“I came to believe I could get away with anything in North Korea with bribes,” he said, “except the crime of criticizing the ruling Kim family.”
Eighty percent of consumer goods sold in North Korean markets originate in China, according to an estimate by
Kim Young-hee, director of the North Korean economy department at the Korea Development Bank in the South.
“Our attitude toward the government was this: If you can’t feed us, leave us alone so we can make a living through the market,” said Kim Jin-hee,
who fled North Korea in 2014 and, like others interviewed for this article, uses a new name in the South to protect relatives she left behind.
“Instead, they now flee to South Korea to have a better life they learned through the markets.”
Jung Gwang-il, who leads a defectors’ group in Seoul called No Chain, said
that with more North Koreans getting what they needed from markets rather than the state, their view of Mr. Kim was changing.
“Officials need the markets as much as the people need them,” said Kim Jeong-ae, a
journalist in Seoul who worked as a propagandist in North Korea before defecting.
As Economy Grows, North Korea’s Grip on Society Weakens -
By CHOE SANG-HUNAPRIL 30, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — Despite decades of sanctions and international isolation, the economy in North Korea is showing surprising signs of life.
“If you are an ordinary North Korean today, and if you don’t make money through markets, you are likely
to die of hunger,” said Kim Nam-chol, 46, a defector from Hoeryong, a town near the Chinese border.
