Life Inside North Korea 3

Life Inside North Korea

Life Inside North Korea

Splash Travels

Story by Allison Robertson

 

• 22h 2024-11-02

 

Life Inside North Korea

North Korea is the world’s most secretive state, so it can be tough to get a clear picture of the daily lives of its 26 million citizens. The strict North Korean regime has stripped the people of their power. Nobody gets in, and nobody gets out.

From concentration camps to mass surveillance, every aspect of life in North Korea is monitored and unfavorable behavior is met with brutal punishment. Life in this authoritarian state is no picnic, and those who live there typically would prefer not to.

Here’s everything we know about life in North Korea.

 

What Is Working Like In North Korea?©Stefan Bruder, Shutterstock

North Koreans are not free to choose their own jobs, the state does that for them. And they do so by determining a person’s worth first.

In the past, the most crucial factor was songbun, or personal background. People with good songbun—or people from good families—would be given advantages in job placement.

But today, they use a system that organizes people based on something else.

 

What Is The Work Unit System?©Oleg Znamenskiy, Shutterstock

The Work Unit (Inminban) System is used to organize citizens into groups based on their loyalty to the state. Each group is assigned jobs. This categorization can affect job opportunities and earning potential, as some units may be given more lucrative assignments than others, depending on how loyal they have been over the years.

Even still, the country’s average wages are nothing to get excited about.

 

How Much Money Do North Koreans Make?©Oleg Znamenskiy, Shutterstock

The average North Korean salary is said to be relatively low by international standards, and far less than needed to cover basic living needs.

It is believed that average wages in North Korea are between 5,000 and 10,000 North Korean won (KPW) per month, which translates to roughly $1-3 USD.

Some elite jobs may pay a bit more, but are hard to get.

 

What Are The Best Jobs?©Astrelok, Shutterstock

The highest-paying jobs in North Korea include: government officials, military officers, diplomats, medical professionals, scientists and engineers, and elite performers (state-approved, of course).

But cash isn’t the only form of payment in North Korea.

 

 

How Do People Get Paid?©Oleg Znamenskiy, Shutterstock

In a lot of “good jobs” in North Korea, the people are paid low wages but given some non-monetary benefits, such as access to food, housing, healthcare, and education.

But this doesn’t work out any better. One defector said, “They gave us a quota every day. If we didn’t meet the quota, we didn’t get our food ration, so we didn’t get paid that day".

As well, anyone who gets an actual paycheck should expect it to fluctuate, even when their hours and official wage do not change.

 

Why Do Their Wages Change?©tuzla, Shutterstock

Because of the inconsistent economy, the North Korean government will decrease wages without notice. When this happens, people’s official wages do not change, nor do their hours.

Basically, employment contracts don’t mean much. The government will pay whatever they can afford at the time.

And sometimes, people are required to work without pay.

 

 

What Is Dolgyeokdae?©Oleg Znamenskiy, Shutterstock

Dolgyeokdae is “voluntary community work”—except that it’s actually not voluntary at all. The government can call upon citizens at any time to drop everything and participate in various infrastructure projects and agriculture support.

There is no compensation in any form. In fact, it is considered a civic duty, and the people are to be grateful for the opportunity.

 

 

Who Has To Join The Military?©Vesa Airio, Shutterstock

Speaking of civic duty, North Koreans are required to join the military at the age of 17. Men are universally conscripted while women undergo selective conscription. They must serve for a minimum of 10 years, during which they are isolated from their families.

The only people exempt from the military are children of the political elites and those with bad songbun (particularly disloyal).

 

What Is Their Military Like?©Flight Video and Photo, Shutterstock

The Korean People’s Army (KPA) is one of the largest military institutions in the world. With an active duty army consisting of 4.9% of its population, North Korea maintains the fourth-largest active military force in the world behind China, India, and the United States.

The KPA has about 1,280,000 active soldiers and 6,300,000 reserve and paramilitary troops. Approximately one in every 25 citizens is an enlisted soldier.

But manpower isn’t the only thing they have.

 

 

Does North Korea Have Nuclear Weapons?©Astrelok, Shutterstock

North Korea is a nuclear-armed state—but the nature and strength of their arsenal is uncertain. As of September 2023, estimates of its size ranged between 40 and 116 assembled nuclear warheads.

They also apparently have a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, including anthrax, smallpox, and cholera.

 

How Are Their Weapons Controlled?©Astrelok, Shutterstock

The UN has placed numerous sanctions on North Korea over the years, including prohibiting the sale of weapons to North Korea by other states—which has led North Korea to take a more innovative approach.

 

 

North Korea’s Asymmetric Warfare©Pvince73, Shutterstock

Since no one is allowed to sell weapons to North Korea, the country has deployed a wide range of asymmetric warfare technologies instead. These include: anti-personnel blinding lasers, GPS jammers, midget submarines and human torpedoes, stealth paint, and cyberwarfare units.

The country allocates a huge amount of money to their military, ensuring they never lose their power—mostly over their citizens.

 

 

Human Rights In North Korea©Stefan Bruder, Shutterstock

It’s no surprise that human rights in North Korea is a hot topic. The UN is absolutely beside themselves, stating “the gravity, scale, and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world".

North Koreans have been referred to as “some of the world's most brutalized people” by Human Rights Watch, because of the severe restrictions placed on their freedoms.

In fact, North Korea is ranked highest in the world in terms of the percentage of population in modern slavery.

 

Modern Slavery In North Korea©Pvince73, Shutterstock

North Korea is the only country in the world that has not explicitly criminalized any form of modern slavery—but this is because they support it.

The country has over a million people in modern slavery, equating to 10.4% of the population.

That’s not the only awful thing they participate in, though.

 

 

Human Trafficking In North Korea©christiantimeless, Shutterstock

North Korea has allegedly trafficked thousands of its own citizens as forced laborers to other countries where most of their earnings are pocketed by the Korean government. And sometimes, they trade their people for goods.

The regime has no intention of changing this tactic and sees nothing wrong with it.

 

Are North Koreans Allowed To Travel?©Attila JANDI, Shutterstock

Citizens in North Korea are generally not permitted to leave the country at will. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Some citizens can receive special permission to travel, though usually it is only approved for work, business, trade, or study purposes. However, this is not open to everyone, and it is not an easy process to go through.

 

 

Why Are They Not Allowed To Travel?©Chanilim714, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

North Koreans are not allowed to travel because the regime fears it to be an escape attempt. If someone wants to leave the country, they first have to prove their intentions and basically promise to return.

There is a great fear that North Koreans will discover the free world and not want to go back home—understandably so.

 

Do North Koreans Know About The Rest Of The World?©Stephen A. Rohan, Shutterstock

Average North Koreans (excluding the elite) have limited knowledge about the outside world. The media within North Korea is strictly controlled and does not allow global news or radio stations. All media is pre-tuned to North Korean stations only.

Because of this, they have limited ways of learning anything other than what the government wants them to know.

However, that doesn’t mean they don’t find other ways.

 

 

Smuggling Radios©Shota Tokuda, Shutterstock

Many North Koreans find ways to smuggle goods across the border with China. And one of the things they like to get are radios that can tune in to international stations.

This is super risky though because tuning into foreign broadcasts is a serious offense that will land you in the political camps. But it’s literally the only way for them to learn about the world.

 

Censorship In North Korea©Caminhos me Levem, Shutterstock

Censorship is a form of media monopoly where the government oversees all media content in order to maintain obedience.

North Korea has some of the most extreme censorship in the world, with the government able to take strict control over all communications.