Seoul, June 14 (FN Agency) South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho Friday said that North’s socialist rationing system has completely collapsed, leading people to rely on local “jangmadang” markets for survival. Kim made the assessment during a general meeting of ruling People Power Party lawmakers, citing a report published by his ministry in February based on interviews conducted between 2013 and 2023 with 6,351 North Korean defectors, Yonhap news agency reported. “North Korea’s socialist rationing system has completely collapsed. The North Korean people are going out to jangmadang to live their lives and internal marketisation is accelerating,” he told the lawmakers.
Citing the report, Kim said around 36 percent of North’s population owns a cellphone, which is around 7 million cellphones exchanging information and watching South Korean TV dramas. More than 50 percent of North Korean defectors acknowledged having given a bribe, he said. A crime which can put one’s life at risk. North Korean people were undergoing a major shift in psychology from collectivism to individualism, showing “deepening distrust” for the Kim Jong-un regime, the report added. North and South Korea are at loggerheads again with both sides now actively taking up propaganda politics. This comes at time of heightened tensions between the neighbours, as tit-for-tat actions increase after North sent rubbish-filled balloons into the South, who fired warning shots recently.