In recent years North Koreans have treated South Korean commodities as top quality goods and they are sold briskly not only in major cities such as Pyongyang, Hamhung, Shinuiju and Chongjin, but also in all places that have black markets. "Wherever you go in the North, you can find South Korean products being transacted openly and ordinarily," said an ethnic Korean Chinese trader who recently visited the North. "Lots of used South Korean goods in circulation."
Facilitating the popularity of South Korean merchandise in the North is no doubt the South Korea fever now sweeping China. The North has eased restrictions against products made in the South since the populace reportedly heard Kim Jong Il remark in 1998, "What ideology could be smeared on goods? Accept and use anything that is offered." Opportunities for North Koreans to gain access to South Korean goods have markedly risen following the increase in inter-Korean business activities. Many goods have begun to flow into the North from the Kumho area in South Hamgyong province, where light-water reactors are under construction and the Mount Kumgang operates.
A wide range of commodities produced in the South, including clothing, footwear, medicines, electronics products and necessities of life are now available in the North. Despite this there are still many inland places where merchants are not permitted to sell them openly. In towns nearer to the North Korean border with China, South Korean-labeled goods are said to command better prices than others. In Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province, and Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, they are marketed literally in the open, and some better-off citizens ask for South Korean goods only. A North Korean defector, who had engaged in smuggling before fleeing to the South said that some smugglers make fortunes by disguising imported Chinese products as South Korean. But North Koreans, having had access to Japanese merchandise brought into the country by former North Korean residents in Japan, are said to be capable of distinguishing them from each other.
South Korean commodities most widely transacted in the North are definitely clothes. A pair of Chinese-made trousers are sold for NKW500-600, but its South Korean counterpart goes for NKW1,000. Rumors holding that "South Korean products are the best in quality in the world" circulate among the population, however, ordinary citizens can hardly afford them.
The main route for them to reach the North is through China. Trading firms import them from China, while smugglers bring into the land second-hand South Korean goods. Some relief goods sent to the North from the South are reportedly diverted to the black market.
Until the early 1990s, South Korean products were the source of fear and trouble for North Koreans. Only some immigrants from Japan could manage to wear South Korean clothes, with the labels removed. When uncovered, even they had to put up with being punished by the authorities. Upon the arrival of the Mangyong-ho ferry plying between Wonsan and Niigata, Japan, Wonsan customs officials used to confiscate all South Korean items found in passengers' luggage. A former North Korean resident in Japan said more than half of his luggage made in the South, was confiscated by a customs official, who burned it on the spot pouring gasoline over them. Some children of North Korean emigrants from Japan were harshly reprimanded by the State Security Agency for boasting of wearing clothes made in the South.
North Koreans, admiring Japanese products in the past, used to harbor an illusion about Japan. Finding that South Korean commodities are as good as their Japanese counterparts in quality now, it is said they feel both envy and pride.
(Kang Chol-hwan, nkch@chosun.com)
