Approximately 50 days remain until the ‘Day of the Sun’ (April 15th), a key date in the 2012 diary and one on which the authorities are particularly keen to offer the people the feeling of growing prosperity.
Yet it is widely assumed that the North Korean populace all despises their regime and is keenly hoping for it to change.To see where public opinion really lies on the matter, Daily NK set out to do something surprisingly rare; namely, measuring it.
To do this, from the 8th to the 20th of February one Daily NK source interviewed a total of 30 people in Pyongsung in North Pyongan Province, one of the country’s key logistics hubs and a place where market knowledge and independence of thought come up against proximity to the politically conservative North Korean capital.
There was only one question; whether North Korea needs a drastic change of policy, and why or why not. While it would be difficult to say that such a simple straw poll accurately reflects North Korean public opinion overall, it does allow for the assessment of the ebb and flow of public awareness in one critical region.
The results were very interesting: 18 out of the 30 people surveyed (60%) were prepared to acknowledge that great change is needed. However, seven (23%) said “The current situation is the best available option,” while five (17%) refused to take a public position.
Perhaps more surprising to readers than the 60% who wish for change is the presence of 23% who do not. However, analyzing the reasons for this rejection of change by nearly a quarter of respondents, the source explained, “More than 90% of respondents agreed that there are many problems; and yet, a significant number did not agree with the idea of change. This was because they were worrying about the social confusion that big changes could bring.”
This is partly down to concerns about protection of assets, he said, something probably more important in a city where a large proportion of residents hold resources derived from market activities.
Analyzing the 60% agreement statistic, meanwhile, the source said, “Within the people I spoke to, the idea that ‘The only way for North Korea to survive is to open up’ has taken deep root.'” When asked why the country should open up, the predominant answers were that opening would allow the inflow of foreign technology and products, and that it would also allow private farming as practiced in China to solve food problems, he added.
“Even cadres are saying that if we don’t open up it’s going to be hard to maintain power, and they say we’ll be able to see whether the state can be maintained in the state of this year’s farming,” he noted.
Of the 30 people in the Pyongsung survey, eight were housewives, eight were teenagers or college students, seven were laborers aged 18 or above, five were lower level Party officials and two were recently discharged soldiers.
