{"id":54541,"date":"2023-03-31T17:05:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T08:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=54541"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T07:00:23","slug":"no-signs-that-the-samjang-customs-house-is-reopening-in-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/no-signs-that-the-samjang-customs-house-is-reopening-in-march\/","title":{"rendered":"No signs that the Samjang Customs House is reopening in March"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Samjang Customs House in Taehongdan County, Yanggang Province, has yet to reopen despite <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/rumors-circulate-hyesan-opening-samjang-customs-house\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rumors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that suggested it would be opening in mid-March.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cRumors even claimed that the Samjang Customs House would open on an exact date, Mar. 15, but it hasn\u2019t opened so far,\u201d a reporting partner in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. \u201cPeople who had been looking forward to the opening of the customs house are really unhappy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following the collapse of North Korea\u2019s public rationing system in the 1990s, many North Koreans have come to depend on marketplaces for their livelihoods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many people have made a living in marketplaces by distributing and selling goods imported from China via trade or illegal smuggling. However, after the closure of the China-North Korea border in January 2020, there was a major drop in the number of imported items available in markets, leading to widespread difficulties for businesspeople.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given these circumstances, people in Hyesan and other border regions in Yanggang Province were full of anticipation as rumors circulated that Samjang Customs House would open from Mar. 15. Now that the latest rumor has turned out to be untrue, people are disappointed, with some claiming that they have been \u201ctricked again.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWith rumors of the opening of Samjang Customs House circulating, people were full of hope that they could at least buy some gruel to eat, and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">donju <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and traders were looking forward to making some money. That the customs house is still not open will only increase public disappointment,\u201d the reporting partner said, using a term to describe North Korea\u2019s wealthy entrepreneurial class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, one trader in Hyesan told Daily NK: \u201cEven if I didn\u2019t completely believe the rumors that the customs house would open, I half-believed them because orders had been handed down by the trade ministry. But the customs house isn\u2019t opening yet, and interest on the money I borrowed to acquire goods is growing by the day. It makes me want to end my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another resident of Hyesan told Daily NK: \u201cEven though [the government] declared an end to COVID-19, rumors circulated that the customs house would open. I don\u2019t understand why it hasn\u2019t opened yet. People are suffering everywhere, but the customs house remains closed and marketplaces are not open as long as before the COVID-19 outbreak. People who depend on the markets for their livelihoods are losing hope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, discontent among the public is rising recently amid rumors circulating that state-led smuggling activities are taking place in the border regions of Samjiyon and Taehongdan County, the reporting partner added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/faq\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20230329-2\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Samjang Customs House in Taehongdan County, Yanggang Province, has yet to reopen despite rumors that suggested it would be opening in mid-March.\u00a0 \u201cRumors even claimed that the Samjang Customs House would open on an exact date, Mar. 15, but it hasn\u2019t opened so far,\u201d a reporting partner in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":37282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,645,649],"tags":[735,1656],"class_list":["post-54541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-economy","category-china-north-korea-border","tag-trade","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - 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