Daily NK
Yang Jung A
4/19/2007
Daily NK, through in-depth interviews with five female defectors residing in China, got a glimpse of the lives of North Korean women. These are women who defected as early as 10 years ago and as late as the end of last year.
From 1997 to 2006, a 10-year range, these women who crossed the Tumen River testified that “in Chosun (North Korea), women’s lives have been completely broken down.”
Despite the fact that women lead the significant economic role of overseeing over 90 percent of the family’s livelihood, they have to suffer unfair treatment in the family. But since year 2000, women’s lives have undergone many partial changes.
Interviewees
– Kim Young Soon (23)—defected in 2003, withdrew from Pyongyang High-Tech University
– Ahn Mi Ran (43) – defected in 2003, born in Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung, escaped organ sales
– Che Kyung Ja (35)—defected in 1997, born in Hamheung, South Hamkyung, married Korean-Chinese husband
– Lee Eun Hee (39)-defected in 2000, born in Shinuiju North Pyongan, worked as a “runner” (broker)
– Kang Soon Nhuh (40) – defected in 2002, born in Hyesan Yangkang, escaped organ sales
◆ Money decides the lives of North Korean women = The standard that classifies the quality of women’s lives in North Korea is of course money. Even though North Korea is a figurehead “socialist country,” the widening income gap between each citizen strips away such an appearance.
If the Party and the high-ranked military leaders who receive a generous provision from the North Korean administration or the up and coming wealthy people, who were able to increase their money through trade, belonged to the upper class, a majority of citizens who depend on provisions or small-scale jangmadang (market) sales are in a situation of having to be content with three meals.
Kim Young Soon, who was exposed to many friends with upper-class parents at Pyongyang High-Tech University, said, “There was a daughter of the Party’s high-ranked leader in our class who, before coming to our school, was isolated from regular people and did not know the reality of North Korea very well. She thought most people lived like her.”
The daily life of North Korea’s high-ranked, which Ms. Kim relayed, is entirely different from the reality we know. She inserted, “On one hand, I was angry, but amazed, too. In North Korea, the difference between standards of living is bigger than gender discrimination. I cried a lot during my college years.”
”That friend thought everything was according to what she knew, so she would say whatever she wanted to say without reservation. When she went home, she mixed honey, milk powder, and egg yolk to massage her face. She told us stories which were hard for me to understand, such as daily applying a face whitening cream which cost 6,000 won each.”
”Every Sunday, she would go to a private house with her mother and receive facial massage, a rubdown, and a straight perm. She said that she would eat strawberries in the middle of winter and keep ice cream bought from the foreign market in the refrigerator so she could eat it whenever she wanted. She also told us to eat pig feet to soften the skin. (Laughter) From umbrellas to boots to clothes, she used all foreign goods. She bragged that her mother bought a Korea-made mixer. Before, Japanese-made products were used a lot, but now, they use a lot of Korean-made goods, too.”
The standard of living of North Korean upper-class female students, which she relayed, was an extent even shocking to the reporter. “The children of the leaders even get double eye-lid surgery and nose jobs and braces for their teeth. They use all Korea-made make-up. They do not tell us where they got these goods, but I heard in passing that they purchase them illegally. If you use good make-up, your face definitely becomes prettier. Among these students, there was even the unwritten law that they not use products below a certain price.”
She said that upper-class students are not content with their current wealth and fervently hunt for a husband in order to participate in an even higher economic rank.
“Men who pursued them were sons of foreign exchange stores or university chancellors. They showed me the presents that these men gave, such as leather-bound books and dolls. I asked, “you must be so happy,” to which she replied, “I want to live with a man who is better-off than me.” I asked further, “is this not sufficient to marry him?” and she said, “at this level, I am bound to envy those who are wealthier. I came to college so that I can marry better with my diploma. I want to live abroad.”
Compared to that, school life for Ms. Kim, whose parents farmed in the countryside, were tear-filled. She told us, “My parents would send 40,000 won each time from the village, but after paying for books and school fees and meals, I would run out of money. College students cannot think about earning money, because they are restrained by a fixed schedule. However I ended up splitting the money that my parents sent, I could not help but spend it.”
”In college, it was most difficult because of socks. Female students had to wear skirts, but each pair of stocking cost 2,000 won. Even if there are holes, I could not conceive buying a new one, so I wore it stitched up or turned inside out. For shoes, I wore pitiful ones from China and even recycled that. I like ice-cream, but because expensive ice-cream is sweet and makes you want to eat it over and over, I would buy 50 won ones that had saccharine added to ice when I had a craving.”
Of these factors, the thing that was most unbearable for her was not ability or performance but the climate of North Korean colleges that one can only earn recognition with money and power. “When exam period came, I studied to death to earn a perfect score. But the daughter of a Party’s leader had a mediocre result on the test, but would receive a perfect score after offering a bribe worth a pack of cigarettes. I could not stand it,” she expressed with vexation.
On one hand, Lee Eun Hee, who said she visited Pyongyang many times to do business, explained, “Pyongyang does not just have well-to-do people. The wealthiness of the Party area where party leaders live is a well-known fact, but in the neighborhoods of Sunkyogu or Daesunggu which are made up of single-story houses, most people get by from what they make daily.”
Ms. Lee equivocated, “In one of the families I knew, the husband was not working while trying to find a job and the wife was in charge of the home. They could not even receive provisions, so they tried to sustain their livelihoods through jangmadang sales, but it was difficult to even earn 3000 won per day. They had one rice meal a day and the rest, noodles. In that neighborhood, everyone’s situation was about the same, so not even a single family had color TV. Our youngest daughter was in the 3rd grade in high school and always chanted words of hunger. Her father cooked the remainder of the dog meat that the next door neighbor left behind and when I saw them devouring that…”
Kim Young Soon, who went to help out at a farm in the Yellow Sea region during college, gave all her clothes upon seeing the miserable situation in the country. “They lived in dilapidated shacks eating corn soup. I closed my eyes seeing people live this way in a region that is famous for being the production center for rice. After farming, all provisions would run out after a month or two due to material costs and military rations. They could not even go to trade anywhere and had to live in starvation.”
Because it is such an extremely poor environment, women’s lives cannot even be talked about. “People in the countryside do not even know the word shampoo. When we washed our hair, they would ask us what it is. Because soap is expensive, they would pour lye into sardine oil to make their own soap. When you do laundry with that, your entire clothes smell like sardines. They wash their face with that kind of soap.”
Ms. Kim said regretfully, “On the other hand, friends who live well use shampoo-and- conditioner-in-one which is made in Japan. Nowadays, they say they usually use Korean shampoo. If they wash hair with that, the scent lasts long…” (continued)
