North Korea defectors cite dwindling food rations, market reliance - study
Kyiv • UNN
The study found that most North Koreans who defected to South Korea over the past decade have had to rely on unofficial markets rather than government rations to survive due to food shortages and economic hardship in North Korea.
Most North Koreans who have resettled in South Korea over the past decade said they have never received government rations in the isolated state and have to rely on the informal market to survive, a survey released by Seoul's unification ministry showed, writes UNN citing Reuters.
Details
The 280-page report on North Korea's economic and social situation released Tuesday was based on interviews with more than 6,300 defectors between 2013 and 2022. The ministry began such surveys in 2010, but this is the first time the results are being published.
The study found that more than 72 percent of defectors who arrived in North Korea between 2016 and 2020 said they never received government food rations, compared to 62 percent of those who arrived before 2000.
About half of those arriving between 2016 and 2020 said they did not get paid or eat at work, up from about a third before 2000.
Nearly 94% of all respondents said they could earn money from markets. People who escaped between 2016 and 2020 reported that 69% of family income was earned informally, compared to the pre-2000 group who reported 39%.
37% of all respondents said officials had deprived them of at least 30% of their income; that figure rose to 41% after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took power in late 2011, the report said.
More than 54% of defectors who arrived between 2016 and 2020 said they had paid bribes to officials of an authoritarian state, up from 14% before 2000.
On political issues, 56% of respondents who fled after 2016 had a negative view of Kim's rise to power, while 26% saw his dynastic succession as legitimate.
Less than 30% of respondents supported hereditary succession, compared to 57% among those who fled before 2000.
The study also pointed to the growing influence of foreign culture: 83% of defectors who arrived after 2016 reported watching foreign video content such as Chinese or South Korean dramas, up from about 8% before 2000.
Supplement
North Korea has faced severe food shortages in recent decades, including a famine in the 1990s that was often exacerbated by natural disasters. Its economy has suffered from international sanctions as well as a decline in cross-border trade during the pandemic.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned last month at a meeting of the country's ruling Workers' Party of Korea that failing to provide people with basic necessities, including food, was a "serious political problem," state media reported.
