After decades of absolute control, Pyongyang's iron grip on the lives of ordinary citizens is finally slipping. Tania Branigan meets the people who no longer believe the propaganda
One comparison that can be made between what is happening in North Korea, though not on the same scale as in the countries of the former Warsaw Pact countries especially East Germany. Given the size and scale of its security apparatus and government paranoia one might believe television signals from West Germany would be blocked, but were not. With that in mind East German citizens were shown the prosperity of Western Europe while the Communist party promoted the so called prosperity of the east which wasn't reality.
North Korea's economy while not on the verge of collapse, it isn't exactly growing at pace that would mean actual benefit to the population therefore a reliance upon the black or gray market is essential for survival along with working legally and illegally in China.
If she is lucky - if her husband or children can slip away unnoticed to the riverside, nearer the Chinese phone masts - Chae Un-ee can talk to her family each day. “Talk” is perhaps an exaggeration; her loved ones end the call, made on a smuggled handset and SIM card, almost as soon as it begins.
“They have to be very quick because otherwise the phone can be tracked down,” she said. “It’s mainly just to hear their voice and know that they’re okay. If they don’t call me I worry, because the situation is very tense there.”
“There” is North Korea. Chae is not a dissident, not even a defector; only a mother working abroad in China to feed her family. Yet the North’s control of its citizens is such that even this work, in the country’s only significant ally, could result in harsh punishment.
One comparison that can be made between what is happening in North Korea, though not on the same scale as in the countries of the former Warsaw Pact countries especially East Germany. Given the size and scale of its security apparatus and government paranoia one might believe television signals from West Germany would be blocked, but were not. With that in mind East German citizens were shown the prosperity of Western Europe while the Communist party promoted the so called prosperity of the east which wasn't reality.
“Twenty years ago North Korea was better. Life was comfortable and people didn’t have bad thoughts. Now everybody is angry,” said Chae, 50. Others’ words are equally clear and damning: “Of course no one believes.”“Those who say they want a better life inside North Korea – I think they’re just lying.”
“People say ‘If you believe, you will just suffer.’”
North Korea's economy while not on the verge of collapse, it isn't exactly growing at pace that would mean actual benefit to the population therefore a reliance upon the black or gray market is essential for survival along with working legally and illegally in China.
“Before, it was true that the state provided all the income and food. All you see now is the state getting in the way,” said Hazel Smith, an expert on the country at the University of Central Lancashire.
Kim Myong-eul says her husband should receive 10kg of rice twice a month for working as a labourer; in fact, the family gets rations just a few times a year.
“Everybody’s trading – there’s no other way,” Kim said.The political connections of party members mean they are best able to leverage the market. “The activity of every one of those people in every workplace and neighbourhood is a living contradiction of every one of the government’s statements every day,” Smith added.
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