Tag: donju
North Korea’s donju hand over rice and cash to the state...
North Korean authorities are pressuring wealthy private traders known as donju — loosely translated as "masters of money," referring to a class of entrepreneurs...
Young North Koreans turn to flexible 8·3 labor as state wages...
Young workers in North Korea are increasingly using a practice known as "8·3 labor" — paying a fee to their state-assigned workplace in exchange...
North Korean donju convert apartments into duplexes to shelter wealth from...
Wealthy entrepreneurs in North Korea are buying adjacent apartment units and converting them into private duplexes, a trend driven less by lifestyle aspiration than...
North Korea’s wealthy keep using South Korean rice cookers despite crackdowns
Despite intensifying crackdowns on South Korean goods, North Korea's wealthy elite continue to use Cuckoo brand electric rice cookers, treating the South Korean appliances...
North Korean traders race to read the market ahead of summer...
Traders in the North Korean border city of Hyesan are scouring Chinese markets for summer clothing and footwear samples ahead of the import season,...
Rising prices push North Korea housing costs out of reach for...
Housing costs across North Korea have surged two to four times their pre-pandemic levels, squeezing young couples out of the property market and prompting...
North Korea’s pet industry takes off as Kim Jong Un visit...
North Korea's state-linked trading companies imported dozens of pet dogs from China in 2026, in a significant and unusual expansion of the country's nascent...
North Korea’s donju go dark as post-congress crackdown spreads fear
North Korean donju — the wealthy private traders who form the backbone of the country's informal market economy — are going dark. Amid a...
Three words humbled a North Korean checkpoint inspector and got him...
A single claim of membership in the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Fund was enough to cut short the career of a North Korean...
North Korean farm officials lease state land for double profits as...
Farm officials in North Korea's Jagang province are leasing portions of state-owned agricultural land to private individuals for a fee, a scheme that allows...
