North Korea recently began curtailing the early morning commerce that takes place in Pyongyang and other major cities nationwide, Daily NK has learned.
According to a Daily NK reporting partner in Pyongyang on Tuesday, North Korea recently declared illegal the early morning commerce that takes place between 4 AM and 8 AM in Pyongyang, Pyongsong, Hamhung, Chongjin and other major cities. It also issued an order for an intensive crackdown.
In issuing the crackdown order, North Korean authorities said that citizens “must keep the revolutionary system and order even in commerce,” and that the new instructions aimed to “do away with phenomena that spoil the socialist image.”
The authorities pointed out that the throngs of early morning merchants ruin the urban aesthetics, and that early morning merchants do not pay the market taxes that must go to the state.
“Most people who cannot engage in commerce during the day since they are burdened with mobilizations to farms or construction sites use the early morning hours,” said the reporting partner, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Many people receive spring vegetables, greenhouse fruits, rice, corn and other produce on wholesale, but in Pyongyang, the authorities said they will actively crack down on the disordered procession of merchants in the dark hours.”
In fact, Pyongyang’s city government is reportedly mobilizing crackdown teams composed of members of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea and enforcement squads composed of members of the Socialist Women’s Union of Korea, sending them to designated spots downtown where early morning merchants most appear.
Given these circumstances, locals sarcastically note that “there are more enforcement teams standing around everywhere downtown than there are merchants.”
Pyongyang enacted punishments aimed at confiscating the wares of merchants caught in the crackdowns and imposing fines and the writing up of self-criticism letters. Merchants who refuse and resist the crackdowns are immediately reported to the police.
Pyongyang continues to wage its sweeping crackdown in accordance with the order to “eliminate all early morning merchants by the end of the month,” but locals say that enforcement personnel are not waging a proper crackdown, the reporting partner said.
“Pyongyang’s crackdown teams don’t impose the state-set fines on merchants caught in the middle of downtown, but let them go after taking KPW 30,000 or enough money for two packs of cigarettes,” the reporting partner said. “So people are complaining that they don’t know if the crackdown was meant to achieve a policy or is just serving as a personal money-making operation.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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