It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

NORTH KOREAN REFORMS CREATING A "NEW CLASS OF URBAN POOR"

Reuters (Hans Greimel, "N.: NORTH KOREA'S EXPERIMENT FAILING," 12/03/03) reported that by dabbling with capitalism, the DPRK is creating a new class of urban poor that is worsening its hunger problem, a top U.N. official said Wednesday. About 1 million urban workers have fallen victim as once centrally controlled industries have to cut costs and jobs amid free-market pressures, said Masood Hyder, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the DPRK.

. . .

"Those industries, those factories that are no longer capable of standing on their own feet have had to cut back, have had to redeploy staff," he said, with managers under increased pressure to match supply with demand and trim expenses. As a result, more workers are having their pay cut or hours slashed, making it harder to buy food as overall prices see a general increase, Hyder said. "A million people fall into this new category of underemployed beneficiaries, underemployed urban workers who need assistance," he said citing World Food Program estimates.

Who will these new poor blame for their woes? Their company managers? Kim Jong Il? The South Koreans? The Japanese? Americans?

UPDATE: MORE

The Guardian (Jonathan Watts ("HOW NORTH KOREA IS EMBRACING CAPITALISM," 12/03/03) wrote an analytic piece that read: There is a capitalist pig in Ri Dok-sun's garden. There are also two capitalist dogs and a brood of capitalist chicks. But even though Ms Ri, a 72-year-old DPRK, lives in the world's last Orwellian state, this is no animal farm. The beasts are the product of the growing free market pressure on a government that claims to be the last truly socialist country on earth. Although Ms Ri and her family live in Chonsan - a model cooperative farm - the bacon from their pig will be sold on the open market. The dog is there to guard their private property. And their chicks - kept in a box in the cosy, brightly decorated living room - are being raised for individual gain rather than the good of the collective. It is a form of private enterprise - one of the innumerable microfarms that have sprung up in gardens, and even on balconies, particularly since the late 1990s. Initially, they were just for survival, a source of food in a country that has been devastated by famine in the past decade. But increasingly, they are also a means of pursuing profit as the government ventures further into capitalist waters. Although
its military is locked in a nuclear standoff with the US, the world's last cold war holdout has cautiously pursued economic reforms that are already making an impact in the countryside and on the streets of Pyongyang. Over the past year, far more cars have appeared on the formerly deserted roads - even the occasional six-vehicle tailback. Building sites dot the city, a new culture museum is under construction and the skyline has a new feature: more than a dozen giant cranes.

... Aid workers believe the market liberalization may have worsened the situation for those stuck in run-down industrial towns where wages are said to be as low as pounds 1 a month. "We're seeing a growing disparity of income and access to food," said Rick Corsino, head of the WFP's operation in North Korea. "Some people are now having to spend all of their income on food and that's for a diet that it totally inadequate." The full social implications of the reforms are still to be seen. Several Pyongyang watchers said they were amazed at the transformation in the past year and concerned about the implications.
"The extremes of poverty and wealth are growing as market relations increasingly define the economy," said Hazel Smith of the United Nations University in Tokyo. "Now there is no socialist economy, but also no rule of law for the market. That is the basis of corruption."