This is “NK Market Trends,” bringing you
weekly updates on the North Korean economy. This week we sat down with reporter
Kang Mi Jin to discuss the latest trends; but first, let’s take a look at how
the jangmadang (market) has been doing. We’ll begin by providing a rundown of
the price of rice, the currency conversion rates, and the cost of other goods
in North Korean markets.
The price of 1 kg of rice was 5,200 KPW in
Pyongyang, 5,200 KPW in Sinuiju, and 5,150 KPW in Hyesan. The USD was trading
at 8,500 KPW in Pyongyang, 8,760 KPW in Sinuiju, and 8,800 KPW in Hyesan.
Moving along, the cost of one kg of corn kernels was 1,800 KPW in Pyongyang,
1,800 KPW in Sinuiju, and 1,900 KPW in Hyesan. One kg of pork was selling at
13,000 KPW in Pyongyang, 12,000 in Hyesan, and 13,500 KPW in Sinuiju. Gasoline
was trading at 7,200 KPW per kg in Pyongyang, 7,250 KPW in Sinuiju, and at
7,000 KPW per kg in Hyesan. Finally, 1 kg of diesel fuel was selling at 5,000
KPW in Pyongyang, 4,600 KPW in Sinuiju, and 4,500 KPW in Hyesan. This has been
a rundown of the latest market prices in North Korea.
1. Thank you for the update on the current
market situation in North Korea. This time of year is kimchi making season in
North Korea too, and it is the height of the harvest season, or as it is known
in some regions, the “battle of the vegetables”. Today we’re going to talk with
Kang Mi Jin about how people at every level of North Korean society handle preparing sufficient supplies of kimchi to last through winter, a process known as Kimjang. Ms. Kang, tell us a little bit about Kimjang season in North Korea.
Yes, as people make their preparations for
winter in North Korea, Kimchi making is the final step. When North Koreans
think of the most important event of the year that absolutely cannot be missed,
that event is Kimjang. Kimchi is that essential. You know that kimchi makes up
about half the diet of the people there, right? November is a whirlwind of
kimchi preparation. Because North Koreans have less to eat than their Southern
neighbors, kimchi is the primary way that they endure the long, harsh winter.
With that in mind, everyone takes it pretty seriously.
2. Usually in the South we have Kimjang at the
end of November, and we haven’t even started yet this year. Could you tell us
when Kimjang usually begins in North Korea?
It varies a little bit by region. In some
regions, like Yanggang Province and Hamgyong Province, I think it’s nearing
the end of Kimjang season right about now. There are people who say that
because of global warming, North Korea’s weather has been warming and is really
noticeable since the year 2000. Yanggang Province, where I used to live, has
certainly been affected. Even as recently as 1990, the “battle of the vegetables”
would finish by October 25th, because otherwise cabbage, radishes, and other
crops would freeze and the kimchi would be tough and tasteless. People learned
from personal experience that the best time to sow seeds was in the fall.
So, usually Kimjang is over by the end of
October. I’ve heard that in some places it has already finished this year, but
according to a source in North Hamgyong Province, Kimjang hasn’t finished
there yet. In South Pyongan Province and Hwanghae Province, they begin Kimjang
in mid-November. I remember a close friend of mine from Bukchang County, South
Pyongan Province would start Kimjang around November 8th.
3. In the South when we do Kimjang, we gather
all of our aunts and mother’s friends together to get the job done. Is it like
this in the North as well?
Southern families are traditional, it
seems. In the North we do that, or sometimes neighbors and families will all do
Kimjang together on the same day. In my own household, all of the aunts and
uncles on my mother’s side would go to one house and make kimchi together.
Smaller households without a lot of extended family members will often ask
their neighbors for help. In the North, when someone asks for help with
Kimjang, people respond happily. Most people in my village were born and raised
there, so everyone knew when everyone else was going to make their kimchi, and
if someone asked for help of course you would help them without a second
thought. People would say that Kimjang season was the time to taste the kimchi
of all of your neighbors. Sometimes, when I taste kimchi made with mustard
leaves, I think immediately of home and wish I could have some of that kimchi.
4. When you mentioned making kimchi
communally, a thought suddenly occurred to me. Do people get any time off from
the factories when it’s Kimjang season?
If you say you’re making kimchi, most
factories will give you the day off. Even if a worker has used up their yearly
vacation allotment (typically 14 days, which most use for tending to their
personal plots), kimchi making is so vital to the survival of a family- it’s
half a year’s worth of food- that companies will give time off for Kimjang. I
remember factories and workplaces giving group days off for Kimjang as well. In
the village where I lived, because there were so many elderly people, memories
of helping people make kimchi keep popping into my head. My grandmother’s
kimchi was famous for being particularly delicious, so different families would
drop by and offer to lend a hand. Rather than resting while others did the
work, she enjoyed making everyone else’s kimchi tastier.
5. It seems as though last August’s floods
would have damaged the crops. Do you think that people are having any
difficulty getting everything they need this year to make kimchi as a result?
There’s news that because households in
Hamgyong Province received priority assistance during the floods that the
prices of cabbage, radishes, chili peppers and garlic have all skyrocketed.
Families need to pay about twice as much as usual to get the ingredients they
need for their kimchi, and it’s said that a lot of people in both Hamgyong
Provinces are complaining. There are probably a lot of families in need in
Yanggang Province as well, but it’s said that most of them are still managing
to complete Kimjang.
People says that because the economy is so
bad the kimchi is like dried radish greens or sseon kimchi, and actually when
North Koreans say that they don’t have any kimchi what they are saying is that
they’ll have almost nothing to eat during the winter. This is why people work
so hard to make sure that they finish their Kimjang, using cabbage or radishes
or gat from the hillsides. They’ll do whatever they have to to make sure that
they have kimchi for the winter. One girl who left North Korea this summer said
that every North Korean house has kimchi, whether it’s cabbage kimchi, chopped
kimchi, or even white kimchi, but they will have something.
6. Thus far we’ve been assuming that most
kimchi is made by households. What about laborers and Party cadres, what do
they do?
This is what I heard from a defector.
Recently higher-ranking cadres don’t really do Kimjang like they used to, and
when they do they don’t add that much seasoning. This is because people who’ve
been to China have learned that too much spice and salt aren’t healthy, so they
use less of it when they’re making their kimchi. Really, whether it’s through
bribes or exclusive provisions, it’s inevitable that cadres would have more
food available to them than the average person, right?
One cadre I know got seafood and even money
out of each bust that they would do, even if they said they didn’t want
anything from the person they caught. People who are caught doing something
illegal want to make sure they can survive the encounter, so they’ll go to any
lengths to give something even if their offense wasn’t that bad. If the cadre in
question refuses a bribe, the person will bring something to the cadre’s wife,
and although she will act like she is being forced to accept it, she will take
the bribe instead. Because of bribes like this cadres don’t worry about having
enough food, and it’s fair to say that they wouldn’t consider kimchi to be an
essential good the way an average person does.
Workers are just part of ordinary
households, but these households can be classified into several groups. There
is definitely a difference in the Kimjang of a family that is making a lot of
money from doing business and that of a family that is barely scraping a living
off of their business. Families with money have a lot of other food available,
but those who only do business when the opportunity arises, or even those who
participate in the jangmadang but don’t make much money will pour a lot of time
and energy into their Kimjang. However, one thing that we as a people all have
in common is a love of kimchi, Northerners and Southerners alike. The average
household couldn’t survive without making kimchi.
7. In a country without a steady
electricity supply it seems as though it wouldn’t be possible to rely on
refrigerators, so I’m curious how people are able to store their kimchi.
Yes, I have also stored my kimchi in the
refrigerator since I resettled in South Korea, but there are ways to keep it
from going bad even in North Korea where refrigeration isn’t common. Part of me
thinks that the North Korean method of storage actually results in more flavorful
kimchi compared to the South Korean habit of refrigerating it. The electricity
problems and economic difficulties are an ongoing problem in North Korea. As
far as I know most North Koreans bury their kimchi and store it underground,
and where I grew up in Yanggang Province we also had a separate area to store
kimchi.
People also dig kimchi cellars about 2.5
meters deep with dimensions around 2x2x2.5m or even bigger. I would store my
kimchi by digging a cellar of that size and place a kimchi pot in it. I would
pile up 3 pots of napa cabbage kimchi, 1 pot of cubed radish kimchi, another
pot of cabbage or gat kimchi, and cram in some salted green onions, salted
squid, salted perilla leaves and other side dishes. If you store kimchi
underground like this it’s really delicious and it doesn’t spoil.
In South Pyongan Province, South Hwanghae
Province, and North Hwanghae Province they also store kimchi in the ground, but
much closer to the surface. They don’t dig deep cellars like other regions.
Storage methods can vary even in the same region and between cities and rural
areas. You can imagine that each place has its own preferred storage method.
8. You say that for most North Koreans
kimchi is half a year’s worth of food. Approximately
how long does the kimchi made during Kimjang last?
In my experience, if you make a lot of kimchi it can last until the beginning of May. If it’s not a good year for vegetables and you can’t make that much, it will last until around mid-April. In North Korea, mid-April is when the first herbs begin to sprout in the coldest region, Yanggang Province, so if your kimchi runs out at that time you’ll be eating those herb sprouts. In North Hwanghae Province, you could munch on fresh spinach by the beginning of April, so people would make enough kimchi to last until the end of March.
Even if you make more, it will spoil in the hot weather, so from what I know in regions like North and South Pyongan Provinces and North and South Hwanghae Provinces kimchi provisions last about four months. I’m sure all our North Korean listeners can relate to this. I’m worried that this year some people weren’t able to make enough kimchi to last that long. Next time, we’ll discuss the different kinds of kimchi made in each region. Thank you and see you next time.
