North Korean authorities recently conducted surveys for market sellers and customers with a view to improving the management of markets. The survey asked about dissatisfaction with the current market system, but many people appear to mistrust the country’s first-ever survey of its kind, suspecting it to be a ruse to ferret out “malcontents.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Pyongan Province recently told Daily NK that the province’s commercial bureau “carried out a public survey to improve the market management sector in 2024.” He said the authorities intend to use the survey to “ascertain what the public was unhappy with.”
The provincial commercial bureau conveyed the plan to conduct the survey to local cities and counties, and the survey began in all local markets starting Dec. 16.
The survey included questions about whether respondents were happy with how market fees and taxes are collected, as well as the amounts of these fees and taxes.
Some of the questions on the survey included: “Market fees are decided in consideration of booth area and location, while the market management office collects market taxes every day based on a statement issued by the commercial department of the people’s committee of each city and county. What do you think of this?” and, “Do you think the current storage fees that businesspeople pay and bicycle storage fees that shoppers pay are appropriate? Or do you think they could be higher?” and, “Do the market management office officials are responsive to opinions and complaints?”
However, most people distrust the government’s intentions behind conducting the survey. “I don’t think the government has ever asked what we thought,” the source said. “People worry harm will come to them if they just take the survey without thinking.”
According to the source, one person said this was the first time in his life that the government was asking the public what it thinks, and he did not know if it was because they actually cared what they thought or if they were simply trying to weed out malcontents.
Another person said he voted “yes” during the recent local elections — even though the authorities told people they could vote “no” — for fear of being labeled a “reactionary element.” Now, with the government conducting a survey about how to improve markets, he expressed nervousness, unsure if the authorities really wanted to know what people are unhappy with.
Given that North Korean authorities have never conducted a survey like this before, few people seem to have believed the official explanation that the survey was aimed at improving the management of markets.
Some people even suspect that the survey is a Ministry of State Security “operation” to weed out critics of government policy.
“It gives me goosebumps that they’re suddenly doing something they never did before,” one market seller told Daily NK. “The Ministry of State Security somehow finds a way to catch you if you say the slightest thing wrong, and now the government is telling us to openly express our opposition to state policy. The ministry will probably use the survey to determine where we stand on the ideological scale.”
In fact, many market sellers refused to take the survey, telling market management offices to “fill out the survey on your own since we don’t really know how to answer the questions.”
Some people have even asked trusted members of the Ministry of State Security whether the survey was conducted by the provincial commercial bureau or the secret police.
“[The authorities] say they’re carrying out the survey [to improve] market management, but there’s probably an underlying scheme at play,” the source said, adding: “The government seems intent to pester people in the new year.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
