( Read more: It's Taedonggang time: North Korea's best beer)Īuthorities have been wary of this elite for a while.Ī devastating famine during the mid-1990s killed roughly 1.5 million North Koreans, though estimates vary widely. "There is this other class of the economic elite that the regime really worries about," said Bennett, who was the lead author of a Sept. Korea experts point to a heavy reshuffling of his top lieutenants as noteworthy, but it's not political bureaucrats that North Korean authorities fear most. But as North Korea's economy further deteriorates under an untested young leader, the nation could be on an economic collision course with its more advanced neighbors, including China. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his early 30s, is just two years into his rule.Ī government collapse as a case of "when"-not "if"-has been around for years.
Choco pies free#
and retail for under $4 for a box of 12 small cakes.īut even with Kaesong's reopening and other pockets of free enterprise in the totalitarian state, North Korea's economy drastically lags South Korea's, and the gulf could prove disastrous. Two Asian food companies, Orion and Lotte, make similar versions of the product. "They're easily sellable and valuable in terms of providing money for staples," Bennett said. In fact, South Korean companies based in the complex use Choco Pies as a major hiring incentive. "The authorities may thus hope to reign in market forces and information flows coming out of Kaesong and into the North more broadly," he said.Ī tighter budget resulting from the halt in the complex's operations had cut the number of snacks workers receive, according to the Kaesong Industrial Complex Company Association.
"The North Korean authorities likely want to reduce the number of pies employees receive to something closer to what the employees will themselves consume, thus significantly reducing the sales of Choco Pies to third parties," said Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research group. Choco Pies also are exchanged in the markets for more substantial food items and other necessities. "I would not describe them as 'black markets,' " said Andrei Lankov, history professor at Kookmin University in Seoul. While payment in Choco Pies is curious in itself, Korea watchers say reducing the number of treats is significant because it symbolizes a government trying to keep free-market forces in check.Įntrepreneurial North Koreans sell the snacks in the country's large markets, which are tacitly tolerated by authorities. When a factory complex that North and South Korea share reopened last month after a closure of roughly five months, employees got fewer Choco Pies, which are part of their compensation, NK News reported.
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