Pork processing market skyrockets in Pyongyang

This is NK Market Trends, bringing you weekly updates on
the North Korean economy. This is our third installment on the pork industry in
the North, with reporter Seol Song Ah. What do you have for us today?

I’d like to talk about the meat production market
in the North, which plays an important role in many people’s lives. Today, I’ll
describe how pigs are sold and distributed in the market.

In order to sell meat in the market, the livestock must
first be slaughtered. In South Korea, we use the term ‘dochuk,’ meaning ‘to
butcher’ or ‘slaughter.’ What term do they use in North Korea?

In North Korea we use a similar word, ‘dosal’. The
interesting thing is that it’s used in conjunction with the word ‘market’ as
well. So you have a market revolving around it, but it also involves larger
meat producers at the general markets in Pyongyang and other cities, meaning
that the pork industry is quite extensive.

We’ve heard some very interesting things about the feed
market and pig breeding in the livestock industry. Now you’re telling us there’s
a market built around the slaughtering of pigs. Tell us more about that.

To be succinct, the term ‘dosal’ refers to the process of
slaughtering livestock and distributing the meat on the market. There are
vendors who purchase dogs, chickens, ducks, cows, pigs, and other livestock,
and then separate the inner organs from the meat, so the dosal market relies on
these vendors going around homes to buy the animals and sell them wholesale. It’s
not easy work. This is because you have to wake up at the crack of dawn and
ride your bike all over town to visit people’s houses. Butchers probably cover
at least 100 ri in a day.

100 ri is about 40 km, so that definitely sounds like a
tough job.

Yes, and so we can see that the merchants in North
Korea are very tenacious. Working in the meat trade is not a job that can be
performed alone. This is because the processes for slaughtering and selling are
intertwined in a complex way. As a result, you can often see couples, family
members, or close friends managing their businesses together.

When couples work together, the wife is just as involved in
the hard work. She typically wakes up early and rides her bike dozens of
kilometers around all of the neighborhoods, returning home with a 70 kg pig.
When she gets back, her husband slaughters the pig. If it’s two women working
together, you’ll see them slaughtering the pigs themselves.

It seems like another aspect of North Korea’s markets
that highlights the strength and resilience of women in the North. I am curious
about one more thing. In South Korea, pork skin (rind) is sold separately, and
very cheaply. How about in North Korea?

Reporter: In the 80s and early 90s, it was the rule to
separate the skin from the animal. But, in the late 90s, as the pig livestock
business became marketized, the term ‘mul twigi’, meaning ‘water frying’
appeared. It refers to the process of boiling off the hair of a pig in hot
water, which allows you to divide up the meat with the skin on. It can be seen
as an example of the methods that businesses use to increase profits through
the modification of their processes.

Following this, in the mid-2000s the North Korean regime
issued an order for butchers to skin their pigs. The government’s own livestock
industry at that time had become paralyzed, and it became more common for
individuals to slaughter their own pigs, As a result, the state was facing a
shortage of leather for the military. That’s when people realized that all of
the soldiers’ shoes and belts were made from pig hide.

So you could say that the North Korean authorities
showed their true colors.

A ‘No. 1’ report was issued stating that there
were not enough supplies for soldiers on the borders, and this led to a
mandatory order that all pork with skin attached would be confiscated from
market stalls. The authorities were paying vendors a few hundred KPW to
purchase pig hide for state stores, but if you were to sell that wholesale on
the market, you would get many times that sum. So who would want to skin their
pigs for such a small incentive? In the end, the butchers resisted the order
and it ended up dying out.

The fact that they decided to issue this directive gives
us an idea of just how large the market for pork must be. Can you tell us more
about the distribution process?

Reporter: The intestines of the pig are taken directly to
sundae (blood sausage) manufacturers and sold at wholesale price. Pigs’ feet
are sometimes purchased directly by consumers for women who have just given
birth, as they are considered to be high in nutrients. Usually, once the meat
is cut into sections, either people in the neighborhood come to buy it or it
goes to market vendors. The meat is generally sold to markets wholesale, but
when holidays approach, the situation changes a bit. Because they sell big
trucks of meat wholesale in large cities like Pyongyang, competition is fierce.
So during these times, butchers face difficulties securing a supply of pigs and
use brokers to connect them with certain households that are breeding them. The
broker typically receives 5,000 KPW per connection, which is worth 1 kilogram
of rice.

There are even brokers in the distribution market. You
said that they sell meat in Pyongyang by the truckload. Why does this happen?

Reporter: In Pyongyang, you can’t raise your own pigs
because it’s the ‘capital of the revolution’, and people can’t even raise
chickens on their apartment balconies either. So raising a pig is out of the
question. Attempting to do so would likely result in being kicked out of
Pyongyang.

Some people raise pigs in the suburbs, but it’s not enough
to sustain the crowded markets of Pyongyang. Originally, the supply for
Pyongyang was supposed to be guaranteed by state-run farms, but the supply
chain crumbled due to problems acquiring feed, so there’s no place to turn to
aside from the markets.

It seems that the residents of Pyongyang are unable to
get enough pork to satisfy their needs, even though they are wealthier than
most.

That’s why the pork processing industry has developed
in Pyongyang. Sausage manufacturing businesses in particular are on the rise.
Donju [newly affluent middle class] have learned how to produce sausages that
are just as good as imported ones, and they sell them wholesale at department
stores, shops, and at the market. They generally use pigs that have died of
disease or have been raised on human excrement, because they are cheaper.

It seems like North Korea’s markets are becoming more
and more capitalist.

It does. If you were to visit North Korea’s
markets you would really feel it. You can see people from different income
brackets consuming different cuts of meat. Female pigs are considered to be
more delicious than male pigs, so their meat sells better. The fat, lean meat,
and bones are all divided and sold in order to match consumer demand in the
markets. Citizens who live day-to-day eat pork with more fat, while donju buy
lean meat from female pigs. But North Korea does not yet have what’s most
popular in South Korea, which is samgyeopsal (pork belly).

Even from hearing about pork distribution, we’re able to
see how North Koreans get by with little support from the state. Over the
course of three installments, we’ve had some great insights into the livestock
industry in the North. Thank you so much for joining us.