The practice for citizens to conclude a contract among themselves is emerging in North Korea, and instances are increasing in which disputes involving individuals or agencies are settled among themselves without being taken to public institutions. Mortgage and usurious loan businesses, previously unheard of, are widely practiced. Houses and patches of land are marketed. In the process of such transactions, citizens write contracts and affix their thumbprints to them. Devoid of legal effects as they are, people, unless they abide by contracts, can hardly live a harmonious social life.
Contract culture has come into existence in the wake of complicated cash flow arising from vigorous business activities. A rise in the number of people borrowing or lending money necessitated the establishment of security. Before the 1990s, it was just unconceivable for a money borrower to set up a surety. As instances of moneylenders failing to collect their loans in time have risen in number, however, those who lend money to others without securing mortgage are now considered to be the most foolish. And people are now very reluctant to lend money to their friends or relatives. Good houses are a reliable surety for money borrowing, as are domestic appliances. When a borrower fails to return the money he or she owes by the deadline agreed on, their household property is often snatched away by physical force. People's security officers (policemen), witnessing such scenes, are often helpless in the face of an unfulfilled loan agreement and the security set up.
In the event a joint small business fails, the one who proposes the business first takes responsibilities for the consequences. No material compensation used to be made when an incident or accident occurred. But a new trend has set in recently in which appropriate compensation is paid through negotiations between individuals, agencies or corporations involved. Formerly a car driver who accidentally killed a man was imprisoned for two to three years, but nothing was compensated for the kin of the victim. Nowadays, however, such a perpetrator may appeal for mercy at the people's security branch (police station) if he or she has compensated to the kin of the victim in money or goods. And he or she may get a mitigated sentence or even freed depending on the circumstances.
"When a car crash took place in the past, the consequences were resolved publicly through compensation made by the factory or corporation concerned," recalls a North Korean defector living in the South, who had been a driver. "But now auto parts must be compensated for by individuals involved, and the authorities are unable to resolve the disputes on their behalf." The one who is responsible for the accident has to pay for damaged auto parts in one way or another. Though it is not a legal way of resolution, he says, it has been established as a rule complied with by the public.
A dispute such as a fistfight between young men is now resolved through compensation made under mutual accord. Such an incident is resolved without being reported to the police, if the assailant pays the victim the latter's medical cost or provides the latter with foodstuff, or hands the latter money. Because reporting of the incident to the authorities further complicates the problem, while the victim is deprived of any way of compensation.
North Koreans have a low degree of consciousness to abide by the law because party decisions and the supreme leader's edicts have precedence over the law. Nor are there legal provisions that can deal with a variety of disputes arising from increasing capitalistic factors in society. Practices established by the citizens themselves are expected to increase for the time being.
(Kim Chol-hwan, nkch@chosun.com)
