Starting in April, North Korea has increased the operating hours of markets in the country. The authorities are apparently trying to soothe public sentiment by lengthening market hours in the runup to the commemoration of Kim Il Sung’s birth on Apr. 15.
According to a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province on Tuesday, the authorities lengthened market hours in Hoeryong by two hours from the first day of April. Market hours had been 2 PM to 5 PM; they are now 2 PM to 7 PM. The increase is partly due to the approaching summer season, but the authorities are also allowing the markets to open earlier than before.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea has divided market operating hours into “summer hours” and “winter hours.” During past summer seasons — stretching from April to September — markets have operated for four hours, from 3 PM to 7 PM. This year, however, the markets are opening one hour earlier at 2 PM, allowing shoppers to use them for five hours.
With North Korea extending market hours ahead of the birthday of late national founder Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s biggest holiday, people in the country are rejoicing.
The source said people suffered many inconveniences because market hours were so short. He said with the authorities extending market hours a bit this year — perhaps because North Korea emphasizes fifth and 10th year anniversaries — North Koreans will have a slightly easier time preparing for the holiday.
Nevertheless, the authorities continue to crack down on street merchants.
Operating on little capital, street merchants are among the people having the toughest time getting by in North Korea. However, streetside commerce runs counter to the celebratory social atmosphere to mark the holiday, and the authorities are cracking down hard on what they call “anti-socialist behavior” that muddies the country’s “socialist image.”
In fact, police and enforcement personnel arrested a Hoeryong resident early this month when they caught him selling rice cakes in an alleyway in the city’s Nammun-dong. The reason: he was doing business in an alley, where the authorities ban the buying and selling of goods.
The individual begged the police to let him go, but the officers reportedly dragged him off to the Ministry of Social Security anyway, explaining that it was a “special enforcement period.” Ultimately, he was freed only after he paid a KPW 10,000 fine.
In regards to the incident, locals complain that the authorities are “preparing” for the holiday by squeezing street merchants.
According to the source, people are saying that authorities take few fines or bribes from people doing official business in the markets, but the police show great zeal in clamping down on street merchants for bribes — even if just a pack of smokes — ostensibly because streetside commerce is illegal.
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