N. Korean defectors recall 'jangmadang' markets as places for desperate survival amid economic woes
Kim Ji-young, a North Korean defector, speaks during a forum hosted by the non-profit Defense Forum Foundation in Washington, March 19. Yonhap
For many North Koreans, local markets, or "jangmadang," have been places for their desperate survival amid chronic dearths of food and other necessities following the collapse of a state ration system in the 1990s.
But markets have also been sites of persistent fears where bribe-seeking officials clamp down on wealthy merchants accused of being steeped in foreign capitalism, and those selling flash disks of foreign dramas and films from South Korea and elsewhere.
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, three female defectors gave vivid eyewitness accounts of their experience with jangmadang from which they grew disenchanted with the grim reality of the tightly controlled country: hard work that results in the accumulation of wealth could lead to accusations of an unexpected crime.
"North Korea is a place where the rich, who are active in the market are punished. But the market is a place where it cannot operate without money, and the rich are considered criminals and taken to prison," Kim Ji-young who fled the North in 2012, told a forum hosted by the non-profit Defense Forum Foundation.
"North Korea's foolishness to seize and control the canal of capitalism, the market, is clearly revealed through the principles and standards of socialism that have proven to be failures throughout history," she added through an interpreter.
Marketplaces sprung up across North Korea in the 1990s as North Koreans experienced the so-called "arduous march," a devastating famine, with the state no longer able to continue the ration system that most people had heavily relied on.
But jangmadang has apparently been a source of concern for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as people who started to get a taste of capitalism were awakened to new ways of life while experiencing new cultures through smuggled videos and other products.
Kim underscored that the markets have been in existence not as a result of the Kim regime's "consideration" of people's livelihoods, but as a byproduct of people's struggle to safeguard their own lives.
"North Korea's general market was created to allow North Koreans to buy food and daily necessary items on their own since the ration system, which the state was responsible for, stopped to function," she said. "The market is the asset for North Korean women with their blood and sweat to protect their lives."
Born into an elite family, Kim was allowed to live a good life. In her 20s, she already ran two businesses while her mother worked as a manager of a restaurant. But her mother suffered accusations that restaurant employees "followed her more than the North Korean leader" — something unacceptable in the dynastic Kim regime.
Both Kim and her mother went through security investigations, and later decided to defect.
Bae Yoo-jin, a North Korean defector, speaks during a forum hosted by the non-profit Defense Forum Foundation in Washington, March 19. Yonhap
Bae Yoo-jin, who fled the North in 2019, recalled a time when she imported blank CDs from China as there was a growing demand for South Korean dramas, which were often hidden in fruit boxes when smuggled into the North — an anathema for the reclusive regime.
Many, who sold CDs and flash disks, were sent to prison or faced harsher punishments, a reason why she shifted to a safer job of importing other Chinese goods, Bae said.
"Sometimes, I had to bribe border guards to cross the Amnok River. Other times, I officially went through North Korean customs to sell the items that North Korean elites wanted from the market," she said.
Later, she became what she called a "well-known big hand" in the market only to find that she was put on a watch list by North Korean prosecutors.
Market sellers were held under the label of people "who freely crossed into China and carried illegal goods, or disrupted the jangmadang order in violation of North Korean law," she recalled.
"Prosecutors accused me of all kinds of crimes that I did not commit, labeling me as an anti-socialist and confiscated all my property and deported my entire family to a remote countryside," she said.
Bae cast the North as a "place where it was a crime to take responsibility for my family's livelihood and work extremely hard to better provide for my family through the market."
But Bae emphasized that jangmadang is "the only place for people to sustain their lives in North Korea."
"If the jangmadang market is not left to the logic of the market system and follows the regulations and standards of the North Korean regime, North Korea will turn into a dark land again," she warned.
Kim Hang-woon, a North Korean defector, speaks during a forum hosted by the non-profit Defense Forum Foundation in Washington, March 19. Yonhap
Another North Korean defector, Kim Hang-woon, who fled the North in 2008, was once a high-flying North Korean businesswoman aided by a Korean Chinese businessperson.
But she pointed out many challenges facing merchants, including the state controlling the market by regulating an age limit for market participants, setting operating hours, and arresting those who smuggled in Chinese and Russian goods.
"(North Korean officials) went after those who made more money than others and labeled them as those who betrayed the revolution by being blinded by money, and became slaves of capitalism," she said. "They were sentenced to from a year to 10 years in prison."
Kim, however, underlined the important role of jangmadang in the impoverished state.
"Jangmadang should not disappear into the hands of North Korean officials and elites," she said. "Jangmadang might be just the market to them, but to the ordinary North Koreans, jangmadang is what 80 percent of North Koreans today rely on to avoid starvation," she said. (Yonhap)