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  • We don’t really know what life is like inside North Korea. We do know it’s ruled by this

  • guy, we know it’s the subject of numerous insane rumors and we know the sealed borders

  • prevent us from learning much of anything about the place. But one thing that is becoming

  • a little more clear is the state of the Hermit Kingdom’s economy, one that may have been

  • built on the backs of smugglers and black market traders.

  • For the most part the economy in North Korea is run by the government, including imports,

  • exports and manufacturing. In fact, private trade is illegal, but that doesn’t mean

  • it doesn’t happen. Over the last couple of decades North Koreans have developed a

  • gray market, or an informal economy, one that is not monitored, controlled or taxed by the

  • government. And, according to one North Korea expert, its success can be partially attributed

  • to Kim Jong Un himself.

  • "Kim Jong Un's policy is remarkably friendly towards the private businesses, because his

  • father was uncertain. He oscillated from toleration of the private economy to occasional support

  • of the private economy, and then back to attempts to eradicate the private economy….Kim Jong

  • Un's policy is different. It's a quite tacit approval and encouragement and support of

  • private economic activities."

  • And if this is true, if Kim Jong Un really does support more private business, than this

  • is big news. Sure, he may still rule the country with dark age tactics, like using executions

  • as a means to flex his power, but he is North Korea’s first leader in a long time to support

  • an economic system that even slightly resembles a free market.

  • But, it’s not just Kim Jong Un who is helping the North Korean economy. The grey market

  • has origins in a flourishing black market, one that was brought upon by a devastating

  • famine in the mid 1990’s. You see, back then the government had a public distribution

  • system that gave out - or withheld - food to its citizens based on political affiliation

  • and loyalty. The famine collapsed this system and forced citizens to fend for themselves.

  • Insert black market here. North Korean leadership knew they had to either look the other way

  • or see their people starve. But, the black market soon grew past its origins became a

  • place for goods that were illegal or unavailable.

  • This is Kim Danbee, a North Korean defector who started working in the black market at

  • the age of 13, helping smuggle in items from China.

  • The products I usually smuggled were the ones that everyone can use...I would illegally

  • import electronic goods like television sets, refrigerators, rice cookers...I also smuggled

  • cosmetics, face masks and clothes that women like, and even needles and hair extensions

  • This was groundwork for today’s North Korean grey market, which in turn may be laying the

  • groundwork for an actual private sector. This is an economy that went from the Kim Jong-il

  • parceling out meager food rations to the 2010 opening of a department store in Pyongyang,

  • shelves stocked high with imported goods priced only in US dollars.

  • No one knows for sure where North Korea’s economy will go from here, but they seem to

  • be tiptoeing towards a free market...which could ultimately lead to looser borders. But

  • for now those borders remain closed, the country is still cloaked in wild rumors and this guy

  • is still in charge. Yes, he may support the black markets and a grey economy, and yes,

  • he may be more economically progressive than his father and grandfather. But he still is

  • an unpredictable leader who may have just executed a high level military general for

  • falling asleep in a meeting. So, who can really tell what lies ahead for North Korea, its

  • economy, and its people.

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We don’t really know what life is like inside North Korea. We do know it’s ruled by this

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