Shopping in Pyongyang

February 18, 2019 1:58 PM

"Far from the stereotype of total economic isolation, the black market has brought a surprising degree of modernity and consumerism — for some."
posted by blue shadows (2 comments total)

I've read a couple of articles that suggest the regime probably would not have survived this past 20 years without tolerating the black markets. That the famine would have been so much deeper there would have been a popular uprising. Now, as the article notes, there's a precarious middle class in North Korean (the donju) who have an investment in the existing system continuing as-is, as fucked up as that may be.

This part of the article was new to me:

8/3 workers, who pay a fee in order to be absent from work and engage in unofficial market activities

In Communist Korea, Worker pays Job to Not Work! The system is discussed a bit more in this book. The fee they pay is 7x their wages! What a strange form of indenture.
posted by Nelson at 3:39 PM on February 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

When I was a kid I thought the "black market" was a single, physical, open-air market with booths where you could buy nuclear warheads, stolen Rembrandts, etc. I was very let down when I discovered that was not the case.
posted by brundlefly at 5:14 PM on February 18, 2019 [10 favorites]