factory.

This order by North Korean authorities has been enforced strongly and has lasted much longer than expected. Hence many traders and individuals are expressing discontent.

Japanese cars are being sold at ridiculously low prices with yet another year and 2 months remaining until the ban is lifted. People who took out loans in order to purchase the cars are being pressured by their debtors, a source informed.

Daily NK
Han Young Jin
7/25/2007

More and more North Korean delivery drivers have been employing guards in preparation for theft by soldiers.

On the 24th, Kim Kyung Min (pseudonym) a defector who entered Korea in February said, “Lately, there have been many incidents where the military get into brawls with young kids employed by delivery drivers and chauffeurs” and added, “This was something unthinkable in the past, but delivery drivers who transport wholesale goods are now hiring guards in order to protect their goods.”

As Jangmadang (markets) revitalized and more drivers began to load cargo onto their trucks to deliver goods to rural districts via road, protective measures such as guards have been employed as the number of theft by the military becomes more common.

Kim said, “In the past, drivers used government cars and so they were always attacked. However, things have changed now. Drivers bring their cars registering them at factories and businesses, and as a result, 2~3 guards are hired as a proactive way to protect themselves.”

According to Kim, these “bodyguards” employed by drivers were once militants who served in the army. Hence, they are trained in martial arts and fighting skills so that it is possible for a person to combat 2~3 people on his own.

Kim said, “Last year, soldiers put their baggage in the middle of the road on Pyongyang-Hyangsan Highway and wanted for a delivery truck. Thinking that the goods had fallen from a passing truck, the driver stopped his vehicle when three to four soldiers came and threatened him to hand over the goods. At that moment, the kids hired by the driver who were in hiding came and took care of the situation. Businessmen and drivers felt refreshed on hearing this story.”

Secretary general Lee Hae Young of the Association of North Korean Defectors said, “Since the past, soldiers would frequently steal household goods and corn from the country” and explained, “It seems that people have become conscious of protecting their assets.”

This kind of response by the people is a reflection of the real decline in power by the People’s Army.

Following the food crisis in North Korea, corruption amidst governmental officials worsened and soldiers increasingly stole goods from homes. People are widely recognizing the People’s Army as a violent group which steals goods.

Last year August, one Japanese broadcast captured and exposed a footage where a driver and security agent got into a fight in the vicinity of Sariwon, North Hwanghae, after the security agent had smashed a car window. This is what the majority of defectors mean when they respond, “This was something unthinkable in the past.”

These incidents may be a result of increasing individualism and property awareness as the distribution system collapsed. North Korean people analyze that different to the past, people are now increasingly asserting their own authority and not following the ways of the government or military.

Daily NK
Yang Jung A
7/11/2007

Earlier this year, North Korean authorities banned the importation of cars made from Japan. However, it seems that Japanese cars are still being imported into North Korea.

Moreover, due to Japan’s sanctions on North Korea which prohibits the entry of North Korean cargo ships into Japanese ports, it seems that 3rd countries’ ships are being used to import the cars.

On the 8th, the Sankei Shimbun reported, “The Japanese government placed a measure prohibiting the entry of the “Mankyungbong 92” and other North Korean ships into Japanese ports. However, North Korea is using foreign cargo ships to import second hand goods made from Japan.”

In relation to this, the Sankei Shimbun reported, “From January until June this year, a total of 13 foreign cargo ships have entered North Korea loaded with Japanese goods” and informed, “These ships come from 5 countries including Russia, China, Georgia, Cambodia and Belize, with the majority of staff Russian or Chinese.”

Further, the newspaper stated, “1,000 second hand refrigerators and hundreds of small second hand trucks have been imported into North Korea through 3rd countries’ ships.”

In particular, “Last January, a Cambodian cargo ship carrying 9,000 second hand Japanese bicycles entered North Korea and in April, a Berlize cargo ship containing 11,000 second hand Japanese bicycles entered North Korea” the newspaper reported.

The fact that North Korea has continued to import Japanese cars is a clear sign that the measure to ban all Japanese vehicles was more or less a bluff.

A number of North Korean sources revealed this month, “Authorities made an order to confiscate all Japanese made vehicles including trucks and cars until 2009, and to change all the vehicles to cars made from South Korea or China.”

A source informed “This order was notified by the secretarial department of the central authorities around February 16th, as a directive from the transportation division in the form of lectures” and said, “In Pyongyang, the city traffic security agencies are in charge of the inspections whereas in the country, the provincial traffic security agencies are in charge.”

However, the drivers and conductors of Japanese cars and trucks in North Korea question whether all the Japanese cargo vehicles will be confiscated considering they make up 95% of North Korea’s vehicles. Rather, the atmosphere tends to be leaning towards the measure diminishing away sometime in the near future.

North Korea experts speculate that the order to confiscate Japanese vehicles is an attempt to aggravate antagonisms against Japan in response to Japan’s abductees issue and progression of six party talks. Nonetheless, Japanese goods beginning with cars are used and spread widely across North Korea. In reality, it may be difficult to see any results in attempt to confiscate the vehicles.

Joong Ang Daily
7/10/2007

South Korea will start sending 50,000 tons of rice aid to North Korea by road next week, as part of its promised loan of 400,000 tons of rice, officials said yesterday.

While 350,000 tons of rice will be delivered by sea, 30,000 tons will be delivered via rail in the west of the Korean Peninsula, and another 20,000 tons will be delivered via an east coast rail line, a Unification Ministry official said.

The two Koreas conducted a historic test of the reconnected railways across the border in mid-May.

South Korea resumed shipping rice aid to North Korea in late June after more than a year’s hiatus, as the North took steps toward nuclear dismantlement. The aid, which consists of 250,000 tons of imported rice and 150,000 tons of domestic rice, will be made over the next five months.

“The rice aid to North Korea via the overland route will be made over five weeks starting next Friday,” the official said.

North Korea is supposed to pay back the $152-million rice loan over 20 years after a 10-year grace period at an annual interest rate of 1 percent.

South Korea resumed shipments of fertilizer and other emergency aid to the North in late March, but withheld the loan of 400,000 tons of rice as an inducement for North Korea to start implementing a landmark agreement reached in the six-nation talks in February.

In early June, inter-Korean ministerial talks ended without tangible results after North Korea protested the South’s decision to withhold rice aid until the North took steps toward nuclear dismantlement.

South Korea suspended all food and fertilizer aid to North Korea after the North conducted missile tests in July.

Resumption of aid was stymied due to the North’s nuclear bomb test last October, but the two sides agreed to put inter-Korean projects back on track in early March. The last rice shipment was made in early 2006.

A poor harvest in 2006, disastrous summer flooding and a 75 percent fall in donor assistance from abroad have dealt severe blows to the impoverished North, according to World Food Program officials.

A recent think tank report said North Korea could run short of up to one-third of the food it needs this year if South Korea and other countries withhold aid. Data from the WFP and the Unification Ministry show that the North will need between 5.24 million tons and 6.47 million tons of food this year.

Bloomberg
Bradley Martin
7/10/2007

A black Volkswagen Passat with smoked windows glides down a suburban Pyongyang road. Its license plate begins with 216 — a number signifying Kim Jong-il’s Feb. 16 birthday, and a sign the car is a gift from the Dear Leader.

Even without a 216 license plate, a passenger sedan bestows VIP status in a country where traffic is sparse and imports are limited by external sanctions and domestic restrictions alike.

Just across the border, South Korea is the world’s fifth-largest automotive manufacturer. To an ordinary North Korean, though, a private car is “pretty much what a private jet is to the ordinary American,” says Andrei Lankov, author of a new book “North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea.”

He estimates there are only 20,000 to 25,000 passenger cars in the entire country, less than one per thousand people.

Discouraging private car ownership is not just a matter of ideology in a communist country, Lankov said in a phone interview from Seoul, where he teaches at Kookmin University. The passenger car, usually black and chauffeur-driven, “is the ultimate symbol of the prosperity of high officials,” he says. They keep the vehicles scarce “so everybody knows they are the boss.”

Measuring, copying

North Korea moved early — shortly after the Korean War, and ahead of the South — to mass produce trucks and 4-wheel-drive Jeep-type military vehicles. Craftsmen took apart imported Soviet tractors, trucks and utility vehicles, measuring the parts to make copies.

The indigenous civilian passenger-car industry, too, mostly made knockoffs of models produced elsewhere. After importing a fleet of Mercedes-Benz 190s, the country produced replicas under local model names into the 1990s. Unfortunately, the domestically-made copies were dogged by reports about “terrible overall quality,” says Erik van Ingen Schenau, author of a new pictorial book, “Automobiles Made in North Korea.”

Lee Keum-ryung, a former used-car trader who defected from North to South Korea in 2004, agrees. The knockoffs came with “no air conditioning, no heater, and they’re not tightly built or sealed,” he says. “If you drive out of the city and return, your car will be full of dust. It’s like an oil-fueled cart.” Lee, 40, uses a pseudonym because he fears repercussions from North Korea.

Slow recovery

Material and energy shortages that accompanied a famine in the 1990s brought state-run factories to a halt. Recovery has been slow, and Schenau said he believes even domestic production of Jeep-style vehicles has been replaced by imports from Russia and China.

Imports have similarly come to dominate what passes for the passenger-car market. Used cars — mostly Japanese-made — are the mode of transit for many members of the new trading and entrepreneurial class that has emerged in the last couple of decades. Under a loophole in the country’s long-standing private-car ban, these vehicles typically enter the country disguised as gifts to North Koreans from their relatives in Japan’s Korean community, Lankov says.

Lee says “a relative abroad” helped him buy his first car when he was 23. “But as an ordinary person, I couldn’t keep it under my name, and I didn’t have a number plate of my own,” he says. “A friend was a high police official with many cars under him. I borrowed a plate.”

‘A very affluent life’

Lee had “a very affluent life” before he defected, importing 10-year-old cars from Japan and selling them both in North Korea and, for a time, across the border in China. “I had money, status,” he says. “I enjoyed everything people my age could have.”

A small passenger vehicle for which his agent paid $1,500 at the docks in Japan would sell for $2,500 to $3,000, Lee says. A bigger car — say, a Toyota Crown — might cost him $4,000 to $5,000; he would sell it for $8,000.

While Japanese trade figures show annual exports of some 1,500 passenger cars, mostly used, to North Korea in 2005 and 2006, the total for this year is zero. After Kim’s government tested a nuclear device last October, Japan placed passenger cars on a list of banned luxury exports.

Perhaps as a sign of displeasure with Japan’s sanctions, Kim ordered most Japanese cars confiscated, according to a February 2007 dispatch by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The order, if it indeed was issued, hadn’t been carried out by the time of a May visit to Pyongyang, when a number of Japanese cars could be seen.

German inroads

When a European-made import passes by, it’s often owned by the state, used by high officials and foreign dignitaries. Sweden’s Volvo had a hefty market share in the 1970s; Germany’s Audi and Volkswagen have made inroads lately. Mercedes is particularly well-represented in Kim’s personal fleet of hundreds of vehicles, according to Lee Young Kook, a defector who served in Kim’s bodyguard force.

In a 2003 Yonhap story, Lee said the security-conscious leader traveled in motorcades of identical cars to confuse would-be assassins and generally maintained 10 units each of any model so five would always be road-ready.

With the nation’s access to imports constricted, a relatively new player in the market, Pyonghwa Auto Works, has attempted to fill the gap. The company was created when Seoul-based Pyonghwa Motors, which began as a car importer affiliated with Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, teamed up as majority partner in the 70-30 venture with the North Korean state-owned trading firm Ryonbong Corp.

Kits of parts

The first assembly line was set up in 2002 at the west coast port city of Nampo to produce, from kits of parts, a version of the small Fiat Siena, called the Hwiparam (Whistle) in Korean.

So far, the factory has built about 2,000 cars and pickup trucks, according to Noh Jae Wan, a spokesman in Seoul for Pyonghwa Motors, who said it is the only manufacturer now turning out passenger cars in North Korea. According to a February announcement by Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, Pyongyhwa has agreed to let Brilliance use part of the Nampo plant to assemble Haise minibuses.

While some news accounts have mentioned the possibility that the North Korean cars may eventually be sold in the South, “this will take time,” Noh said in an interview. “It can only happen when the two Koreas reach some significant agreement on trade or other international circumstances change.”

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
7/9/2007

Pyongsung, a city located in the province of South Pyongan has recently been targeted as a scientific city transformed into distribution hub.

In the late 1960’s, North Korean authorities established Pyongsung as an area for scientific research with a population of 300,000.

In Pyongsung, there are 25 scientific research centers beginning with a nature centre. Further, there is Pyongsung Scientific University and a training centre for scientists and engineers. Pyongsung lies on the outer-skirts of Pyongyang near the districts of Soonan, Samsuk and Yongsung.

Park Chan Joo (pseudonym) a North Korean tradesman on business in Dandong, China introduced the changes occurring in Pyongsung in a telephone conversation with reporters.

Park currently works as an employee for the Myungjin Trade Company and imports goods needed for everyday living into North Korea.

Park said, “All goods made from China pass through Shinuiju and are generally dispatched from Pyongsung to each region for sale. This includes eastern regions such as Hamheung and Wonsan. Of course traders from Sariwon, Haeju and Nampo in southern provinces also come to Pyongsung to receive their goods.”

Regarding Pyongsung which developed into a distributor of imports, Park said, “The delivery cost is double if goods made from China pass through Shinuiju and are delivered directly to eastern and southern regions. However, stopping over at Pyongsung can make a profit on time and cost effective.”

Further, he said, “It’s close to eastern regions and in the vicinity of southern regions. This area has increasingly become an intermediary wholesalers district with the rise of warehouses.”

Park said, “We are located right next to Pyongyang where the population is greatest. Also, many Pyongyang citizens with high standards of living compared to other regions come and buy the goods.”

“It only takes about one hour to travel from Pyongyang to Pyongsung via car or train. Tradesmen and citizens must obtain a travel permit to enter Pyongyang, but any North Korean citizen can easily come to Pyongsung with an ordinary identification card. Nowadays, you can travel to any special district (excluding Pyongyang and border regions) as long as you have an identification card” he added.

Also, Park said “There are more and more people wanting to living in Pyongsung because of trade” and informed, “All this happened as Pyongsung changed into a centre for wholesalers. Even up until a few years ago, it wasn’t so hard to live in Pyongsung, but now you have to pay thousands of dollars to move in the area to Pyongsung’s People’s Safety Agency (police).”

As Pyongsung emerged into a distributors haven, more and more long distance bus services have been operated connecting rural districts to Pyongsung city.

Kim Jong Hoon (pseudonym) a Shinuiju resident who came to Dandong to visit his relatives said, “People with money hire second hand buses made from China and register the vehicle at the traffic registry and operate the services while offering some profits” and “It takes 3 days to get from Shinuiju to Dancheon in South Hamkyung. It took me 3 days to go to Pyongsung, then from Pyongsung to Wonsan and then Wonsan to Dancheon.”

Presently, the only direct bus services in operation from Pyongsung are to Shinuiju, Wonsan, Sariwon, Nampo and Haeju.

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 07-7-9-1
9/7/2007

The North Korean city of Pyongsung, situated in the South Pyongan province, is undergoing a transformation. Previously known as the center of North Korean scientific research, it is now becoming a distribution hub for goods imported from neighboring China. Pyongsung, with a population of approximately 30,000, was established by DPRK authorities in the mid 1960s in order to serve as a center for scientific studies. It is a satellite city on the outskirts of Pyongyang, bordering the Soonan, Samsuk, and Yongsung areas of the capital. The Institute of Natural Sciences and 24 other scientific research centers are located there, along with the Pyongsung College of Science and numerous scientific and technical training facilities.

These days, most Chinese imports being brought into the country through Shinuiju are coming though Pyongsung before being sold to various regions throughout the country. Traders from the east-coast cities such as Hamheung and Wonsan, as well as Sariwon, Haeju, Nampo and other areas regularly travel to Pyongsung in order to stock up on goods.

Located close to eastern cities and bordering southern provinces, Pyongsung is becoming the new distribution center of Chinese goods due to the considerably lower cost of delivering wares through Shinuiju and directly to these regions. This new route is much more lucrative in terms of both cost and time. Therefore, the number of wholesalers erecting warehouses and filling orders in the city has been growing quickly.

Pyongyang, the capital city with a population greater than any other city in the North and a higher standard of living than the rest of the country, is only one hour away by train or car, and so many Pyongyang residents have been purchasing high-end goods from there.

Traders and ordinary North Koreans need a travel permit with an approval number in order to enter Pyongyang, but anyone can easily travel to Pyongsung with only a general registration permit. In recent times, North Koreans can travel throughout the country with only a resident permit, with the exception of some particularly sensitive areas such as the border region or the capital city. Recently the number of people wishing to live in Pyongsung in order to trade has been on the rise. Only a few years ago, it was relatively easy to move to Pyongsung, but today someone wishing to relocate in this new market must hand over several thousand dollars. 

Daily NK
Yang Jung A
7/3/2007

A North Korean insider source relayed on the 2nd that citizens’ complaints have been rising because the North Korean government recently gave guidelines to sell a portion of products which have been selling with popularity at the jangmadang (markets) only at state-operated stores.

This source, who resides in North Pyongan, revealed in a phone conversation with DailyNK, “Recently, plastic floors have been popular, so “plastic sales” is earning a lot of money. However, government authorities have mandated that the commerce office directly oversee plastic floors and that they be sold at state-operated stores.”

The insider relayed, “Families above middle-class have been showing a lot of interest in acquiring furniture. Besides floors, drawers on which TV can be placed and cabinets displaying wines and others are very popular.”

Previously, floors made of paper covered the floors of houses, but since North Korean civilians’ standard of living started rising recently, Chinese-made plastic floors decorated in flowers is drawing popularity.

He said, “Rumor has been leaking that pork (1,700 North Korean won per kg), the price for which has declined recently, is also directly managed by the commerce office, along with plastic floors.” “Besides this, the complaints of merchants have been rising since rumor starting circulating that the list of items to be overseen by the office will increase.”

He added, “Would they want to do any business given that individual sales are discouraged and turned over to national control when sales go even remotely well? There are grievances due to the fact that earning a livelihood through jangmadang sales is not even allowed, on top of the lack of provisions.”

Further, he said, “Regulations regarding people engaging in “Chapan-Jangsa (sales by trucks)” using privately-owned buses or trucks exceeding eight tons have begun. If one is caught, the vehicles become registered as national property and the vehicle owner receives a salary from the country instead.”

“Chapan Jangsa” refers to carrying out wholesale while ferrying the load on trucks. The “plastic floor” and “Chapan Jangsa,” along with what is popularly known as “ice (drug) sales” are counted are the top three business that brings in the most amount of money.

“The complaints of people are high, but the scope of regulation is wide-ranging, so there are people who think that the inspections will stop after several times.”

Even guideline to prevent wearing of wedding dresses

He also said, “Since October 2006, there were even guidelines to prevent wearing of wedding dresses at weddings. Not only wedding dresses, but wearing white gloves were also prohibited.”

In North Korea, wearing wedding dresses at weddings became a trend seven to eight years ago. Nowadays, many civilians are known to wear them. Even if they do not wear wedding dresses, North Korea’s general wedding culture is donning flowers on the chest part of dresses and on the head and putting on white gloves.

Additionally, the insider relayed, “The size of the flower of the groomsmen and the bridesmaids should not be bigger than the groom’s and the bride’s. The flower of the groom and the bride is fixed at 7cm and the flower of the groomsmen and bridesmaids fixed at 5cm. In the case with those who go against the orders and get their pictures taken after marriage, the photo volunteer in charge’s volunteer card (employment permit) can be revoked.”