Life in North Korea - the adult years

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/23/life-in-north-korea-the-adult-years

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North Korea doesn’t rank well on global measures of equality and human rights, but there’s one area in which it outperforms the west: the DPRK is one of the few countries in the world where women earn more than men on average.

Although it is a male-dominated society, women bring in more than 70% of household income because of their dominance in the unofficial market economy.

Family life

North Koreans typically marry between 27 and 30 and have several children.

These days it is usually the father who takes care of the children while the mother works all the day in a market or the private sector.

Apart from work and child-rearing, adults have to attend to regular ideological sessions in their local organisations. However under Kim Jong-un, these sessions are less regular and less vigorous than in the Kim Il-sung age.

But life is not only about work and politics. People do rest, spending their free time with their friends and relatives.

North Koreans like cinema, especially Soviet films, although films made in the DPRK have a reputation for being dull.

Just like everywhere else in the world, North Koreans like visiting each other, dancing – often in the open air – and strolling. Few people walk at night as the country is chronically short of electricity and the streets are completely dark once the sun goes down. Young people sometimes take advantage of this for courtship.

Working life

The most prestigious careers are party, military, diplomatic and academic placements, and the likelihood of getting one of these depends on having good songbun and being well connected.

Without these you may as well give up. For instance, if your grandfather was a professor at a Japanese university or a communist from a non-Kim Il-sung faction you can forget about building a reputable career.

Those choosing a military career stay in the army after their conscription term is over. As there are many applicants not everyone is able to become an officer, but a persistent person with acceptable songbun can expect to eventually rise to the rank of colonel.

The first step necessary for a diplomatic career would be a diploma from a university like the Pyongyang University of Foreign Languages or the University of Foreign Relations.

The best graduates are offered a choice: you could join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or become a guide who works with foreigners, for example. Those who choose the former and pass all inspections are given a red diplomatic passport and sent to an embassy to work.

This is not always glamorous. Under Kim Il-sung North Korea did not have enough money to support low-ranking diplomats, so an attaché or a third secretary in the DPRK’s embassy in Romania, for example, would have had to take a train though the Soviet Union instead of a flight. The trip would have easily taken more than two weeks.

Every journal article has to include a quote from one of the Kims, even in scientific subjects

For a successful academic career one is required to publish articles. Because the North Korean academic community is extremely isolated (there is no internet) the level of research is not very high.

Articles have to be submitted to North Korean journals and every one has to include a quote from one of the Kims introduced by one of the following formulae: “The Great Leader respected comrade Kim Il-sung taught the following…”, “The Great Guide respected comrade Kim Jong-il instructed the following…” or “The Beloved and respected comrade Kim Jong-un said the following…”

This rule is followed in every article, including science subjects and mathematics. First a quote from a Kim and only then may you begin your research.

Market forces

Not everyone is able to rise up the ranks. Some people become bureaucrats, others are employed by a state-run enterprise. But the majority of the middle class are in some way connected with markets.

Since virtually everything from food and clothes to appliances and books is bought and sold there, the North Korean middle class mostly consists of market traders.

The lower classes in North Korea are workers and farmers. “Peasants” might be the more correct term for the latter, since a person working on a collective farm has to surrender their harvest to the state, and only under Kim Jong-un have they been given the right to keep part of their harvests.

Workers are not in a better position, with most earning about $1 or $2 a month.

Later years

An important event for Koreans from both North and South is a parent’s 60th birthday (known as hwanggap).

Children are expected to throw a party and lay on good food for guests, partly as a way to show their parents how successful they have become.

For some time the North Korean authorities tried to suppress this custom but in 1972, when Kim Il-sung turned 60, hwanggap became a respected tradition instead of vestige of feudalism.

North Korea, being a communist country, has a pension system, although payouts are only about US 50 cents a month.

Under Kim Il-sung this was manageable because the elderly also had access to the state’s public distribution system. But now, with the distribution chain largely dysfunctional, old people go to markets to trade for as long as they can. Otherwise they have to rely on their children for survival.

When a North Korean dies, the state provides relatives with a special allowance of rice and some alcohol, as well as a small sum of money. People are often buried in the mountains, considered the most appropriate final resting place under Korean tradition.

Read the first two parts of this series:

A version of this article first appeared on NK News – North Korean news