The price of vegetables including cabbage and radish has surged around the border regions in North Korea and to a lesser degree, further inland. The sudden spike is believed to be driven by sanctions jitters, unseasonably cold temperatures, and excessive mobilization for the upcoming Party Congress, but is being viewed by some as a temporary upswing, given the continual stability in rice prices and foreign exchange rates. 

��Back in February, cabbage was selling for around 2,500 KPW (per kilogram), but prices have suddenly jumped to 7,000 KPW. That��s more expensive than rice,�� a Daily NK source in Ryanggang Province reported on April 25. ��Now is usually the time when food supplies are short (because of the barley hump), but it looks like the hike was triggered by more people mixing in dried greens with their rice to conserve their rice supplies, in the belief that the food situation may worsen due to [implications stemming from] the sanctions.�� 

Radish prices in border regions have also surged from 1,200 KPW (per kilogram) in February to 3,100 KPW, leading to concerns that this year may become one of the toughest years in the recent memory. 

��In some areas of Taehongdan County, people are eating so-called ��radish noodles,�� which are made by coating radish leaves with potato starch,�� the source explained. 

According to another source in Pukchong County, South Hamgyong Province, the food situation has worsened to the extent that an increasing number of families in farming communities are eating "seaweed rice."

Conditions in the central inland areas are not much different. Individuals who would normally grow their own vegetables have seen their schedules disrupted by ongoing ��70-Day Battle�� mobilizations. ��Thanks to the continual mobilizations, said by many to be ��turning their hearts into black lumps of coal��, ahead of the Party Congress, business at the markets has lost its vibrancy and the residents are miserable,�� a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK. 

One key difference offering residents in interior regions (including the capital) some relief is their spinach harvest, which has not yet occurred in the border regions (due to cooler temperatures). Unfortunately, the interior regions have also seen cabbage prices climb, fetching around 4,800 KPW to 5,000 KPW per kilogram. 

Despite these high prices, movements on the rice and foreign currency front have remained relatively stable, leading people to believe the spike in vegetables will be short lived. 

��Vegetables are not export items and therefore their prices are determined by domestic supply and demand,�� the Pyongyang-based source noted. ��However strong the sanctions may be, rice prices have nonetheless remained the same and, under these conditions, not many will choose to eat expensive cabbages over rice,�� the source added, suggesting that prices are likely to return to normal as the markets readjust for supply and demand.