The kind of gallows humor that satirizes the state of North Korean society is as popular in North Korea as it ever was in other socialist states. <\/p>\n
For example, sarcastic terms to describe the useless role of a husband. As a source from North Hamkyung Province told The Daily NK on the 26th, \u201cHusbands have tended not to go to workplaces and not to contribute to households, so reputations have been lost. Women call what was once a \u2018nampyeon (husband)\u2019 a \u2018bulpyeon\u2019 (inconvenience), or a \u2018light bulb in daylight\u2019, meaning a useless thing.\u201d <\/p>\n
Or, as the source explained, \u201cThe North Korean currency has fallen off and people prefer foreign currency, so they call US Dollar \u2018groom\u2019 and Chinese Yuan \u2018bride\u2019, while the North Korean won is the mere \u2018bridesmaid\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the currency redenomination, there have been many cases of fraud or where people run away due to debt, too, meaning that now the term that means \u2018to pay later\u2019 (\u2018hubul\u2019) has become \u2018disappearance\u2019 (haengbul), \u2018borrowed money\u2019 (\u2018ggun-don\u2019) as \u2018earned money\u2019 (\u2018beon-don\u2019) and those who are actually repaid the money they are owed are labeled a \u2018war hero.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The kind of gallows humor that satirizes the state of North Korean society is as popular in North Korea as it ever was in other socialist states. For example, sarcastic terms to describe the useless role of a husband. As a source from North Hamkyung Province told The Daily NK on the 26th, \u201cHusbands have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":17036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[645],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n