By Kim Se-jeong
Products made in the Gaeseong Joint Industrial Complex have been circulated in clandestine local markets in North Korea, and are highly popular, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Wednesday.
In its report earlier this week, it said products have a fake tag of “Made in North Korea,” yet people can easily discern them as coming from the zone because of the quality of the products.
The Gaeseong complex is home to more than 120 South Korean factories, which employ some 44,000 North Koreans. Quoting a person involved in the clandestine commerce, the RFA said the business is so lucrative that people involved skip going to work.
“I bribe my boss so that I don’t have to show up at work in the morning. Then, with my wife, I get products sneaked out from the Gaeseong zone and sell them,” the interviewee known only as Hwang told the RFA.
Hwang also said families of employees at the Gaeseong complex are usually far better off because of it.
Theoretically, a market where a wide range of items are exchanged based on supply and demand ― a symbol of capitalism ― is nonexistent in North Korea. However, with a deteriorating domestic economic situation, secret markets have sprung up.
One diplomat from Europe said Tongil Market in Pyongyang even allows outsiders to visit.
RFA also quoted a South Korean businessman who once had a factory in Gaeseong, saying that it was surprising. “I had to face the reality that at least 10 percent of the products were somehow lost at all times.”