Daily NK has learned of a system of parking payments for truck drivers exporting coal to China through North Korea’s main ports. According to an
inside source, the practice began as a way to enforce the protection of parked vehicles, but has developed to incorporate vehicle cleaning services.
The North Pyongan-based source told Daily NK on the 9th, “The 20t trucks doing long distances exporting coal pay parking fees when they stop not only at restaurants, but
also at places like public baths and massage facilities.”
Coal bound for the Chinese market typically passes from Jikdong
Coal Mine in Suncheon, South Pyongyang Province, through to ports at Nampo or Songrim in South
Hwanghae Province. Trucks are overwhelmingly dominant in this logistics process due to the unpredictability of North Korean railways.
The trucks were apparently becoming more and more vulnerable to theft: of rear-view mirrors, lights and even batteries, often in broad daylight. After nightfall, sources report, even the glass
from truck windows sometimes goes missing.
“If they realize they’ve been robbed, drivers are wont to vent anger at the owners of the service depot or restaurant in question,” he pointed out. “In order to swerve this,
they have started taking hourly parking fees of 500 won. This isn’t
compulsory, but the drivers who pay it are effectively shifting responsibility for security onto the owner should anything occur.”
Moreover, “Formerly state-owned facilities alongside main roads have all morphed into what are essentially privately-owned restaurants. The restaurant
owners want to entice as many customers as they can, so they get senior middle school students to stand guard over the trucks.”
“Students volunteer to clean the trucks coming back from deliveries, and get tips from the drivers, too. They can also scrape many kilos of
coal from the trucks over a winter season, which is another good way to make money,” he went on.
“Some truck drivers complain at the parking
fee, moaning that they are living in a capitalist society. But most respond positively that everybody wins. This practice will likely become a new trend,”
the source added.
Shedding further light on these latest developments, one high-ranking defector explained to Daily NK, “This is not something that has
come down from the Upper [the authorities], it has emerged as a voluntary practice
among the people themselves. As the market economy grows more active, more transactions between people will take the form of exchanges of money.”
