Party cadres and People’s
Committee officials have been hiring family members as
marketplace managers, pushing out state-recognized patriots and retired cadres
who mostly held such money-making posts, Daily NK has learned.
“Market management officials under the
province’s city and county People’s Committee are being swapped out from
retired cadre in their 60s and 70s to family and relatives of incumbent
members,” a source from South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Tuesday. “Cadres in the management office say the transition is to establish new order by hiring
younger people, but in reality, it’s just to make their families extra money.”
This trend is also prevalent in North
Pyongan Province, according to a Daily NK source there; these practices have
not been verified outside of these provinces.
“From the start of this year, retired cadres in their 70s who held positions at the market managing office in Pyongsong were
all replaced with young women,” the source reported. “Wives or relatives of
young cadre members in the provincial Party and People’s Committee have
basically pushed out officials who had worked at those same organizations for
decades.”
Although current officials say the
transition is to help reduce thefts and scams in market sales and at bicycle
storage areas, thereby establishing new order in the marketplace, this is all a
guise to make more profit within the family, according to the source.
At the general market in South Pyongan
Province run by a management office under the municipal People’s Committee,
there are some dozens of officials, including the management director, a fee
collector, bicycle storage agent, market monitor, and guards for security and
merchandise storage. These slots are continuously being filled with family and
relatives of incumbent cadres.
“If you work as a management official, you
receive 20kg in rice monthly and 10,000 KPW [1.23 USD] in wages, but this is just your
nominal paycheck. Using illicit means, these people make dozens of times what
vendors make,” he said. “Some let people park their bicycles for free
in exchange for a bribe payoff or others just keep money from merchants’ stall fees for themselves; they can amass sums of up to hundreds of dollars each
month through these practices.”
As the number of vendors who have to store
their bicycles or motorcycles are in the hundreds each day, the source said, no
would one notice if officials were to set aside a portion of those earnings
instead of giving it all up to the People’s Committee. It typically costs 300-600 KPW [0.04-0.07 USD] an hour to store your bike, with many leaving them there for over 10
hours a day.
“It may look as if wives of People’s
Committee officials are struggling with the management work, but just one year
of work there will provide them with a precious sum in savings,” he explained. “Not only do you learn how to make money, you can earn in illegal
profits, so it’s no wonder Party cadres eye these posts.”
