hankyoreh

Hankyoreh reporter Noh Ji-won presents at the Hankyoreh Peace Forum in Seoul on May 22. (Hankyoreh Unification and Culture Foundation)

“They’re saying they don’t have enough to live on. So where are they getting the money for their mobile phones?”

The past 10 years have seen both a historic food shortage in North Korea and a sharp rise in its mobile phone subscribers, who now represent 20% of the total population (5 million people). These two phenomena recently witnessed in the North remain difficult for some to reconcile.

UN organizations and international NGOs estimated North Korea’s total food production last year at just 4.95 million tons, its lowest level in the 10 years since 2009. The US has said that 43% of North Korea’s total population faces a food shortage.

Meanwhile, researchers estimated the number of mobile phone subscribers in North Korea at 5 million, or roughly 20% of the population. The cost of a mobile phone is enormous relative to the average North Korean’s income. According to a report on “Major North Korean Statistical Indicators in 2017” published by Statistics Korea, total per capita income in the North is 1.46 million won (US$1,233) a year, or 121,600 won (US$102.71) a month.

Depending on the model, North Korean mobile phones reportedly sell for anywhere from US$200 to US$500. In a National Assembly report last year, then Minister of Unification Cho Myoung-gyon estimated the average cost of a North Korean mobile phone unit at US$100–200.

Under North Korea’s current economic situation, the average person has to save up several months’ worth of income to purchase a mobile phone. While the devices are expensive, telecommunications companies in North Korea are reportedly expanding their subscriptions through competitive methods.

How can this rapid popularization of mobile phones be reconciled with the worst food shortage in a decade? Son Hye-min, a reporter with Radio Free Asia, explained, “Mobile phones become all the more necessary when there’s a food shortage. North Koreans are selling their homes if it gets them a mobile phone.”

Son, who presented on the topic of “Smartphones Changing Daily Life in North Korea” at the 2nd Hankyoreh Peace Forum organized on May 22 by the Hankyoreh Unification and Culture Foundation, said that North Koreans “need to do business to overcome their food shortage, and a mobile phone is essential to do business.”

In North Korean society, mobile phones are both a status symbol and means of survival. Since the extreme food shortage of the “Arduous March” in the late 1990s, the North Korean food rationing system has collapsed, and people are turning to markets to acquire food and daily essentials. North Korea currently has an estimated 500 or so markets of significant scale recognized by authorities.

“A lot of North Korean merchants have two or three mobile phones,” Son said.

“They aren’t just doing business in Pyongyang. They have to travel around the country, and they need several mobile phones that operate easily in different regions,” she explained.

According to Son, North Korean telecoms have different phones that operate better in large cities or in mountainous and rural areas. She also explained that borrowed-name phones are also commonplace due to the difficult subscription procedures and fears of government eavesdropping.

Also presenting at the forum that day was Hankyoreh reporter Noh Ji-won, who noted that mobile phones were essential items for North Korean merchants and businesspeople. She also shared the story of a North Korean defector who arrived in South Korea in 2017 after living in Pyongyang.

“When I was doing business in Pyongyang, I used three smartphones. In business, time is money – you have to have a smartphone,” she quoted the defector as saying.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, director of the Hankyoreh Peace Institute

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]