Rumors are circulating once again that the customs house in Hyesan will reopen soon, but many locals are indifferent after several previous rounds of rumors proved unfounded.
“Rumors are once again spreading that the Hyesan Customs House will open and full-scale trade will restart,” a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “However, because the rumors have so far proven unfounded and the customs house remained closed, most locals don’t expect much this time, either.”
The source explained that rumors are going around Hyesan that trading companies received notification on Sept. 2 that the Hyesan Customs House would reopen and trading would restart in mid-September. The rumors also suggested that the customs house had received an order to prepare for the arrival of North Koreans who went to China on private business but have been unable to return since the outbreak of COVID-19 more than three years ago.
Some Hyesan residents who heard the rumors are reacting with hope, saying that trade will normalize when the customs house opens in mid-September and that the most recent rumors must be true since customs officials are preparing to let back travellers to China about which nothing had been heard about until now.
However, most people are taking a skeptical wait-and-see approach, the source said.
According to the source, one trader in Hyesan expressed his frustration by saying: “The customs house is still not open even though they’ve been talking about opening it since the start of the year, and now nobody’s interested after hearing so many of these rumors. Before, people were so happy upon hearing talk of the customs house opening that they couldn’t sleep at night, but now they feel the polar opposite. If [the authorities] simply said it won’t open, we could at least give up hope. It’s terrible that we have to be tortured like this.”
The source told Daily NK that “nobody can believe the rumors given that the customs house remains closed even after orders to restart trade were issued and central government inspections were concluded. Some trade officials have even complained that they cannot understand why [the authorities] keep delaying when they say they’re opening the place, if not to taunt people.”
Traders take on losses after believing rumors
Upon hearing rumors of the customs house’s opening, some traders took out private loans to buy up ore, medicinal herbs or other items, only to take on major financial losses when the rumors were found to be untrue, the source said.
“Traders who bought up blueberries, which are harvested in August and September, are in particularly dire straits. If you can’t export things like blueberries right away, their taste changes as they ripen and they lose their freshness. If that happens, you can’t fetch their proper price and have to sell them at a loss.
“Traders feel a sense of urgency, and they’re growing more frustrated since the customs house remains closed, and the date it’s supposed to open keeps getting pushed back.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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