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The above images are from video footage shot inside North Korea by Asia Press in 2009. When a police officer stops a woman who is trying to ride a ‘servi-car’ (a truck used for transporting passengers), other passengers protest against it.
Operation of servi-cars is illegal, but passengers berate the police officer anyway.
North Korean people’s attitudes have changed dramatically since the mid 1990s. Before that, due to information restrictions and idolization of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the belief that the ‘Republic’ was a ‘People’s Paradise’ was dominant. The late Hwang Jang Yop once said of the time, “People were ideological slaves, worrying about the General while starving to death.”
But as state rations stopped and millions died of starvation, smuggling and other forms of business done across the Sino-Korean border became common. People started to realize that money is more important than the Party or leader. Controlled people changed into self-reliant people, defectors say. Now, on top of that, recent Daily NK interviews suggest that the failure of the currency reform has made many people highly dissatisfied.
▶Popular Grievances Increase after Food Crisis and Currency Reform
Kim and Lee, a husband and wife from Gyeongwon County in North Korea, currently live in Hunchun, China. They told the Daily NK, “These days, people will grab the neck of an officer cracking down on them.” Equally, when someone tries to question them, they will reply, “Hey! How am I supposed to live? Are you going to feed me?’
“People say, ‘the big thief is sitting in the presidium’,” Kim added.
The Kims are defectors who do not want to go back to North Korea, so it is not surprising that they spoke relatively freely. Yet Lim, a resident of Shinuiju visiting China for trade, also spoke bluntly, agreeing that people’s minds had changed after the currency reform. This despite his being a Party member and direct beneficiary of the state’s largesse.
“Before the currency reform, a person like me received special rations, so even though I knew basically what was going on outside the country, I was grateful to the state. But I lost lots of money because of the currency reform. That makes me mad even now,” Lim said.
He went on, “Life stabilized after the March of Tribulation in around 2005, but people lost money in the currency reform that they had sweated blood to earn in the jangmadang, so if they say they don’t feel bad then they are lying. Who can think well of the state after that?”
“People are now aware. They say they are loyal to the General, but think differently. Since the currency reform, people’s thoughts changed completely,” Lim concluded.
Meanwhile, Lee, part of North Korea’s border guard, told The Daily NK, “In the past, all people followed the state unconditionally, but that has changed.” However, when asked whether people are dissatisfied with the leadership, Lee hesitated to answer.
Lee said he crossed the Yalu River on May 27th, just a day before the interview took place, and would have to go back to North Korea that same night. He looked nervous to be meeting with South Koreans in China, but admitted, “Chosun is having a hard time. We get South Korean and Chinese news the fastest, so how can the people above us look upon us positively?”
Some resist criticizing the authorities, but most seem willing to recognize the economic difficulties. Lee, a forty-year old female Party member from Kangwon Province said, “We are starving, so the Party members must step forward to overcome the nation’s difficulties.”
Lee, however, talked negatively about the domestic conditions after the currency reform, saying, “Public opinion since the currency reform has been bad. People criticize the state. It is because they rue the situation. But it is not blatant criticism against the system.”
However Ji, who got a job in Yanji after getting a passport to visit a relative, met The Daily NK reporters with a compelling show of loyalty; when a reporter mentioned ‘Kim Jong Il’, she told him to refer to ‘Comrade Kim Jong Il’, and offered up praise.
▶Except Criticism of Kim Jong Il and Co, Dissatisfaction is Allowed
Kim Heung Gwang, the president of NK Intellectual’s Solidarity and a former professor at a North Korean university, says, “North Korean people’s political awareness is not mature enough for the democratization wind to blow, but they are realizing where they are after watching foreign materials. When they were receiving state rations, they could not criticize the state, but now, the state does not provide rations and even took their money away, so it is difficult for the security forces to punish their ‘words.’”
It appears popular criticism against the authorities is increasing, and punishments are weakening. People are reportedly saying fairly openly, “What did the state do for me? It doesn’t care if people’s bellies are empty.” If people do not mention Kim Jong Il’s family or blame the regime openly, then they are not getting arrested any more.
A woman in her forties doing business in Pyongsung said “In the past, family members watched each other’s words, but these days at bus stations or in the jangmadang, people say things like ‘We should not do what the state says,’ ‘What did the state do for us?’ or ‘The state just shouts at us, without giving us rations.’”
Park Hyeong Jung, an analyst at KINU, pointed out the significance of this change, saying, “Although these are private conversations, criticizing the government in public places seems to show how dissatisfied people are, and an environment of condoning such criticisms has been created. Since the central government’s fault was clear in the currency reform, it was possible for people’s grievances to grow from it.”
Given that KINU’s 2010 North Korean Human Rights White Paper didn’t even bother including a freedom of expression section, it is noteworthy that some degree of criticism of the authorities is now being allowed.
Kim Young Hwan, the editor of quarterly Zeitgeist magazine pointed to another angle, saying, “The North Korean government did not allow it; they gave in since those charged with cracking down on it complained of the effectiveness of restricting it.” This, he analyzed, suggests “a growing lack of administrative ability.”
▶Negativity toward Succession and Possibility of Reform
Since the currency reform, North Korea has prohibited gatherings of three or more in one place in order to prevent protests.
Jin, an electrical engineer at a factory in North Hamkyung Province said, “After the currency reform, people were told not to gather with two or more people, and told that talking about the General and Youth Captain were especially prohibited.” However Jin added, “People hold their tongues, but their thoughts are completely different.”
Lee, who does business around Sunchon in South Pyongan Province, agreed, saying, “We are told that the General is working hard and selflessly, but educated and smart people think differently.”
“Defaming the General is not allowed in North Korea,” he agreed, but did add, “The Supreme Leader prioritized the people, whereas now under the military-first policy the army is strict and scary.”
Elsewhere, interviewees returned to the subject of the succession, and nobody seemed confident of success.
Lee, a Chinese missionary who helps North Koreans in Jian, China, said, “Before the Youth Captain was nominated as successor, North Korean officials visiting here said ‘it is unlikely (that power would be passed down three generations).’ Now they say ‘it is great honor to serve the Young General’, but they privately say ‘it will not be easy.’”
Kim, an employee at Nampo Steel Mill interviewed in Shenyang explained, “Even though people cannot explicitly say so, they think things like, ‘What does that kid know?’” and added, “There is no one who speaks ill of him, but nobody praises him either.”
