North Korea presents a confusing social structure to outsiders, who often struggle to appreciate what terms related to position and lifestyle really mean in reality.
For example, distinguishing the wealthy North Korean home from the average home in the South can be hard since they are places where foreign brands of electronics are in similarly common use. Yet, while this is an ‘upper class’ home in North Korea, it would be described as ‘lower middle class’ in most developed countries. On the other side of the coin, the word ‘lower class’, even the oft-heard ‘vulnerable class’, hardly does any justice to the deprivation felt at the other end of the social spectrum.
By way of example, one need only look at a child. The children of the rich wear expensive clothes and shoes and carry bags and other items produced in China, while the majority of children, far from this upper class lifestyle, wear second-hand clothes and shoes or items that they or their parents have made themselves.
So this May, in a month that encompasses many family-oriented holidays in the South Korean calendar, here is a benchmarking insight into the three basic classes of North Korean household.
Lower Class: living on the edge of starvation
Members of the North Korean lower class do not partake in any specific economic activities. Many live in mountainous regions, where they can erect huts and survive on what they can forage.
Many have just a single outfit for all seasons. Footwear usually consists of an outsole held together by string and an outer piece of fabric. Beyond this, they may have separate ‘work’ shoes that are slightly longer across the top. Even if they come across better items than this, however, they dare not wear them as they must sell them in the market to buy food.
Food that is typically consumed by this class tends to be nutritionally very limited, consisting mostly of plants foraged from the forest and soup of potato starch and bean curd dregs. Even during holidays, eating anything special is often impossible. However, families who can do so will use any flour that they have saved up to make bread and sliced potatoes to eat with their ordinary diet of wild plants on such occasions.
Middle Class: enough to support themselves, but not enough to be comfortable.
The middle class represents a dramatic improvement in standard of life from the lower class, although it would still be regarded as harsh poverty in much of the developed world.
Those in the middle class are able to cultivate corn, cabbage, radish etc on small plots. Some also sell self-reared rabbits and chickens in the market. Though chicken is too expensive for them to actually eat, they occasionally will eat rabbit.
Members of the middle class also have the relative luxury of choice when it comes to clothing. Many middle class families have seasonal wear for winter and spring, even clothes to wear for outings. Their work clothes may stretch to two or three pairs, and some have boots.
Though somewhat shoddy by international standards, their apartments are also on the larger side, including two rooms plus a kitchen. However, the most serious problem is still a lack of water and electricity. Most are still compelled to collect firewood or coal from the mountains as a result.
Their apartments are often located where public transportation is poor, resulting in their being a long way from the market. These apartments are also some distance from sources of drinkable water.
Upper Class: A different standard of living altogether
The North Korean upper class can be likened to the middle class in South Korea and other newly developed economies. One difference is that the sources of their wealth are mostly illegal; smuggling goods through China, buying and selling gold or profiting from currency exchange.
Upper class families buy branded clothing or shoes for their children and themselves. Brand recognition is normal for this class, to the point where they know what kind of quality to expect from each manufacturer. According to one defector from Chongjin, when it comes to digital cameras, Samsung is recognized as the best.
Those with enough money even construct their own apartment buildings. However, this is done illegally and has an unfortunate habit of ending in disaster.
One defector who arrived in South Korea in 2010 explained how one apartment in Hyesan collapsed in 2007, saying, “The head of Gangseong Company in Hyesan, Gang Nam Cheol, had a lot of money so he had a house built. But, like other wealthy individuals who construct apartment buildings, he also saw it finally fall apart.”
Another defector added of these so-called ‘hog apartments’, “They would buy generators so they didn’t have to care about power cuts. I’ve seen them; they had really big televisions and laptops too.”
These upper class North Koreans also eat a whole different type of food to other, ‘normal’ North Koreans; rice mixed with grains for nutritional value, and more fish and meat than anyone else. It there is no piped water, they are able to buy water in.
