[imText1]The number of Chinese traders who enter North Korea is not small.
North Koreaโs domestic situation that they have relayed helps us understand North Koreaโs current situation. Chinese traders, in reality, are important conduits for the influx and outflow of information. Also, information that they relay is relatively objective.
Jin Young Lim (43), who has been trading between North Korea and China for 10 years goes to North Korea usually every two to three days. He is a trader using 2.5 ton and 5 ton trucks.
Mr. Jin, in a phone conversation with Daily NK on the 20th said, โWe have to be cautious from the North Korean customs after crossing the Chinese customs.โ Why do they have to be cautious? The situation he relayed is this.
The distance between the point of his departure from the North Korean customs to his destination is about 50km. However, the road is unpaved, so the trip requires over an hour and a half. The road is close to a residential area, so quite a few people can be found walking along the street.
Until several years ago, Mr. Jin picked up North Koreans, who would stand on the sides of the streets waving their hands, in the back of the trucks or in the passengerโs seat.
However, the word was that Chinese merchants at some point started speeding up upon seeing North Koreans.
The reason was simple. At first, they picked up North Koreans out of sympathy, but they would take the goods on the trucks or steal things whenever they had the chance.
There have even been people who pulled out their knives and demanded money from the merchant who was driving them. Mr. Jin said that after one of his colleagues was robbed, he never picked up another person again.
But worse events took place. When Chinese merchants stopped picking up passengers, North Koreans would climb onto the truck, throw out the loaded items, and descend from the trucks.
Mr. Jin said that jumping onto or off of a running vehicle is a very risky act, but North Koreans do not seem to be afraid of anything anymore.
Due to these events, Chinese merchants are taking a โnew course of action.โ Mr. Jin said, โLosing not just one or two carts but several ones leads to a huge loss, so the merchants started covering the cargo department with metal, so that North Korean civilians cannot hang onto the running vehicles.โ
Losses have almost been minimized by covering the back of the trucks, but this has not been a perfect solution.
With the road splitting due to snow gathering during the winter or heavy rain during the summer, there have been incidents where civilians demolished the door of the cover while the truck was going slowly and stole the goods. Mr. Jin said that in such cases, trucks stay close to each other and keep on the look-out.
Mr. Jin said, โIn order to trade with North Korea, it is important to fend the attacks of the โenemyโ and one can succeed only by tasting both sweet and bitter experiences.โ He said his friends call him a โNorth Korean ghostโ because he has long years of experience under his belt now.
โTrade will be better if North Korea shows a definite, open posture.โ
Chinese merchants said an another source of headache while trading with North Korea is the food issue.
Trader Yang Jin Su (45) said, โThere are not adequate places where one can have a meal nowadays, so we make our own food when we enter North Korea.โ
Chinese merchants stay at hotels (inns), but usually have eaten their meals at Chinese-run restaurants. These restaurants were good at first, but their numbers kept dwindling. The customers started drying up at these Chinese restaurants and the Chinese restaurants operating nowadays cater to North Koreans as well, so it is difficult for the palettes of the Chinese merchants.
Mr. Yang said, โBecause of such a situation, Chinese merchants bring electric rice-cookers and cooking utensils and prepare their own rice and side dishes at the hotel.โ
Do hotel managers stay silent if they cook in the rooms? Mr. Yang said, โWe are not supposed to eat in the rooms, but North Korean hotels do not have guests, so they turn a blind eye to us because they do not want to lose their guests.โ
Due to the recent nuclear problem, foreign tourists have decreased in North Korea and North Korea and Chinaโs trade declined significantly as well. Many Chinese who were managing hotels and restaurants in North Korea returned to China.
Mr. Jin and Mr. Yang said there have been merchants who quit their trading due to the difficulties experienced in North Korea. There is a saying that trade โhas high returns in a dangerous and dark place,โ but North Korea is not this way. Merchants go wherever there are gains, but North Korea does not have a large profit margin in poorer environments.โ
They said if North Korea showed a definite open and reform posture, then trade will be better than the current state, but the lack of clarity of development is the biggest problem.
