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Seeping capitalism changing N. Korea: The Black Market Generation Updated: 2015-12-17 17:13:41 KST

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2015-12-17

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Wearing a ponytail high in a pair of fashionable skinny jeans… this 25-year-old blends right into the heart of Seoul's most hip neighborhood. With a saucy smile and perky personality‚ Joo Yang enjoys hanging out in the South Korean capital city's hottest shopping spot. Her interests? Accessories‚ chocolate‚ celebrities and cosmetics. These look like Kim Jong-il's glasses‚ don't they? But Kim Jong-il? You mean the late leader of North Korea‚ Kim Jong-il‚ whom the rest of the world refer to as "dictator"? "When I was 13 years old‚ I started a private business selling goods like socks‚ candies‚ biscuits‚ and rice cakes on traditional holidays. I sold work socks and gloves. I bought them wholesale from a friend who had relatives in China and resold for profit in the black market at home." Joo Yang is from Chongjin‚ North Korea - an industrial province near the North Korean border with China. She escaped from the rogue state four and a half years ago. The 25 year-old is nothing like the older generation North Korean defectors. She is part of North Korea's millennials‚ those born in the 1980s and 90s and make up about a quarter of the regime's population of 25 million people. Unlike their parents‚ this generation of North Koreans learned the illegal language of black market business from an early age. "Black market not only exists in North Korea‚ it's prevalent across the state. People gather in open fields in the village; some bring out a bucket of rice cakes‚ some meat‚ some seafood and people just squat there and sell things. Sometimes state security officials would crack down. Someone would yell‚ 'Security guards ' and everyone would run with buckets in their arms." Never having seen a functioning ration system‚ North Korea's millennials live through the growing and proliferating illicit market inside the self-proclaimed totalitarian state. They call themselves the Jangmadang‚ or 'Black Market' generation. "South Korean and American goods are smuggled in from China. Vendors have South Korean products like rice cookers‚ washing machines‚ and cosmetics hidden underneath North Korean and Chinese goods. Whenever they see customers who appear interested in South Korean products‚ they whisper and cautiously pull out South Korean goods from below. Those products are very popular." It's not just manufactured goods that these young North Koreans are exposed to. North Korean millennials are coming of age at a time of secretive‚ but unprecedented access to technology and foreign media. "When 'Gangnam Style' became a hit in the South within a few days‚ young North Koreans were dancing to the music behind closed curtains. 'Frozen' became available on CDs in the Black Market just days after it opened in Seoul. They make their way into the black market in CDs‚ USBs‚ and those tiny SD cards. People up there know South Korean celebrities‚ actors‚ singers probably even better than you " The popularity of foreign media is rapidly growing in a state where watching or listening to foreign‚ especially South Korean‚ media is defined as a crime against the state punished with time in labor camps and even public execution. But‚ the Black Market continues to flourish because corruption and bribery are so entrenched in modern North Korea. If someone gets caught with illegal DVDs or selling South Korean goods‚ the security police can easily be bought off. Why? (KOREAN) "To survive. The military‚ too‚ realize that allegiance to the state doesn't feed your empty stomach. You starve to death staying loyal to the regime. With a collapsed ration system‚ they have no other means to keep their mouths fed." To Andrei Lank

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