I wanted to hear about post-Kim Jong Il conditions inside North Korea directly from the horse’s mouth, so I recently headed for the border region of China. There, I had the chance to meet six North Korean people; enterprise traders, market wholesalers and workers. For sure, not one had even the slightest interest in the transfer of power from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Eun as such. To them, politics is the domain of the full belly.
But, they said with one voice that when problems stemming from politics began to impact on their livelihoods, it could be a different story.
The mourning period following the death of Kim Jong Il has been one such period, they said. The authorities have been placing limits on all kinds of survival tools in their pursuit of an “atmosphere of reverence”; trading, meetings and movement between provinces. They have even tried to enforce prohibition. At the same time, people have been restrained in their actions by the need to attend constant lectures and study sessions. Ordinary people have been forced to go out to buy food in the dead of night. It has fostered resentment, of course. As one interviewee pointed out with a snarl, “If we all starved to death, then who would be left to mourn?”
Things are still not back to normal, they said. The market has shrunk, less money is in circulation and incomes are low. Restrictions were mostly eased after the anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s birthday on February 16th, but trade in grains and other necessities is still not what it was. They say this is partly because purchasing power is down. A female trade company employee from Chongjin told her own story, commenting, “In the past I traded industrial products and earned enough in a day to buy a kilo of rice, but now nothing ever sells except rice.”
Of course, alley markets with their grasshopper traders are particular targets for official censure. It’s where the poor go to trade. Such people, people who live hand to mouth, cannot afford to see their lifeline cut even for a second, and when it is, they are forced to accumulate debt in order just to eat.
In such circumstances, people have to make choices. Some obtain permits to visit China in order to obtain help from family lucky enough to be living there. But that is not cheap, either. They say that taking into account accommodation and permit costs it can cost as much as $800, much of which winds up in the pockets of the National Security Agency.
They have seen the mourning period controls in action, and declare them to be little more than a way to fill the pockets of officialdom. This is the main, perhaps even the only, reason why ordinary people care for politics and want to see change. The use of words that began to appear in the 1990s, “Let’s just have a war or whatever and then change things” has become a habit now.. As one trading woman of 40 put it, “As long as we see reform and opening people would like to see war, since they don’t care now whether they die or not.”
Just like his father, Kim Jong Eun is filling the people with resentment via endless controls. Kim is trying to raise his prestige by emulating his grandfather. However, people remember that Kim Il Sung used to feed them. It is hard for Kim to foster the image of a leader if he cannot emulate that. In the end, the only answer is reform and opening. Interviewees said 90% of people want it.
