Why Pyongyang’s top elites still cling to visions of a post-money society
Public distribution of food and consumer goods entrenches North Korea’s rigid caste system even further
Andrei Lankov May 6, 2022
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Various confectionaries laid out on a table in Pyongyang, Sept. 2017 | Image: NK News (file)
North Korea’s complicated system of rationing largely collapsed in the 1990s, but powerful factions dream about restoring the system to its former clockwork precision. It seems that now, in 2022, these pro-distribution voices are louder than ever.
The system is seen as fair – and it helps, of course, that the universal distribution greatly facilitated surveillance and control over the population. Thus, we can expect that now, backed with Chinese aid, the Kim Jong Un government might try to revive the old system.
North Korea in the 1960-90 period came closest to the idea of a society where money means little. Retail was to a large degree replaced by the all-embracing system of public distribution.
In English-language literature, this system is usually called PDS (short for “public distribution system”). However, this term is somewhat misleading. Actually, a multitude of mutually independent distribution networks operated in the days of Kim Il Sung.
At the first approximation, these systems can be divided into three groups: the networks dealing with rice and other cereals; networks dealing with foodstuff and consumer goods; networks for the elite.
Let’s see how these systems operated in their heyday – and what they might look like if Kim Jong Un decides to revive them.
A North Korean farmer on a rice farm, Sept. 2015 | Image: NK News (file)RICE (OR CORN) TO THE MASSES
There were (and still are) three rationing systems that delivered rice, corn, wheat flour, and other kinds of cereals to the North Koreans. They were subordinated to different government agencies and targeted different groups.
One system provided cereals for farmers, another dealt with military personnel and their families and the last and largest dealt with everybody else — the entire civilian urban population. All three networks, however, were based on similar principles.
Cereal rations for urban dwellers were first introduced in 1946, and in 1957, the DPRK banned all private trade in rice and other cereals. Authorities ceased to enforce this ban around 1990, but it has never been formally lifted, even though in the early 2000s there was a certain ambiguity about it.
Every North Korean was eligible to receive a grain ration whose size depended on his or her job and, in some cases, age. There were nine distribution levels, from infants eligible for 100 grams a day to miners eligible for 900 grams a day.
Most adults had a 700-gram daily ration. The rations were reduced downward twice, in the early 1970s and late 1980s, so in practice, people received some 540 grams instead of 700 grams by 1990.
The ration size did not depend on one’s place of residence. However, rations were delivered as a mix of grain and cereal products, and the composition of this mix differed from one region to another.
In more privileged localities, the rations included a higher share of rice, while the inhabitants of the less lucky areas largely subsisted on corn, barley, and wheat flour.
Rations, while technically not free, were sold to customers at token prices. Until the 2002 price reforms, the retail price of rice in the state shops was fixed at 0.08 won, and the price of corn was 0.06 won. This meant a month’s worth of grain rations would cost about 2 won, some 2-3% of the average North Korean salary in the 1980s.
Red peppers used to make kimchi dry outside in Kaesong, North Korea, Sept. 2012 | Image: NK News (file)KIMCHI AND TV SETS
Food other than cereals, as well as the majority of consumer goods, was occasionally sold at state-run shops, but in most cases such items were dispensed through local distribution networks known as the kongkup system (공급) that were not a part of the centralized, nationwide system.
This is how North Koreans could obtain fish, vegetables, underwear, socks, vegetable oil, soap, and tooth powder as well as many other items. In the days of Kim Il Sung, there were few alternatives to relying on these local distribution systems, since markets could not meet demand.
For consumption goods, people were issued distribution cards, where the sales clerks made necessary notes when one made a government-sanctioned purchase. A different type of distribution card was issued for the non-cereal foodstuffs — largely oil, soy sauce, and soybean paste, but also vegetables, fish, meat and eggs. The cabbage for kimchi was distributed as well. Prices were heavily subsidized.
Unlike the stable and nationwide grain rations, distribution norms for those local networks differed from year to year, or even from month to month, and also could vary greatly between localities. Much depended on the political clout of the region as well on its geography and local specifics.
For example, Hyeoryong county had a large state-run chicken farm, so in the 1980s, the eggs were generously distributed there as part of monthly rations, while eggs were not available at all within the kongkup system in nearby counties. Eggs had to be bought at markets at much higher prices.
But in the city of Haeju in the early 1980s, a family of five would receive two bottles of vegetable oil, some sugar, 500 grams of cookies and two liters of soy sauce per month. Footwear, cloth, cutlery, blankets, socks and many other items were occasionally distributed as well.
The so-called gifts from the Great Leader constituted another peculiar but important form of rationing, doubling as propaganda. Within this system, prestigious consumer goods and delicacies were distributed as gifts from Kim Il Sung, and later Kim Jong Il to those who had distinguished themselves with hard work. These gifts could be modest, like apples given to the soldiers, or exceptional, like Swiss watches or Japanese TV sets.
A crowd of people watch the opening ceremony of 800 luxury flats to Pyongyang’s upper class from across the Pothong River | Image: Rodong Sinmun (April 14, 2022)RATIONING FOR THE RICH AND POWERFUL
The privileged few had access to their own exclusive set of distribution networks. There were a number of such networks, available for different elite groups, and providing consumer goods and food of higher quality. However, even quality goods for privileged North Koreans were rationed and delivered according to state-approved norms. The rations in these networks depended on the recipient’s position within the hierarchy.
The top elite were issued special packages which would be delivered to their houses. Depending on how frequently such packages arrived, there were grades in this system as well. The Politburo members, Central Committee departmental heads and others at these high levels received such packages daily, while people lower on the pecking order were eligible for one package once a week, every other week or every month.
The content of these packages also differed, depending on the position of the recipient in the state/party hierarchy. They included quality meat, fresh vegetables and fruits, some alcohol (beer, brandy and other spirits). Imported consumption goods were delivered as well.
These daily/weekly/monthly packages were available to less than 0.1% of the country’s population. The mid-ranking elite, the top 1% or so, had access to special shops, known as “#65 distribution centers.” The privileged who had access to these shops, off-limits for the commoners, could buy medium-quality clothes and consumer goods, as well as some food.
Last but not least, the rich and powerful had access to the hard currency shops which were opened in major cities in the late 1970s. There have been persistent rumors that in the 1980s the top officials receive a part of their salaries in hard currency, but so far I have not found firm evidence which would confirm or disprove such rumors. However, many powerful people had access to hard currency anyway, via bribes or foreign trips.
IS IT THE PAST?
In communist countries rationing was used frequently, but still seen as an emergency policy, to be used only at the time of crisis. In North Korea, however, rationing came to be seen as the norm, even an ideal, superior to regular money-driven retail. This view has been aired a number of times, among others, by Kim Il Sung himself.
In April 1978 he said: “Some officials frequently expressed the view that we should abolish the rice rationing system and start selling rice [freely] at regular prices … But I told [them] that the rice rationing system, which is implemented in our country, is a good system since it ensures that all people live well, without worrying about food, so we should not think about abolishing it.”
So, it should come as no surprise if and when his grandson Kim Jong Un – ever-cognizant of emulating the founding leader – tries to recentralize food distribution inside North Korea.
Edited by Arius Derr and Bryan Betts
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