SEOUL — In the past, everyone in the northern part of North Korea near the Chinese border was equally poor. In recent years, however, a large gap in household income has become apparent between those who do business and who do not.
According to border villagers in China, recent visitors from North Korea now say that everybody wants to do business because they see that people can get rich by selling things.
These people are driven to the marketplace by a number of factors, according to the North Korean visitors. For one, factory workers are not being paid wages that the state set for them because hardly any of the factories are in operation due to the lack of electricity or raw materials.
Secondly, since the economic reform measure of July 1, 2001, prices have soared innumerable times. In Hamgyong Province, a windbreaker from China is traded for 8,000 Won. The state-designated wage for a factory worker is in the 3,500-4,000 Won-per-month range.
Notwithstanding the government exchange rate, an American dollar is now traded at 2,400 Won in the marketplace, according to travelers.
"Factory workers are getting less than $2 a month," said Lee Choon-Shik, a Chinese-Korean cab driver in Yanji. "Even if you get free supplies of everything, which you don't, what can you do with less than $2 a month? That's why everyone wants a stall in the market," he said.
"As large-scale markets are appearing here and there now, naturally the role of wholesalers and retailers are settled," said Lee, "and there are even competitions for service, too." Lee said in a telephone interview that the wholesalers are the newly emerging rich class in North Korea who have good connections with the authorities.
The competition for a job in retail is becoming very fierce, he said. "A stall in a marketplace is a life-line for whole family. If you have license for a stall, your whole family comes out to work there so they have extra hands for service. They would deliver your vegetables and things to your home, free. Peddlers' income has relatively shrunk as these merchants with stalls took much of their business. Their once-exclusive direct contact, supplying end users with foreign goods, is gone now."
As the new rich class in northern part of the country is getting bigger, the northerner's attitude towards Pyongyang citizens and the southerners, those living further inland, has changed considerably.
In the past, the provincial people looked with envy on Pyongyang citizens for their comparative wealth and social status.
Not any more. "Now they regard Pyongyang elites with contempt," Lee said. "These people think Pyongyang citizens have been better treated by the nation and they may fight for Kim Jong-Il if there's a war. Not them. These people openly say they will flee to China if there's a war and make money."
People living near the border today in North Korea are better informed about the outside world because they have more chance to see or hear about China and beyond. They laugh at the blind loyalty of those living in Pyongyang, calling them "frogs in the well who have no idea what the real world out there is," Lee said.
