Checking ‘compatibility’ with prospective
business partners using zodiac signs is becoming more common in North Korea
among the affluent middle-class known as the donjuLiterally "masters of money," donju refers to people who hav... More, or ‘money masters.’ This comes
as superstitious practices used to help relieve the burden of economic
hardships and tighter control on society inch into the realm of business, local
sources reported.
“Anyone earning money in the market carries
around a small notebook like a pocket book on Kim Jong Un’s teachings,” a
source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK last Friday. “Not only do the
notebooks have records of their business transactions, they also contain memos
on their ‘zodiac business compatibility’ with all their vendors.”
Daily NK spoke with sources in two other
provinces who confirmed the existence of the same practice, suggesting that the
trend has spread nationwide. For the safety of these sources their
specific provinces must remain undisclosed.
“Recently, even though regulations on
business have become relatively relaxed, people still feel anxiety due to the
mass purges of officials in the Central Party and the military. These jitters
are reflected in market activities as well,” she added.
“This kind of anxiety makes people more
dependent on acts of superstition, so recently, they’ve been looking up
‘business compatibility’ for foreign traders, other vendors in the market and
even turning the scope inward on their families [North Korean families typically enter
business deals together to consolidate resources].”
When mulling over prospective trade partners, people will factor in everything from zodiac signs, the date of the
transaction, and the trade location’s compatibility with this year’s fortune,
according to the source. For those who are looking to sell big with wholesale,
if their compatibility turns out not to mix at all with the other, they turn
down the deal “even if it’s with their own brother,” she said.
“As more people want business compatibility
readings, fortune tellers who used to make a living with readings on marriages
are now offering business predictions as well,” the source explained. Still, not all seek out professionals–some use their extra time to learn the craft and
provide their own readings based on copious notes they have taken down.
Most traders and
smugglers who meet Chinese traders believe transactions will go smoothly only
if they are compatible with each other, prompting them to calculate everything
using the age and birth date of their counterpart.
“Even vendors at the market places look at
zodiac compatibility readings when receiving goods from their suppliers,” she
noted.
As this reliance on superstitious practices
grows, the Party has been holding public lectures and meetings, telling people
to write down all teachings from Kim Jong Un and study them–all of which, as the source put it, “falls on deaf ears.”
“To survive in North Korea, being good at
making money is so much more important than studying [ideological] teachings, so such
compatibility readings are considered more essential,” she concluded.
