Pyongyang is awash in a sea of flags as waves of workers, bouquets in hand, line up in front of the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansudae Hill to pay their respects. The Rodong Sinmun, official mouthpiece of the Worker’s
Party, tells of workers across the country participating in sports matches and picnics organized by their
state employer. It is May 1st, celebrated in North Korea as International Worker’s Day.
Until the food crisis of the early 1990s, defectors claim, such
festivities were indeed the norm. Now, May 1st
serves as a clear reminder of North Korea’s widening class gap amid the increasing prominence of the market economy.
A former worker at a foreign currency earning enterprise
based in Songnim, North Hwanghae Province explained to Daily NK, “A class
system between workers began to form a few years ago. How one celebrates the
May 1st holiday depends on their membership in either the lower or upper class,
and mistrust has formed between the two.”
“State factory workers spend the day cultivating their
vegetable gardens or just keeping busy at home. But workers at individually-run
trading companies attend sports games put on by their employer. They even get high-end
gifts like televisions and bicycles,” the defector said.
Moreover, “Even if they don’t win the game the employees
still get a new set of underclothes, and this makes the state workers quite
envious. Now even children belong to a
class based solely on the occupation of their parents.”
A former manager of a commercial enterprise management
office in North Pyongan Province added, “The state workers really have a rough
time in comparison. Many of them can’t
even get one bottle of alcohol.”
Even so, he continued, “Employees at my workplace would be
offered products at state prices, even though we weren’t technically a private
enterprise. They would sell these items at the markets and use the proceeds to
fund their own outing separate from the office. Additionally, the managers of each of the 70 stores we oversaw would offer around 10kg of bean paste at state prices to their workers on
May 1st.”
In the new market-based economy, state laborers are widely regarded as “completely
pointless husbands” and “incompetent fathers,” a third defector from Kangwon
Province told Daily NK, as it is abundantly clear that state distribution alone can no longer sustain a family.
The divide is similarly apparent in the May 1st gifts
brought home by the workers. Access to seasonings
and condiments is one of the key indicators of economic status in North Korea, with market prices matching those of rice. Needless to say, the families of most state workers have little choice but to go without.
Workers in the commercial enterprise management
sector and employees at the August 3rd Consumer Goods Movement
stores occupy a middle ground. They receive the same wages and rations as ordinary
state workers, but differ in that they can profit via the
secret siphoning off of state resources. As such, their holiday meal often includes
tofu, oil and red pepper powder.
Employees at individually-run enterprises fare best. With
monthly wages averaging 200,000 – 300,000 won, they are able to purchase daily
necessities on the markets. Holidays are
no different; rice cakes and and even seasoned side dishes grace their tables on May 1st.
