Amidst the growing private economy in North Korea, a number of people are growing wealthy by cashing in on the expanding distribution industry. Recently, a growing number of these newly rich are purchasing China��s Jinbei brand of small 2-3 ton load trucks to facilitate business operations, Daily NK has learned. 

��Recently, Jinbei trucks coming in from Dandong Customs House through to the Sinuiju customs office in North Korea are becoming very hot items in the transportation market," a source in North Pyongan province reported to Daily NK on September 16th. ��Foreign-currency earning enterprises are importing these smaller Jinbei trucks which are quite different from the 20-30 ton load trucks that were previously the norm.�� 

This information was cross-checked via an additional source in the same province and a source in South Pyongan Province. 

As North Korean coal exports have decreased and domestic market activity has picked up, the small trucks have become more useful for delivering goods to local markets. ��Ordinary men use bicycles or motorbikes to distribute goods, but the rich are able to buy these small 2-3 ton load trucks and use those instead,�� he explained.

These trucks, as with most vehicles in North Korea, are first imported by foreign-currency earning enterprises and sold unofficially to individuals with the cash to pay up front and in full--i.e. the donju. Because possession of vehicles is still officially forbidden in North Korea, the car remains registered under the name of the affiliated enterprise's name; the entrepreneurial individual utilizing it kicks back a portion of his--or, less frequently, her-- profits to the company. 

Although the majority of buyers and sellers of actual goods in the markets are women, for the most part it is men who are working on the distribution side of things. Previously, women made up almost the entirety of workers in the private economy; however, with the entry of more and more men into the distribution industry, the structure of the market is changing, according to the source. 

While women have long been able to participate in market activities if they have the seed money to get started, men must go through a complicated approval process to do so, he added. Even to get started in the transportation sector they must make regular payments to their workplace in order to obtain outside work approval in addition to securing a vehicle. 

Nonetheless, for a growing number of North Korean men, the potential fiscal rewards far outweigh the hassles and headaches incurred during the byzantine process required to get started in the distribution industry.