{"id":43571,"date":"2020-01-20T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T05:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=43571"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:15:28","slug":"north-korean-factories-still-suffering-low-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-factories-still-suffering-low-production\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korean factories still suffering from low production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean leader Kim Jong Un emphasized increased productivity and a \u201cfrontal breakthrough\u201d for the economy during the year-end plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers\u2019 Party of Korea (WPK). Daily NK sources, however, have reported slowed production at many of the country\u2019s factories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAmong the 180 or so enterprises in the Pyongsong region [near Pyongyang], there are around 35 factories,\u201d a South Pyongan Province source told Daily NK on Dec. 9. \u201cLess than half of these factories are producing at normal levels and, of those, only about five even pay monthly wages.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The wages provided at those five factories, which are all state-run, are reportedly providing in-kind payments, rather than cash.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cVery few units pay market wages in cash. Most give their employees rice, corn, oil, flour and other goods,\u201d the source said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe wages differ depending on the worker\u2019s position, the type of work they do, how long they\u2019ve worked and other factors, but on average it\u2019s equivalent to about KPW 5,000 a month,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One kilogram of North Korean rice sells for about KPW 4,600\u20135,000 at local markets, meaning that workers are only being paid enough to afford one kilogram of rice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sources said that the average monthly wage at privately-run factories \u2014 such as those owned by the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">donju<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (North Korea\u2019s entrepreneurial class) \u2014 are about 100 times the wages at a state-run factory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the average monthly wage at a state-run factory is in the range of KPW 5,000, sources reported that the monthly wage at a privately-owned factory is around KPW 500,000. Even so, privately-owned factories also tend to give their workers non-cash payments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">THE STATE STILL MAINTAINS CONTROL OVER BUSINESSES<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily NK sources emphasized that, in general, businesses in North Korea are still under state control.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard to claim that enterprises enjoy much autonomy from WPK control,\u201d another Daily NK source said. \u201cThis is because managers of factories in North Korea must be Party members.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_43573\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43573\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-43573 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/01\/\ubcd1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"production\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/01\/\ubcd1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/01\/\ubcd1-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/01\/\ubcd1-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/01\/\ubcd1.jpg 741w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43573\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A production line at the Daedong River Food Processing Plant in Pyongyang. \/ Image: Maeari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such remarks suggest that the Kim Jong Un regime\u2019s vaunted \u201cSocialist Enterprise Responsibility System,\u201d which was introduced to increase factory production, has not been effective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After assuming power in 2012, Kim introduced the system in 2014 in an amendment to the country\u2019s \u201cEnterprise Act.\u201d Last April, the system was added to the country\u2019s constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The system is aimed at enhancing productivity and efficiency among the country\u2019s businesses by granting a certain degree of autonomy to them in their operations, including business planning, raising funds, financial management, and how profits are used.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The system is often considered Kim Jong Un\u2019s most important economic reform measure. Some experts have interpreted the significant increase in corporate autonomy &#8211; least in the area of production and distribution &#8211; as North Korea actively accepting elements of market capitalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NORTH KOREAN ECONOMY STILL STUCK IN OLD FRAMEWORK<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some Daily NK sources argue, however, that North Korea still remains mired in the framework of a planned economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIndividuals in North Korea have never been allowed to own any stakes in businesses, people have never made long-term investments in companies here. Instead they just make short-term investments to hurry along the production of certain goods to either take back their initial investment or collect earnings,\u201d one Daily NK source said. \u201cMany factories are overburdened by the state\u2019s demands for production and are just scraping by.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite these obstacles, some factories have managed to build highly lucrative businesses by actively soliciting investments and manufacturing marketable products, Daily NK sources said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Pyongsong Food Factory has started to produce a mugwort-based alcohol and is raking in profits equivalent to seven to eight tons of corn,\u201d one source said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTaking advantage of the fact that many North Koreans believe mugwort has medicinal properties, the factory solicited investments from wealthy individuals [<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">donju<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">], created an effective manufacturing process, and is currently supporting one technician and five workers with rations [such as rice and other grains], money to survive on, and food,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>*Translated by Violet Kim<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/%EA%B9%80%EC%A0%95%EC%9D%80-%EC%83%9D%EC%82%B0%EC%9E%A0%EC%9E%AC%EB%A0%A5-%EC%B4%9D%EB%B0%9C%EB%8F%99-%EC%A3%BC%EB%AC%B8%EC%97%90%EB%8F%84-%EA%B8%B0%EC%97%85%EC%86%8C-%EC%83%9D%EC%82%B0\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un emphasized increased productivity and a \u201cfrontal breakthrough\u201d for the economy during the year-end plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers\u2019 Party of Korea (WPK). Daily NK sources, however, have reported slowed production at many of the country\u2019s factories.\u00a0 \u201cAmong the 180 or so enterprises in the Pyongsong [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":43572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,645],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-43571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-economy","tag-markets"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korean factories still suffering from low production - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite emphasis on increased production, Daily NK sources have reported slowed production at many of the country\u2019s factories.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-factories-still-suffering-low-production\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. 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