{"id":63438,"date":"2025-05-19T17:43:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T08:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=63438"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:53:10","slug":"n-korean-parents-spend-rice-money-on-uniforms-as-state-supplied-clothing-falls-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korean-parents-spend-rice-money-on-uniforms-as-state-supplied-clothing-falls-short\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korean parents spend rice money on uniforms as state-supplied clothing falls short"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">North Korean middle and high school students are increasingly buying fabric at markets to make custom uniforms because the quality of state-supplied uniforms is so poor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">&#8220;Wearing uniforms made with market-bought fabric has become a kind of &#8216;style standard&#8217; among students,&#8221; a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently. &#8220;Especially among appearance-conscious female students, there&#8217;s a growing sense of embarrassment about wearing state-provided uniforms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">The source said state-supplied uniforms are made from low-quality blended fabric that &#8220;puffs out,&#8221; creating wrinkles from the buttocks to knees when students stand up after sitting. The uniforms lack style and release blue dye when washed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">&#8220;While some male students just wear them anyway, female students often refuse to wear such uniforms altogether,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;More families are buying fabric at markets and having custom uniforms made.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">These custom uniforms are typically produced by taking market-bought fabric to private home-based tailors. One uniform costs about 150,000 North Korean won, enough to buy more than 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of rice at market prices, creating a significant financial burden for families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">Despite the cost, some parents justify the expense. &#8220;When electricity is so unreliable that it&#8217;s difficult to iron pleated skirts, it&#8217;s better to spend money on properly made uniforms,&#8221; one parent reportedly said.<\/p>\n<h4><em>Authorities turn a blind eye<\/em><\/h4>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">While students have previously worn custom uniforms instead of state-supplied ones, enforcement against the practice was relatively strict. Recently, however, there has been virtually no regulation or control, and wearing custom uniforms has become a trend, according to the source.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">&#8220;Homeroom teachers and youth group leaders don&#8217;t make a big issue of students wearing custom uniforms,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;There&#8217;s rarely any criticism or crackdown for not wearing state-supplied uniforms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">North Korean authorities promote uniform distribution as part of leader Kim Jong Un&#8217;s &#8220;love for future generations,&#8221; but socially, there&#8217;s a prevailing perception that &#8220;wearing state uniforms damages one&#8217;s dignity&#8221; because the quality is so poor and unattractive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">&#8220;Current spring uniforms for middle school students consist of purple jackets and wide pleated skirts. The central government authorities only specify color and style without any quality standards for fabric,&#8221; the source explained. &#8220;Since provincial and city authorities procure fabric separately, wealthy merchants repeatedly supply cheap materials.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">Moreover, as the market economy has spread since the early 2000s and the custom uniform market has flourished, resistance has grown against the state&#8217;s enforcement of wearing low-quality uniforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal\">&#8220;The quality is so bad that people eventually have to spend money on custom-made uniforms anyway, so now nobody welcomes what the state provides,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;At first, they strictly enforced wearing state uniforms, but now enforcement has fizzled out. Some people are saying, &#8216;Honestly, it&#8217;s better if they just leave us alone to live our lives.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20250518-1\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean middle and high school students are increasingly buying fabric at markets to make custom uniforms because the quality of state-supplied uniforms is so poor. &#8220;Wearing uniforms made with market-bought fabric has become a kind of &#8216;style standard&#8217; among students,&#8221; a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently. &#8220;Especially among appearance-conscious female [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":43670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,1360],"tags":[100,123,703,714,729,745,1151,1430,1694],"class_list":["post-63438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-society","tag-markets","tag-farming","tag-education","tag-economy","tag-students","tag-south-hamgyong-province","tag-clothing","tag-youth","tag-wealthy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korean parents spend rice money on uniforms as state-supplied clothing falls short - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"North Korean students are buying fabric at markets to make custom uniforms because the quality of state-supplied uniforms is so poor.\" \/>\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\/n-korean-parents-spend-rice-money-on-uniforms-as-state-supplied-clothing-falls-short\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. Korean parents spend rice money on uniforms as state-supplied clothing falls short\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Korean students are buying fabric at markets to make custom uniforms because the quality of state-supplied uniforms is so poor.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korean-parents-spend-rice-money-on-uniforms-as-state-supplied-clothing-falls-short\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-19T08:43:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-05T06:53:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/01\/3907227455_12467b4359_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eun Seol\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eun Seol\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/n-korean-parents-spend-rice-money-on-uniforms-as-state-supplied-clothing-falls-short\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/n-korean-parents-spend-rice-money-on-uniforms-as-state-supplied-clothing-falls-short\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eun Seol\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e4bfafdaf27e9f609b2d373ede23cac4\"},\"headline\":\"N. 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