Stephan Haggard posted a link to (and translation of) some clandestine video footage shot in Pyongyang’s Moran Market (모란시장) and broadcast on KBS. I don’t have much to add except a satellite image of the area where the video was shot. It matches the video!
Pictured Above (Google Earth: 39.043922°, 125.747335°) is the Moran Market. See it in Google Maps here.
Pictured above (Google Earth): The Kangdong Market (39.134801°, 126.109387°)
According to the Daily NK:
It has been revealed that the cost of living in Pyongyang has more or less held steady over the past month, despite a modest decrease in rice prices.
According to sources in Pyongyang, one kilogram of rice is trading for about 1,900 North Korean won, which represents a fall of about 100 won on June prices. It is thought that a modest easing of the exchange rate of North Korean Won against Chinese Yuan and the importation of a large amount of rice from China are partially responsible for the change.
“Chinese rice is currently selling for roughly 200-300 won less than Chosun (North Korea) rice,” one source said, explaining, “Chinese merchants and the like brought the rice into the country en masse at the start of the year when the price of rice was rising, but now it’s not selling so well. The price of rice has fallen across the broad and is fluctuating at around the 2,000 won mark.”
At the end of January, the price of a kilogram of rice temporarily soared past the 3,000 won mark. There was some speculation at the time that wholesalers were colluding to raise prices. After the price went up, a natural increase in market supply and a drop in purchasing power from currency redenomination kicked in to force prices back down. Since then it has more or less stabilized at around the 2,000 won per kilogram mark again.
The price for corn, which usually trades for about half the price of rice, has also recorded a small fall to 850 won per kilogram, down 130 won on last month’s prices. Pork prices are stable at 5,800 won per kilogram, which is the same price as last month.
Moreover, second-hand clothes are showing brisk trade on the market. One source attributed their popularity to the fact that they sell for less than half the price of new clothes.
Additionally, the source claimed that the warmer weather is encouraging more people to purchase sleeveless and short-sleeve shirts, as well as shorts and skirts. “Sleeveless shirts are prohibited by the authorities, so people only wear them at home. Mostly young people are doing this,” he said.
“Short-sleeve shirts, shorts and skirts are selling like hotcakes as well, but it is required that the latter two items go down past the knees.”
The cost of living in North Korea has more or less returned to the levels they were at before the currency redenomination. It is business as usual at the jangmadang, but with trade volume well down from what it was before. The source explained that, while people are not holding onto cash as a result of the currency revaluation, it is only food items and lifestyle goods that are selling relatively well, while sales of high-ticket electronic goods have actually decreased.
Here is the price data collected from the Kangdong Market on the outskirts of Pyongyang (JPG):
Left: June 2011, Right: July 2011
Links to the discussion of North Korea’s food crisis can be found here.
Read the full story here:
Market Prices Stable, Sleeveless Shirts Popular
Daily NK
Choi Cheong Ho and Park Sung Kook
2011-7-20
Pictured above (Google Earth): Hyesan City, capital of Ryanggang Province
According to the Daily NK:
A campaign to beautify the streets of Yangkang Province [Ryanggang, 량강도] has begun to anger local residents, according to sources.
The beautification campaign has been implemented nationwide in preparation for next year’s planned festivities. In Yangkang Province this has translated into residents being compelled to lower fences, erect gables along roof lines and lime wash walls.
A source from the province reported on Tuesday, “An instruction came down from the Urban Management Department of the municipal committee of the Party telling us to ‘destroy all fences over two meters in height’. Now people are saying that only the thieves are happy.”
North Korean fences have traditionally been made with brush wood or bamboo, and more recently with planks of wood. In the early 1990s, the height of most fences was around one meter, but as the economic situation got worse, the fences got concomitantly higher. Now, there are three meter high fences in some places, according to defectors.
The source explained the residents’ fears, saying, “We built fences that high using our own money because there are so many thieves. But, the authorities have ordered us to destroy the high fences, so people are really annoyed.”
He went on, “Some people have even built their storage areas with the high fences forming part of the walls. So, at a time when they should be in the jangmadang, they have been destroying their storage along with the walls. Therefore, people are calling it a life and death situation.”
A second instruction has been to place gables on roofs in order to make them more aesthetically pleasing.
Another source explained, “There was an instruction to build gables a month ago, so people dug clay soil from the mountains and built the gables. But, during the rainy season, the roofs started leaking.”
He added, “People ask what they are meant to do to put gables on tumbledown old houses.’”
According to the source, the beautification campaign began when a person who used to be the chief manager in charge of Yangkang Province Guidance Department of the Central Committee of the Party was appointed as Chief Secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party (in 2009). People supposedly complain that he is tormenting people to garner a promotion.
In a similarly arbitrary process in 2000, Kim Jong Il caught sight of an apartment veranda with glass across it during a visit to Shinuiju, and summarily declared that all verandas should be so equipped. As a result, people had to add glass to their own verandas.
The competition to get as much glass on as many apartments as possible was fierce, according to sources, but then suddenly Kim, during a later onsite inspection in Hyesan, declared that all the glass was making apartments look like prisons, so it was all duly taken down again.
People thus assume that the energetic implementation of the current campaign is rooted in the desire of local officials to impress Kim Jong Il, a fact which is not improving their view of the situation.
Read the full story here:
Party Calls for Lower Fences and Splendid Gables
Daily NK
Lee Seok Young
2011-7-26
According to the Daily NK:
Young people in North Korea are emerging as proponents of Hallyu (the South Korean cultural wave) and as fashion leaders, showing themselves to be particularly keen on the South Korean music, movies, and fashion that are being smuggled into the country and traded.
On Wednesday, The Daily NK met with a Chinese merchant who conducts business in Pyongyang to find out about trends amongst young people in North Korea. He told us that, “Hooded sweatshirts are enjoying immense popularity with young people at the moment.” The reason, he explained, is that, “They want to emulate the fashion they see in South Korean dramas.”
He added, “At the jangmadang, hooded sweatshirts sell for about 200 Yuan (around US$31), so they’re not cheap, but so many people come looking for them that we almost run out of hooded sweatshirts to sell.”
The source explained that, in spite of this, South Korean brands and products with English lettering are prohibited from being sold.
“As the days get hotter, people are looking to get their hands on short-sleeve clothing. Light-colored clothing is most popular,” he noted, also mentioning that, “In general, new clothes sell for about 15,000 won and second-hand clothes for about 3,000 won.
One-piece dresses are in vogue with females as summer takes hold. These dresses tend to sell at the jangmadang for around 70,000 won. Additionally, the source said, “There are lots of young ladies looking for high-heel shoes, which go for about 25,000-30,000 won. Skinny jeans are as popular as ever, and you see lots of people walking around in three-quarter pants.”
He also mentioned that many people are taking advantage of the opportunity to wear shorts and sleeveless shirts to beat the humidity.
However, authorities have already cracked down on “inappropriate attire” for women, for example by banning skirts that do not go down past the knee. The sleeveless shirts, short skirts and pants that have become fashionable in recent times are difficult to wear out of the house because a person wearing them would become a target of the Union of Democratic Women’s community watch guards.
Regarding this, the source said, “People get punished for wearing shorts or skirts that don’t come down past the knee. The UDW’s community watch guards are in every lane and alleyway inspecting women (who break the law). Sleeveless clothes do sell, but nobody can wear them. So they just wear such items at home.”
Furthermore, he mentioned that, “Young ladies walk around wearing earrings and bracelets,” explaining that, “Bracelets, watches, rings and hairpins all tend to be popular itemsbecause people think they’re pretty.” North Korean authorities restricted the wearing of accessories in the past, but appear to have eased off on this policy in recent times.
He relayed that crackdowns on South Korean-made goods are as common as ever. According to him, those who get caught in the crackdowns have their goods confiscated on the spot. “The crackdowns on South Korean goods are still going strong,” he said. “At the outdoor market, the patrolling officers are checking practically every item tag now. That’s how serious it has got.”
“The intensity of crackdowns on South Korean movies and dramas on DVD that are coming into the country is always increasing,” he said, “but university students and young people in general are getting hold of South Korean and other foreign movies and selling them in secret.”
South Korean dramas and movies usually sell for 5,000 won (a normal DVD sells for 1,300 won), and at the moment IRIS, Assorted Gems, Slave Hunter, Queen of the Game and Smile, Mom are said to be the most popular.
Read the full story here:
Fashion Also Influenced by South Korean Culture
Daily NK
Choi Cheong Ho
2011-7-21
Pictured above (Google Earth): Two official marketplaces in Kaesong highlighted in yellow. South Korean treats are popular in these markets.
According to the Daily NK:
Shin Ramen (a brand of instant noodles), Choco-pies and coffee mix, the snacks offered to Kaesong Industrial Complex workers, leak out and are now very popular in the jangmadang in Kaesong, according to sources.
The news was revealed by a South Korea government official and a staff member from an enterprise in the Kaesong Complex on the 15th.
North Korean workers often ask their employers for Shin Ramen uncooked and packed so that they can sell it in the jangmadang to augment their wages, according to the Ministry of Unification.
One staff member from a company stationed in the Kaesong Industrial Complex explained, “The time when the North Korean workers are given Shin Ramen, Choco-pies and coffee mix is the time they look forward to the most.”
“I am aware that North Korean workers take the several ramen given to them at snack times or when doing evening overtime back into North Korea,” he added. “They sell the ramen they take for roughly the same price as a kilo of rice. But it is not just Shin Ramen; Choco-pies are very popular with the North Korean workers, and they also use Shin Ramen soup as a seasoning at home.”
Kaesong Industrial Complex companies are known to get assistance from domestic companies, so pay less than market price for the Shin Ramen and other snacks that they offer to workers.
The company staff member said he saw the situation in a positive light, explaining,, “There have been almost no inter-Korean exchanges of late, so in this situation the Shin Ramen and Choco-pies and other things offered by enterprises provide a link between the North Korean people and South Korea. If the workers take the Korean-made products and sell them in the jangmadang then not just the workers but also the North Korean people get to know about South Korea.”
Unfortunately, meanwhile, although workers in the Kaesong Industrial Complex receive a wage of approximately $100/month, they are not free to keep it. 30% is taken by the North Korean authorities in the form of a ‘Socialist Culture Policy Tax’, and other costs are extracted as well. Therefore, the take-home pay is around $30/month, although even this is not paid in cash but in the form of an exchange coupon.
A Ministry of Unification explained one part of that system, saying, “Most of the money and other things that come from the South go to the central North Korean authorities, but a proportion goes to Kaesong city authorities. That money which goes to Kaesong City is meant to be for the purpose of buying rice for distribution to the local people.”
There are now approximately 46,000 North Korean workers in the Kaesong Complex, and complex operations are, as such, a $4.6 million monthly subsidy for the North Korean authorities.
Despite the measures put in place by the South Korean government following last year’s Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island incidents, the number of workers earning money in Kaesong has continued to expand. According to the Ministry of Unification, at the end of February there were 46,420 workers, an 11% increase on one year previously. Earnings have also risen significantly in the same period.
Read the full story here:
Shin Ramen Popular in Kaesong Jangmadang
Daily NK
Kim Yong-hun
2011-7-15
Pictured above (Google Earth, October 2010): (left) informal street market in Hadang-dong, (right) official market in Hadang-dong
According to the Daily NK:
Sources have reported a large increase in the number of ‘grasshopper traders’ in the alleyways around many of North Korea’s markets.
‘Grasshopper traders’ are individuals who conduct their trade activities without an official permit beyond official market boundaries, meaning that when security forces arrive they have to jump, like grasshoppers, to a new location. Growth in this kind of phenomenon would tend to suggest that the class of capital-holding middle class traders is shrinking, while the number of those trading day-to-day in order to make ends meet is growing. It is also related to the fact that official efforts to eliminate grasshopper trading are not as strict as they have been.
One source living in the traditionally more affluent capital, Pyongyang, explained to The Daily NK today that even there, “The number of grasshopper traders has increased a lot of late. There are too many to count,” adding that in the case of Hadang Market, the normal 100-200 grasshopper traders has grown to between 300-400 over a very short period.
Another source from Yangkang Province agreed, saying, “There are grasshopper traders camped in every alleyway around Hyesan Market. People are coming in twice the numbers they normally do, so cracking down on them is not easy.” Other local sources have revealed that markets in the provinces of North Hamkyung and Pyongan are in much the same state.
As expected, with an increasing degree of grasshopper trading comes an increasing number of market watch guards. However, whereas in the past those caught engaging in grasshopper trading stood to lose their wares, nowadays grasshopper traders are just warned about their conduct.
The Pyongyang source explained, “The number of market watch guards has increased by around ten, but their crackdowns are much weaker than they used to be. I know that the authorities have ordered them not to confiscate traders’ wares by force, just to enforce public order.”
This appears to be because the authorities fear that some of their excesses are inflicting too much harm on public opinion.
The Pyongyang source explained, “In many cases people oppose the young market watch guards’ attempts to take the belongings of traders by force, saying ‘they are worse than the Japanese’, and the authorities seem to care about that.”
Officials and the security forces are also being careful about their conduct because of fear of investigation, and this may also be affecting the market environment. Rumors are circulating which suggest that some cadres are being punished for things such as taking bribes.
On this point, the Pyongyang source added, “The central Party is conducting an inspection of the public organs charged with controlling the markets. The word is that people working for these organs are being investigated for things like taking bribes, going to the homes of traders to demand things, or just taking what they want from market stalls.”
Read the full story here:
Grasshopper Numbers Rising Fast
Daily NK
Choi Cheong-ho
2011-7-4
According to Bloomberg:
North Korean rice prices have quadrupled this year amid concern the regime is facing further economic isolation, according to a South Korean research report.
Rice prices jumped to as much as 2,200 North Korean won per kilogram during the first six months of the year from about 500 won at the end of 2010, South Korea’s state-run Korea Development Institute said today in an e-mailed statement. The difference was mostly caused by a slump in the domestic currency, which is a factor the government considers in setting the price, the report said.
North Korea’s won is not freely traded though the U.S. dollar is the de facto currency used in many markets.
South Korea in May last year cut off most trade with North Korea, accusing Kim Jong Il’s regime of torpedoing one of its warships in March that killed 46 sailors. The U.S. is assessing whether to provide food assistance to North Korea, which is also under United Nations sanctions for its nuclear tests.
The North Korean currency has weakened “sharply” since the regime shelled South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island in November amid concerns worsening relations will lead to further shortages of goods, the report said. North Korea has also increased coal exports to China to make up for the shortfall in trade with South Korea, causing energy shortages, it said.
While the regime lifted its ban on street markets that was placed at the end of 2009, high prices and goods shortages are preventing them from helping meet North Koreans’ needs, the report said.
Read the full story here:
North Korean Rice Prices Quadruple
Bloomberg
Bomi Lim
2010-7-5
Anju’s outdoor market
Voice of America published a series of photos from inside the DPRK. Many of the pictures are from Anju. Looking through them, I saw this outdoor market of which I was unaware. It did not, however, take too long to find it on Google Earth. The coordinates of the outdoor market are 39.623199°, 125.680848°. Anju and nearby Sinanju both also have one covered market each. Lots of shoes for sale.
UN Conference on Disarmament
The winner of the “rolling eyes” award this week goes to the announcement that the DPRK has been named to the presidency of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament. According to the official press release:
In his initial address to the Conference as president, So Se Pyong of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea said that he was very much committed to the Conference and during his presidency he welcomed any sort of constructive proposals that strengthened the work and credibility of the body. He was ready to work closely with all members to provide the grounds for strengthening their work. As president, he would be guided by the Rules of Procedure and take into account the position of each delegation to find common ground on substantive issues and procedural matters as well. With their support and cooperation, he would do everything in his capacity to move the Conference on Disarmament forward.
I am sure you can think of some recommendations for him!
Canada has since boycotted the committee (2011-7-11).
How to Generate Good Press: Write it
This week the Wall Street Journal’s Korea Real Time had a great post about the North Korean proclivity to purchase advert space in foreign publications and then report “favorable coverage” to the people back home. “See how much foreigners envy us and out leader[s]”?!
Paying for space in Blitz actually represents something of an economy drive for the Pyongyang publicity machine. Back in 1997, as famine gripped the land, the regime shelled out for some pricier real estate: a full page in the New York Times. That allowed the KCNA to boast that the U.S. newspaper of record had “dedicated one whole page to a special writeup under the title ‘Kim Jong Il Emerges As Lodestar For Sailing the 21st Century’”—with, as the KCNA noted, a large color picture.
Here are five stories from KCNA citing praise in the New York Times: KCNA 1, KCNA 2, KCNA 3, KCNA 4, KCNA 5. As far as I can tell, the DPRK has never advertised in the Wall Street Journal. Wouldn’t that be something.
DPRK: There’s an app for that
Martyn Williams writes about Eric Lafforgue’s new iPhone app featuring his pics of the DPRK. His photo set is here. Now all we need is a Kernbeisser iPhone app.
According to the AFP:
North Korea has drastically cut public food handouts as it heads towards a new hunger crisis with people again eating grass to survive, one of the most experienced aid workers in the isolated nation said.
Food rations have been cut to as low as 150 grammes (5.3 ounces) a day per person in some parts of the country as foreign donations collapse and higher international prices make imports more expensive, said Katharina Zellweger, head of a Swiss government aid office in Pyongyang.
…
Food supplies to the estimated population of 23 million people have been controlled through a public distribution system for decades.
“It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t work,” the head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation office in Pyongyang told a group of UN correspondents.
“The lowest I heard was 150 grammes per person per day, and I even heard that in Pyongyang the rations are cut to 200 grammes per person per day.”
Diplomats say the rations have been halved over the past 18 months. One hundred grammes of rice produces about 250-350 calories a day, experts said.
Zellweger said she had seen “a lot more malnourished children” on recent travels around the country.
“You see more people out in the fields and on the hillsides digging roots, cutting grass or herbs. So there are signs that there is going to be a crisis.”
At the same time the Daily NK reports:
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the market price of potatoes in North Korea has risen substantially in recent weeks, with farms unable to supply the jangmadang because drought and a lack of fertilizer have had a detrimental effect on this year’s spring harvest.
One farmer from North Hamkyung Province revealed his concerns in a phone interview with The Daily NK on the 26th, saying, “This year, potatoes have not done well because of the drought and fertilizer situation, so I have nothing to sell in the market. I am worried about what we are going to do until the corn comes in August.”
Spring potatoes harvested in early June are a decisive food for North Korean farmers. They receive their share of the autumn harvest in December, but once the People’s Army has received its share and various debts have been repaid, they only get enough food for three or four months. After this, potatoes are an important staple to see them through until corn can be harvested in July and August.
However, after deducting cost incurred in bringing together seeds, fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, farm machinery, irrigation equipment and fuel, a farmer receives distribution depending upon his individual work points, decided according to his/her working hours. Since deductions are high, the share for farmers is low, sources say.
The price of potatoes has even risen sharply in Yangkang Province, the center of North Korean potato production. According to Yangkang Province sources, potatoes there are currently selling for between 900 and 1,000 won/kg, double the price of last year.
Fortunately, the high price of potatoes has not had any influence on rice prices. According to one source, “Rice is being sold steadily, and the price is stable not rising.” In the market in Hyesan, rice is now on sale for between 1,900 and 2,100 won/kg, not much more than it was before the spring shortages began.
“Everybody is weak,” says one young North Korean soldier. “Within my troop of 100 comrades, half of them are malnourished,” he said.
The DPRK has requested food aid this year, but donors have been reluctant to meet their demands for a number of reasons. See related stories here.
According to the Chirstian Science Monitor:
A central question is whether North Korea needs emergency shipments as called for by the World Food Program. Yes, Ms. Park acknowledges, “The problem this year is changed by flood and winter cold,” but the widespread view here is that North Korea basically has enough food.
It’s believed that North Korea wants to stockpile food for celebrations planned next year to mark the 100-year anniversary of the birth of the late Kim Il-sung, the long-reigning “Great Leader” who died in 1994 after passing on power to his son, current leader Kim Jong-il.
“There’s a need, but we don’t know how great it is,” says a knowledgeable western observer. “My hunch is it’s less about a shortage of food and more about unequal distribution. You can buy rice in the markets if you have the means.”
…
South Korean leaders appeared relieved when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently made it clear that the US did not believe North Korea had addressed “serious concerns about monitoring” food distribution. The US still wants to know what happened to 20,000 tons of rice that’s strongly believed to have gone to North Korean soldiers when a US food aid program was suspended two years ago.
And on June 30, Yonhap reported:
North Korea imported more than 50,000 tons of grains from its key ally China in May, an expert said Thursday, amid chronic food shortages in the North.
The North purchased 50,328 tons of corn, flour and rice in May, up 31.5 percent compared to the same period last year, said Kwon Tae-jin, a North Korea expert at the Korea Rural Economic Institute.
The North also imported 114,300 tons of fertilizer from China in the first five months, a rise of 39 percent compared to the same period last year, Kwon said, citing figures from Seoul’s Korea International Trade Association.
China is the North’s last remaining ally, key economic benefactor and diplomatic supporter.
A DPRK law enforcement manual was “released” by a South Korean missionary group named Caleb Mission. The document seemingly offers a glimpse of the typical workload of a North Korean police officer. The document, to the best of my knowledge has not been posted on line yet, so caveat emptor. The Korea Herald offers some details below:
The classified guidebook for law enforcement authorities published by the North’s police agency in June 2009 lists 721 actual cases related to criminal law, civil law and the code of criminal procedure and offers advice on how to punish offenders.
One of the cases in the 791-page reference book is about a hog-raiser who sold pork injected with growth hormones and made a lot of money by selling more meat.
In this case, the North Korean law enforcement authorities cannot do anything about the hog-raiser because the man made money by selling pork at a legally permitted price in the market through his own efforts, explains the guidebook.
…
The book also explains that the act of getting paid for transporting another person’s luggage from the train station using a bicycle cannot be seen as a crime because the law does not stipulate that selling an individual’s efforts is a crime.
A food salesperson can be punished for “violating the order of product sales,” however, if he sprayed water on his seaweed to make it look fresher.
Much of the guidebook is about crimes where individuals caused damage to the state by stealing from the government or neglecting their duties, an indication of the seriousness of economic difficulties many North Koreans are going through.
Attempts to evade mandatory military service and euthanasia have become social headaches in the North as well.
A doctor who took $800 from five people in exchange for forging their medical records was charged with bribery and violating the law on military duty.
If a person avoided conscription by lying about his eyesight and later was found to have normal eyesight, he could be questioned by the authorities on charges of violating the law on military service.
The guidebook also stresses that euthanasia is illegal, mentioning a case where a son drugged his father to death to relieve him of the pain from illness under the consent of his mother.
Both the mother and the son should be seen as accomplices in a murder because “although they did not have a foul motive in killing him, the victim did not ask for it,” the book reads.
Bribery and treats in exchange for influence-peddling was also prevalent in North Korea.
People accused of trading South Korean or American films were punished for illegally bringing in and distributing “decadent culture” under North Korean criminal law.
Read the whole story here:
Official guidebook offers glimpse of N.K. society
Korea Herald
Kim So-hyun
2011-06-22
