Defectors and experts say North Korea would fall without capitalistic markets

Hundreds of capitalistic markets, each with thousands of stalls, form the glue that holds North Korea’s socialist planned economy together, say defectors who sold medicinal herbs, skinny jeans, TV sets, foreign drama CDs and other goods there to make a living.

Says Cha Ri-hyuk, 31, who defected to South Korea in 2013, “If North Korea shuts down the markets, it will collapse.”

Some political analysts note that market activities are gradually infusing North Koreans with new ways of thinking that eventually could loosen the authoritarian government’s hold over its 24 million people.

“It’s like North Korea has so far allowed markets that it can control,” said Lim Eul Chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University. “But materialism, individualism and the idea of pursuits of profits are taking root in the minds of ordinary people. So potential forces which can fundamentally shake the North’s systems are growing.”

Satellite photos and testimonies of defectors show there are now about 400 big, mostly outdoor markets, called “jangmadang,” in the North. Items sold there are locally produced, or imported or smuggled from countries including China, South Korea and Japan.

The nascent consumer economy has led to the emergence of a new class of rich people called “donju” — “masters of money.” They usually start at markets and invest their savings in larger ventures that state authorities struggle to finance — such as apartment construction, taxi operations and mining works.

Jangmadangs are now an important part of the North’s economy, with merchants paying taxes that help the cash-strapped country operate, experts say. North Korean millennials are sometimes called the “jangmadang generation.” Read more

North Korea’s market “jangmadang” generation

North Korea’s wholesale outdoor markets, or “jangmadang”, normally have 3,000 to 10,000 tables or stalls. Defectors say the Pyongsong wholesale market, near the North’s capital, Pyongyang, is the biggest.

“You need more than one day to thoroughly look around the Pyongsong market,” said Lee So Yeon, 40, a defector who said she supplied goods to the market before she came to South Korea in 2008.

To work at a market, a merchant buys a stall and pays a daily tax. Lee O.P., who sold such clothes in the northeastern town of Musan before making it to South Korea in 2014, said her stall at the Musan market cost 100 Chinese yuan ($15) around 2000. The daily tax she paid market supervisors, 500-1,000 North Korean won, was the equivalent of 6 to 12 U.S. cents under the unofficial exchange rate ordinary North Koreans use; the North’s official exchange rate is much higher.

South Korean-made clothes, shoes and soap opera CDs are especially popular at the markets, though it’s illegal in the North to sell goods made by its archrival. Regular police crackdowns have not sapped demand. When North Korean police officers found people wearing South Korean clothes or dresses they consider too skimpy or tight, they often took them to back alleys and ripped parts of the garments with razors or scissors, according to defectors.

“Young women, who are teenagers or those in their early 20s, like wearing South Korean clothes … they go out with men and care a lot about beauty and fashion,” said Cha, who had supplied clothes and other products to a market in the southwestern Hwanghae province.

The markets have given North Koreans a taste of foreign culture, eroded their dependence upon a government that no longer feeds them and opened up a new gap between rich and poor. There is little to suggest that the country’s authoritarian rule has weakened, but at the same time, experts say, the North must take care to avoid economic policies that harm the markets.

[Associated Press]

Play raises awareness of defector integration issues in South Korea

“Do you think it’s funny when friends make fun of me because I’m from North Korea?”

This is amongst the lines of Jin Hee, a high school girl being bullied by classmates for her North Korean origins in the play “Memories of Chagang Province,” which takes a close look at the experiences of North Korean defectors in South Korea. The part was played by Park Joo Yang, an actress who herself defected from the North, and the play was sponsored by the Ministry of Unification.

It is an original play relating the stories of defectors, including a construction site worker, a housekeeper, and a high school girl, following their efforts to make a new life for themselves in South Korea. Three actors who defected from North Korea elected to participate in a training camp prior to the performance, as they harbored concerns regarding their lack of acting experience. But their efforts and rehearsals have paid off, with emotional performances conveying the joys and sorrows of defector life.

A South Korean member of the audience said, “Before watching this play, I didn’t think much about defectors. Now I am heartbroken to hear that so many of them are leading difficult lives, like the characters in the play. … I hope the people of South Korea can be more sympathetic towards people of different backgrounds,”

Unlike other plays about North Korea, which often center on stories about the prison camp system or the grim process of defection, this play sought to focus on the lives of defectors as they settle down.

[Daily NK]