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There are lots of cliches used to describe North Korea, one of the most common is that this place is a "a destitute country where the common people starve and the rulers live in unimaginable luxury." Both parts of this description are wrong.
To start with, it is true that the average North Korean lives in great poverty, and is frequently malnourished. Death from starvation is not a great threat any more however.
It is also true that the Kim family has a luxurious lifestyle. However, lesser tiers of the North Korean elite live much more modestly than many might imagine. The income and consumption habits of these people are light years behind that of Arab oil sheikhs.
North Korea's top family, currently consisting of a couple of dozen people, indeed lives in great luxury. Recently, Dennis Rodman, having visited Kim Jong-un's private residence in Wonsan, described the place as Kim Jong-un's private "Ibiza." He liked everything, the palace itself, the food, as well as the Supreme Leader's private yacht. Dennis Rodman himself is not known for living in terrible squalor, and his sincere admiration for the young Kim's lifestyle should be taken seriously.
Rodman might be the only foreigner to have visited Kim's private residence and to talk about what he has seen in public. However, there are many sources that confirm that the Kim family lives like billionaires, indulging their tastes for horse riding, shopping trips to Europe and expensive cuisine.
If we go one-step down though, the lifestyle of North Korea's top officials ― a few dozen families ― is far less impressive. A few dozen top officials might enjoy luxurious residences (more or less similar to what a successful New York lawyer would be able to afford). They and their immediate family members are also allowed to travel more or less freely worldwide, staying in five-star hotels and buying expensive brands. However, their lifestyle and actual income is closer to that of the upper middle class in modern developed countries.
Of course, in a country where the average monthly income for a family is reported to be equivalent to $30-50, the lifestyle of a Manhattan lawyer or Chicago neurosurgeon is a far cry from the fate of the overwhelming majority. Nonetheless, these people in their black Mercedes cannot be seen as the embodiment of unimaginable luxury.
If we go further down the pecking order and talk about the top 1 percent of North Koreans, we will discover that these people have lifestyles similar to the middle class (or, perhaps, even lower middle class) in the developed world. They live in large apartments with a more or less reliable round-the-clock supply of hot water and electricity. They have unrestricted access to a car, in their houses they have such luxuries as a flat-screen TV, computer and refrigerator. In other words, these people have access to what no Australian or French person would nowadays see as a luxury.
To make matters worse, the "top 1 percent" (as distinct from the "top 0.01 percent") face some restrictions on foreign travel. Normally, the head of the household would have little trouble in arranging a trip to China, but going to other countries might be more difficult, though still possible. It is also difficult to take their families when going on such trips. In this regard, an office worker somewhere in Switzerland enjoys more freedom than, say, a departmental head in a North Korean ministry.
Once again, for the average North Korean, these people seem to be unimaginably rich, and in recent years they have begun to flaunt their "fortunes." They go to expensive restaurants, they buy imported cars, they often appear in public escorted by young and stunningly beautiful mistresses. Nonetheless, in global terms, these people are moderately affluent at best.
Below these people is to be found the majority of the population. For such unfortunate people, affluence usually means the ability to eat rice and occasionally feast on pork. This is a big deal in a country where most subsist on corn gruel and pickled vegetables.
Therefore, with the important exception of the Kim family and a few of their most important officials, North Korea is not known for its great luxuries and conspicuous consumption gone mad. We should not forget that both riches and poverty are basically relative conceptions. Thus, even very modest affluence might appear great in a country like North Korea where the actual income inequality is staggering, and where most of the people live extremely impoverished lives.
Professor Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. You can reach him at anlankov@yahoo.com.
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