Along the Chinese border, defectors say North Korean province is quietly liberalizing

Max Fisher

 A North Korean soldier stands guard along the Chinese border. (GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images)

On the northeastern fringe of North Korea, a place so remote that Korea’s medieval monarchy once exiled out-of-favor officials there, a province now known as North Hamgyung may be experiencing a degree of relative wealth and freedom unknown in the rest of the country.

To be clear, the operative word here is “relative”; the accounts make clear that North Hamgyung is still primarily defined by North Korea’s poverty and totalitarian rule. But, based on defector accounts gathered by North Korea-focused news site New Focus International, the province appears to be experiencing an upsurge in wealth and personal freedoms. “North Hamgyung province seems a much better place for life than the city of Pyongyang,” one defector said, a surprising statement given that the government has long cultivated capital city Pyongyang as the height of wealth and development.

New Focus International says that one defector was “shocked” on seeing the relative wealth and prosperity in North Hamgyung. Another said that “as long as you have the trust of relevant authorities, you can lead a decent life,” relatively unfettered, whereas life in Pyongyang requires constant vigilance from watchful state security.

Residents in North Hamgyung are said to have regular access to rice. This might seem like a small thing, but it’s difficult to overstate the cultural value of rice in Korea, its importance to families, and the pain many North Koreans feel at being deprived of this cherished staple. In Pyongyang, a rice allowance is seen as a reward for status and loyalty, as well as a sign of the city’s stature. That North Hamgyung residents would have rice, and acquire it by means other than as a reward from the government, would be a big deal to North Koreans. Residents can even buy bread imported from nearby China. It’s no wonder that, according to New Focus International, some North Koreans talk about “defecting” from their home province to North Hamgyung.

The Onsong market in North Hamgyong/ english.chosun.com

Assuming that these defector accounts are true, the changes would seem to be a result of North Korea’s increasingly porous border with China. North Korea began allowing freer cross-border travel several years ago because it needed the black market to bring in food and keep the economy from collapsing. China still regularly imprisons and deports any defectors it finds, but the border is left conspicuously more open than North Korea’s other borders, allowing some North Koreans to travel back and forth. This trade has brought with it, among other things, bootleg video CD movies that allow North Koreans a glimpse into the outside world, which it turns out is not as terrible as their government tells them.

Is North Hamgyung’s improved status just a temporary blip until Pyongyang reverses the changes, a possible model for North Korea’s future, or a unique system that can only work here? The region is an unusual mix of internal exiles (people who said or did the wrong thing and were sent away to this remote province) and loyal political elites, according to Barbara Demick’s excellent book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives of North Koreans.

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