Despite the Kim regime’s efforts to pretend otherwise, everyone agrees that North Korea’s economy is not in good shape. However, private markets are doing much better than most. These entities, which started out as small farmers markets, have developed into major drivers of consumer culture in the country.

Everyone also knows that North Korea is one of the world’s most closed-off countries. The Kim dynasty has been working for almost 70 years to block out the light of the outside world in an attempt to impede popular awareness of what lies beyond its borders. However, it’s an impossible task, and one made harder by the markets. Everything on sale in these markets hides a story from the outside world, and over time, consumers develop preferences, as consumers do everywhere.

Daily NK has been at the forefront of explaining the growth of this oasis of dynamism on the North Korean economic landscape, one that is now changing with even greater speed thanks to the spread of cell phones. Welcome to Daily NK‘s ‘Ten Ways to Make Money in 2013.’

① Making deliveries to places hundreds of kilometers away

Even home deliveries are possible in modern North Korea. It was only a few years ago that consumers would have been facing a difficult trip to the biggest market in their region, or even further, if they wanted to buy a product that was not available locally. Now, however, traders are keen to get hold of products and deliver them for a fee.

This holds true over surprising distances. For example, if a resident of southerly Hwanghae Province really needs a stone bowl available most readily in northerly border region markets, traders travelling that route are more than happy to buy the bowl and transport it south.

This is a particularly valuable service in North Korea, where inter-provincial movement is only possible thanks to the judicious application of bribes and securing of travel permits, and where public transportation is inefficient, slow, uncommon and uncomfortable. The cost of travelling to get the product would invariably be greater than the cost of the product itself.

② The K-pop phenomenon and “idol dance” teachers

To the dismay of the North Korean authorities, K-pop is spreading almost as quickly among young North Koreans as it is in other parts of the world, sources say. Some fans of the new style dance craze are apparently even prepared to pay young private teachers to teach them the right moves.

Most of these private teachers are artists or music teachers from inside the industry, though sometimes a layman or woman with talent might enter the market. Typically, a dance teacher operating in this way can earn enough money in a month to buy 10kg of rice, 20 times the salary of an ordinary worker and enough to live relatively comfortably.

③ Following fashion trends in South Korean magazines

Because selling South Korean clothes is illegal in North Korea, people find it hard to obtain them in local markets. As a result, a few even go to the lengths of asking private tailors to mimic the clothing that they have seen in South Korean movies or dramas. The tailors, keen to make money, go out of their way to obtain South Korean magazines in order to get information about the latest South Korean styles.

The fact that people are forced to recourse to local tailors proves that North Korea’s state-run garment factories are making clothing of low quality that people do not particularly want to wear. It is a trend that seems sure to continue.

According to a source from Hyesan in Yangkang Province, “Demand for South Korean patterns and designs has been increasing steadily. These private tailors who are producing the trendy clothes are taking real risks to get hold of South Korean magazines.”

“It’s because traditional styles can’t attract young consumers, so private tailors are studying South Korean fashion trends,” she added.

According to inside sources, customer service on the North Korean black market is evolving. For example, merchants have begun to introduce fitting rooms right there on the market, in order to reduce the scale of returns and refunds.

Most market stall spaces are 80cm wide or less, making it impossible to try anything on in situ and meaning that customers used to have to guess at what product would be appropriate. This led to many instances of dissatisfaction, so stallholders have started to group together in twos and threes to offer a small fitting room.

In another example, stallholders used to address the problem of limited stall space by having a handwritten list of products that were for sale but in storage, but now they are beginning to use a catalogue format, with photos of products to attract the attention of consumers.