On November 6th, the Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies officially launched a new department, the ‘Institute for Study of North Korean Life (INKL).’ As the name suggests, the INKL has been established to look in more depth at the day-to-day lives of the North Korean people.
This is a significant undertaking, because it remains the case that too much of the research done on North Korea today is limited to issues such as the power elite, Workers’ Party policy and the development of nuclear and missile programs. There is still a dearth of good analysis of daily life inside the DPRK.
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As Professor Lee Woo Young, who heads the new institute, puts it, “Existing North Korea researchers tend to be very policy-oriented and get buried in more immediate issues. But change in North Korea is not only about the elite but also the people, and therefore study of people’s everyday lives is essential.”
In particular, the need for more investigation of daily life has been clear ever since North Korea’s “jangmadang” (markets) began to develop rapidly in the late 1990s and then became legally acceptable in the early 2000s, he says, explaining that this is why the markets are one of the institute’s major research goals.
He declares, “We are going to research how the North Korean economy and markets affect the North Korean people. It’s not the case that we plan to stop researching the important political signs and regime issues that we have been dealing with; simply, it is possible to assess the North Korean regime and system through its people.”
“The generation from the 70s and 80s is called the ‘new generation,’ while those who were born after the 80s are called the ‘March of Tribulation generation’,” he explains. “Their thought processes are very different to those of the previous generation. The ‘March of Tribulation generation’ has never received any real rations from the regime and did not go through the struggle against imperialism or national division, which has made their ideological and political beliefs very weak.”
The North Korean authorities have done nothing to appeal to this younger generation, he says; all they have witnessed is economic collapse and food shortages. Therefore, he says, “Kim Jong Eun is going to try and capture their hearts in new ways.”
However, markets are the major place where ‘personal networks’ develop between North Korean women, and this is crucial because if personal networks grow within families or between friends then they are sure to conflict with the country’s strict system of interpersonal surveillance, and this could ultimately imperil Kim family rule.
Prof. Lee notes, “The market is bound to have the biggest influence on the development of these private networks. It is important for us to identify any spaces where such dialogue is possible, such as restaurants or billiard halls.”
Markets are here to stay, he concludes, saying, “The North Korean leadership’s goal is not national development but maintaining the status quo in order to protect its vested interests. Markets already support the North Korean system, and therefore there is no way they will abandon them at this stage.”
