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North Koreans drink, like humans do. No, I am not talking about intoxicating liquids here, though the addiction to booze might be as old as humankind itself. Rather, I am talking about drinks that we drink to quench our thirst.
Few would argue that the most innocuous of these drinks is water. This might well be the case, but many cultures across the globe have shown a level of aversion to this simple, healthy, but essentially tasteless liquid. In fact, Koreans, both north and south, seem to be more inclined to drink water than many other peoples do worldwide.
Water might sometimes be hard to come by in North Korea. It seems that the vast majority of rural households, as well as a significant part of urban households, have no access to tap water. In the past, one had to go to a village well in order to get something to drink. Nowadays, a public water pump has assumed the same role. Even in less prosperous towns and villages across the country, there is one such pump for a dozen or so houses. This is where people go to get water; it is also a place for doing laundry and exchanging gossip and rumors.
As a rule, pumped water is not safe to drink, but this is not a big problem in North Korea; say what you like about the North Korean state, it has been remarkably successful in promoting public hygiene (by the standards of such a poor society at least). Therefore, most North Koreans know to boil their water before drinking.
Nonetheless, many of them would still prefer other drinks, the taste of which has been artificially "enriched."
The most common of such beverages is tea. However, if by "tea" you mean a drink made from "tea leaves," such a drink is not to be found in most of North Korea. One should not be surprised by this, while South Koreans love to talk about their allegedly ancient tea drinking culture, tea was actually a rarity on the Korean peninsula until the late 19th century. Given that Korea is surrounded by three great tea drinking nations ― China, Japan and Russia ― this is indeed a peculiar feature of Korea's past.
While South Koreans have, in the last few decades, rediscovered tea, largely green tea of the Japanese variety, the same is not the case in North Korea. If somebody has enough money, it is not difficult to find tea leaves, or tea bags in more expensive shops, or occasionally at market. However, tea is a luxury few can afford. This is especially the case with black tea, which is imported from China in small quantities and is largely consumed by expats and a small number of affluent connoisseurs.
Coffee seems to be rather more popular in North Korea. This is again reminiscent of the South, where coffee significantly exceeds tea in its popular appeal. Like was the case in South Korea until the late 1980s, North Koreans overwhelmingly drink instant coffee imported from China (where coffee has begun to compete with millennia old habits of tea drinking). The reason for coffee's popularity is simple: it is serves as the embodiment of the modern Western lifestyle.
It seems that a similar logic is at work in North Korea, though such things cannot be expressed so openly. In recent years, as the new rich have become increasingly prominent in Pyongyang, the number of posh coffee shops has begun to increase. Most of such outlets serve seriously bad coffee and charge prices that would be high even by the standards of far richer countries. In the best coffee shops in Pyongyang, a cup of poorly made coffee is likely to set you back $3 or $4.
One should keep in mind that we are talking about a city where the estimated income is $30-$40 (this is even if we include incomes from the booming private economy). Nonetheless, these coffee shops are not empty, and they serve as venues where Pyongyang's new rich (as well as their wives and mistresses) come to show off and mix with their social equals.
But what of fizzy drinks? Recently, there was an unsuccessful attempt to start producing Coca Cola in the North. Thus far, North Koreans favor "cider," or more precisely a corrupted form of it. This is a very sweet, slightly carbonated drink with a fruit taste. It is far more popular than coffee and tea, and clearly unhealthier, too. So, it might be better to drink water ― boiled, of course.
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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