commodity prices broker
FILE PHOTO: North Korean sellers peddle goods on the fringes of a market in Sunchon, South Pyongan Province, in October 2018. (Daily NK)

North Korea has recently increased crackdowns on private food vendors as part of efforts to push consumers into state-run food stores, Daily NK has learned.

“In late October and then again in mid-November, the government ordered the complete elimination of private vendors of grain products, which has made it very difficult for people to sell food at the moment,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday. 

“The order appears to be aimed at preventing people buying and selling food on the streets, and at bringing food prices under the control of the government,” he added. 

The city of Chongjin, for example, has reportedly placed a complete ban on private food sales anywhere other than state-run food stores.

Municipal and neighborhood police officers patrol the streets and alleyways, keeping an eye out for people selling food and confiscating the food of any vendors they find.

VENDORS AND CONSUMERS ARE UP IN ARMS

That has angered not only the vendors themselves but also their patrons, the source said.

“If the state-run food stores were selling rice for less than private vendors, people wouldn’t make an issue of this, but they’re upset because private rice sales are banned even when the prices are basically the same,” the source quoted a resident of Chongjin as saying.

“People who live hand to mouth tend to pick up some rice on credit from private vendors at the market on their way home from work and then pay them back the next day, but credit isn’t accepted at the food stores. So this is an unwelcome change for people without money,” the resident said. 

Since these crackdowns have failed to stamp out individual food sales, North Korea is turning to a policy of terror. The country’s law enforcement bodies are now threatening to execute anyone caught making illicit food sales, according to the source. 

“Police threats tend to become reality. While the police’s current job is to crack down on private food vendors, the government could decide to make an example of some vendors by having them shot if it decides a warning message is needed,” the source said.

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