As the year comes to an end, there is no shortage of
festivities to engage in South Korea, in fact, dividing one’s time among a barrage of choices during the holidays can quickly prove overwhelming. However, for those just above the 38th parallel, with the exception of Pyongyang residents and Party cadres, few have the luxury to
indulge and enjoy themselves without bearing significant burdens.
For North Koreans of little means, come December,
people start cobbling together “cash gatherings” and “rice gatherings,” born of the belief that the busy year they spent struggling to get by has come to an
end, and the new year will bring with it the “spirit of luck,” providing everyone the resolve to busily make preparations to greet the coming year and its myriad prospects.
Part of these preparations often includes “money box,” put together by each family as soon as December arrives. Each day, they drop in 3,000 KPW [worth 500g of rice, or 0.38 USD], or on particularly good
days, 10,000 KPW [1.25 USD] or more. This practice,
referred to as “cash gatherings,” is used to buy presents for the husband and
children for the family to start off the New Year in good spirits.
Even the gruffest of husbands will go out and boast to their
friends when they receive long underwear as a gift, saying, “I married well.”
Children beam with joy upon receiving new shoes and skates. At least on this
one day, all families can forget about their worries, come closer together, and enjoy a moment–however fleeting–of
happiness.
Residents employ another type of collection mechanism–known as “rice gatherings”–to
ensure they have sufficient provisions to make ample rice cakes for Solar New Year’s Day. Mothers usually create a “rice pot” where family
members deposit one or two fistfuls of rice a day. The practice is dual
purpose: it not only provides the family with an effective method of acquiring what they need for the holiday, but also serves to impart a sense of responsibility and
understanding about the importance of savings to the household’s children.
Often, these “cash gatherings” and “rice gatherings” transform into a larger system, referred to as “gye,” where groups of individuals make
informal cash deposits to reap larger-sums of money. Participants take turns
winning these lump-sums in return for smaller amounts paid in regular
installments. Market vendors and friends use these mechanisms to spend their
year-end and New Year’s with a little bit more cash in their pockets.
Unsurprisingly, the pervasive bribe culture proves an
integral part of December’s activities in North Korea: business and factory
managers visit Party members to pay out bribes, while city cadres duck in to see provincial Party officials to offer up their requisite monetary inducements.
Flailing at the bottom of this bribe chain are low-level cadres, susceptible
prey to all those in higher ranking positions.
Rarely do bribes come in the same allotments or form: ranch
managers prepare pigs as suborns, whereas factory and other enterprise managers
offer their bribes in cold-hard cash–always USD. A minimum of 1,000 USD is the going base
rate for those wishing to hold on to their current posts in the New Year.
On December 31st, the homes of provincial and city Party
cadres see an endless stream of people bringing in their presents. Visitors
deliver envelopes stuffed with dollar notes to the wife of the Party secretary
and write their name down in a notebook. Cadres unable to come up with the
necessary bribes are subject to increased work and project-related
surveillance. In other words, bribes play the most important role when it comes
to climbing the political ladder.
In North Korea, a saying exists that New Year’s Day
determines the good and bad fortune of the entire year, and in the face of
lingering political uncertainties regarding the current leadership, even those at the top echelons of power find themselves kowtowing to the same notion.
