Daily NK
Kwon Jeong Hyun
11/15/2007
North Korean authorities have recently tightened regulations in markets as a warning against private economics, according to inside sources.
The regulation of Pyongyang markets has continued since President Roh Moo Hyun’s visit to North Korea in the beginning of October. North Korean authorities closed all markets in Pyongyang during the Inter-Korea Summit under the whitewash of mobilizing a welcoming crowd. Afterwards, when it reopened the markets, street venders and women under the age of 40 were restricted from engaging in business.
The North Korean inside source said in a November 12th phone conversation that “With the increase in Pyongyang markets, the authorities are not looked at in a favorable light. Regulations worsened after President Roh’s visit to Pyongyang.”
“A week or two before President Roh’s visit, regulations became strict, such as prohibiting outsider visits to Pyongyang and ceasing the operations of the jangmadang (markets). From that point on, the jangmadang has been persistently regulated.”
Leading up to the Inter-Korea Summit, North Korean authorities implemented other civilian regulations as well, such as issuing “special travel permits.”
One Pyongyang trading company head, currently in Dandong, China, said in a meeting with a reporter, “Regulations were tightened after word got out that a clandestinely filmed video clip showing Pyongyang markets had been widely broadcasted in South Chosun (Korea).” He surmised that a clip showing Pyongyang’s Sunkyo Market has been broadcasted on Japanese news programs three times since last month.
He also said, “A decree was issued by the Pyongyang People’s Committee that women under the age of 40 should be employed in enterprises. Our enterprise received the same decree, so we have to take in 200 female workers.”
He said however, “Too many workers have been dispatched, even though our enterprise business is not that large. We objected, saying that we can not receive them because we can not even give them provisions. Other enterprises in Pyongyang are in the same position.”
He emphasized, “People go to the market, because the state cannot sustain them. The party leaders also survive relying on the market, so regulation of the market is impossible. Market control can only be a temporary because the wives and daughters of party leaders are in the situation of selling goods as well.”
He also added, “The number of people in charge of general markets is exorbitant across the country. Those who received 30,000 won per month have to go into enterprises where they will only get 2 to 3,000 won. Restricting the market is something nobody wants.”
The North Korean state is currently prohibiting the undertaking of businesses by women under 40. In North Hamkyung Province, the business age limit will be fixed at 45 and above starting in December, so the members of the Union of Democratic Women have put up a significant resistance.
According to an internal Workers’ Party document which has recently come into the hands of a diplomatic source, the North Korean government is supposed to have given the order to “regulate the markets, as they are hotbeds for anti-socialist activity.”
The document, which was published last October under the auspices of the Central Committee of the Chosun Workers’ Party, read, “The Great Leader Kim Jong Il pointed out, ‘In order to absolutely eradicate this anti-socialist phenomenon, we have to unfold a concentrated offensive.’”
The document states, “Civilians were able to attain some comfort through the market; but now, it has deteriorated into a place that breaks societal order and national rules. In one city, several tens of thousands of merchants come out to the sidewalks and even car lanes and have brought about a severe disruption in traffic.”
The paper gives evidence to the fact that the North Korean government itself recognizes the citizens’ growing reliance on the market due to market revitalization, and that anti-socialist activities are rampant.
The document further criticized, “A more serious issue is that mostly women under the age limit are conducting business in the market, and women who have received high-level education under the auspices of the Party and the nation have thrown away their positions to go into sales, an act which forsakes justice and the most basic conscience.”
Additionally, it specifically addressed those who disseminate illegal South Korean film products, “middlemen,” referring to brokers who secretly sell nationally-regulated, military, and electronic goods, and Chapan-Jangsa (selling goods off trucks) who earn excessive profits from wholesales.
