Article found here
The increasing flow of information into North Korea is beginning to bring about massive changes in the nation's economic structure. As people become more aware of the world outside North Korea, demand for contraband products (such as DVDs, mobile phones, and computer equipment) from China has skyrocketed. It's interesting to see how North Korea's burgeoning black market is affecting not only economic development but gender politics as well. Women who hawk their wares in the underground economy are increasingly becoming the main sources of income for their families, while more and more men are staying at home or trapped slaving away for meager wages in lowly government jobs.
Despite the nation's spiraling inflation, some North Koreans living in the showcase capital city of Pyongyang have managed to become extremely wealthy (by North Korean standards, anyway) by taking advantage of the growing black market. With "luxury" products like apples and bananas costing as much as a month's worth of official wages, it's easy to see why more and more North Koreans are willing to risk their lives smuggling contraband into the country.
It will be interesting to see how the regime responds to the emergence of a "nouveaux riche" class of North Koreans who have made their money almost entirely illegally. For now, it looks like most authorities are turning a blind eye to black market traders as long as they receive a cut of the profits, but I don't think this can continue on for much longer before the regime starts to feel threatened. Perhaps North Korea, like China, will implement a crackdown on these "rogue capitalists."
1 comment:
This seems like an interesting issue for the harsh North Korean regime to address. In an economy with so few options, people would have such a big incentive to create black markets. I think it is very plausible that many members of the North Korean government take advantage of these black markets themselves. However, if these illegal opportunities continue to expand then the government must react somehow. The more pessimistic/realist view is that the government will engage in brutal repression. An optimist might see this as an opportunity for the government to possibly liberalize market regulation and make incremental steps towards the still distant goal of capitalism.
Post a Comment