Public distribution system shifted to district offices

Although North Korea’s state distribution system essentially ceased functioning years ago, some local district authorities are looking to regain some of the public’s lost loyalty through new programs.
 
A source in Ryanggang Province informed Daily NK on October 12 that the Hyesan People’s Committee handed down a directive in September for the old distribution centers to be shut and for local district offices to take over distribution of “holiday gifts and special distributions.”
 
The state distribution centers were once tasked with providing food and supplies for all of North Korea’s citizens, based on various factors including their production levels and family background, as determined by their affiliated factory or collective farm. Famine and mass starvation in the mid-1990s saw the collapse of the distribution system, and people paying for permission to leave the factories to fend for themselves. The distribution centers from that point onwards took on a largely symbolic role.  
 
According to the source, the North Korean government appears to be looking for a way to regain the level of control it once held over the population by reintroducing revised public distribution operations under local district offices.
 
“District office leaders apportion special items and gifts for loyalty to those they deem eligible, but they also try to create an atmosphere of competition by being very selective in the process,” a separate source in Ryanggang Province said.
 
However, both sources doubt the effectiveness of such a strategy to drum up support for the regime. It appears that the government will be unlikely to create incentives strong enough to shift focus away from the markets, where residents can receive better quality items and a larger selection with no conditions attached. 
 
“The political system here is a sham, offering gifts to one person for their loyalty and punishing a hundred more for their lack of loyalty,” the first source said. “It used to be that a gift or even a medal would be received with genuine tears of devotion to the government, but that era is long gone.”