North Korea Razes Unofficial Market

WSJ ^ | 9/19/2009 | EVAN RAMSTAD

[bruinbirdman]

North Korea closed the country's biggest unofficial market in June, a South Korea-based organization that tracks economic activity in the North learned this week, a significant step in a government effort to slow the spread of market activities there.

An estimated 30,000 small business were believed to be operating in the market in Pyongsong, on the outskirts of the capital city of Pyongyang, according to Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, or NKNet. Merchants there sold items such as food, clothes and Chinese-made goods.

The market is apparently the latest to fall victim to a government antimarket effort that began in 2005 and accelerated last year. The effort has been openly resisted by many North Koreans and posed a challenge for dictator Kim Jong Il's government as he reasserted authority this year after apparently suffering a stroke a year ago.

The North Korean government intensified its spending on its military and weapons in the 1990s as a multiyear famine ended its control over food supply and other key parts of the economy. Ordinary citizens began trading food and goods themselves, leading to the rise of an unofficial market economy that was tolerated by the government until 2005.

In that year, the government tried to force most adults out of markets and into jobs run by the state. Last year, the effort intensified with an announcement that all general markets would converted to food-only markets that open once every 10 days.

The conversion attempt has failed, according to organizations and analysts in South Korea, as traders and refugees who are able to get to China have reported that sizable markets remain open in most towns and cities.

NKNet for much of the year has gathered and reported contradictory news about the fate of the Pyongsong market, which grew to

[Freddd]

He who controls the food and money controls it all, Oh wait, that would be Obama, SEIU, unions, Geithner and Pelosi, eh? See the future Obama has planned for the U.S...

[piytar]

They called him a dictator, not “leader” or “president?!” Let me check something...

Ah, a WSJ article, not an AP or Reuters one. OK, that explains it.

[2banana]

How democrats want to run America eventually - with, of course, themselves in charge with absolute power...

[BillaryBeGone]

But, but...
It'll be different when the Dimocrats are in charge! They're the annointed, aren't they? Only they know what's best for the rest of us poor slobs, right? I mean, they'd never do anything like what the idiot in N.K. has done, would they?

Oh, wait. They already have. General Motors. The banks. The executives' salaries.

Never mind.

[Windflier]

If the North Korean people were armed, Kim Jung Il and his regime would be pushing up daisies.

It’s just abominable what that regime has done to the people of that country.

Ever seen the satellite photo of Earth at night? You can clearly see the difference between South Korea and North Korea by the lights that are visible from space. A very small sprinkle of lights is visible around Pyongyang, while the whole of South Korea is lit up like New York city.

Brutally repressing a people’s innate survival impulse can only result in death and destruction down the line. One way or another, something’s got to give.