Average household income in North Korea has continued to rise following the spread of marketization throughout the country. This appears to have had a direct effect on the content in worker’s lunchboxes, particularly with more white rice and better side dishes.
“A lot of people mobilized in the manure battle this year are bringing lunchboxes to work,” said a South Hamgyong Province-based source. “Most people have noticed that the general quality of food has improved a lot.”
“There were a lot of people packing lunchboxes containing just multigrain rice up until the early to mid-2000s. Now most lunchboxes are split 50/50 between [white] rice and multigrain rice,” said the source. “It’s also common to have seasoned vegetable and potato side dishes, along with seafood side dishes made from pollack and catfish.”
A picture taken in North Korea sent by a separate Daily NK source shows a lunchbox with a 70/30 split between [white] rice and multigrain rice (corn rice) alongside a healthy serving of pollack. “This photo is an example of how the average laborer is eating,” the source said, while also making clear that North Korea’s poorer classes still eat more multigrain rice than white rice.
After being shown the photo, Kim Mi Hyang, a defector who left North Korea in 2014 said, “Some try to pack good lunches for themselves like this because it’s a matter of pride, but most people don’t eat like this,” adding that, “It’s hard to eat white rice if you’re poor, but the photo suggests that people are eating better these days.”
The split between white rice and multigrain rice in people’s lunchboxes up until the early 1990s when the public distribution system (PDS) was still operating, was around 30/70 or 20/80, respectively. Despite international sanctions on North Korea, the source said that the quality of food in lunchboxes began to improve as marketization permeated society. The quality is reportedly even better than when the PDS was operating.
Many North Koreans use around a week’s worth of wages to order food during the manure collection period. Black bean sauce noodles (jjajangmyun) are the most popular dish to order, while others prefer to make an effort to pack good lunches to show others that they aren’t facing hardship.
“It depends on the family in question, but incomes have more or less stabilized given that the state isn’t cracking down so much on private business or production,” a source in Ryanggang Province reported.
However, she was quick to note that people who have failed to adapt to marketization or have failed businesses are facing significant hardships.
“People in my neighborhood go around saying that they are having a tough time, but the overall situation has improved a lot over the past 10 to 20 years. There are more people in my neighborhood who are buying electronic goods than there are people selling them, she said.
“All of the families in my neighborhood have mobile phones. Families with college students or those with family members working in a technical field deem notebook computers essential. People install solar panels because the electricity situation is so bad. They also need more electricity because they have more devices.”
