Survey of escapees indicates worsening quality of life in North Korea
Radio Free Asia
A survey of more than 6,300 North Korean escapees paints a bleak picture of life in the isolated country: Food has grown scarcer amid a weakening economy and rampant corruption.
Women play a more elevated role in families and society — not because of a heightened sense of equality but out of economic necessity, interviewees said.
The report, compiled between 2013 and 2022 by South Korea’s Unification Ministry, indicates that the quality of life has worsened since North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011 after his father’s death.
Han Songmi, who was 19 when she escaped in 2011, is one of more than 30,000 people who have fled the North over the years.
“The authorities were cracking down on kids for their clothing and hairstyles,” she said. “The kids would be saying, ‘We can’t do this,’ among ourselves, but we couldn’t say that in front of adults. Adults would always say, ‘Be careful, your parents can get arrested because of you.’”
Economic conditions in North Korea have worsened, the survey found. Until the 1990s, people relied on government rationing for food, but when the Soviet Union collapsed and aid from Moscow dried up, the resulting famine killed up to 2 million people.
Among survey respondents who fled North Korea between 2016 and 2020, more than 72% said they never received food rations. The system purported to provide access to rationing through government-assigned jobs and wages that could be used to buy food at discounted prices. In reality, such jobs offered little support.
Among those who fled before 2000, over a third said they didn’t receive food rations or wages at their official workplace. About half of those who fled between 2016 and 2020 said the same.
Women have begun buying and selling goods such as vegetables and packaged foods smuggled from China. More than 70% of respondents said they had to rely on such sales for survival after Kim took power.
While citizens operate side-businesses to survive, the regime’s leaders use their status for economic gain by demanding a percentage of profits from such businesses or by extracting bribes.
Of respondents who escaped since Kim came to power, 41% said they had been robbed of more than 30% of their monthly income. Among those who escaped between 2016 and 2020, over 54% said they had paid bribes.
“As the authorities’ crackdowns intensify, residents have no choice but to pay bribes as part of whatever they are doing to make a living,” said Lee Hyun-Seung, who escaped from North Korea in 2014 and settled in the United States. She was not interviewed for the survey.
“Because we do not have economic freedom, those who engage in economic activities cannot receive legal protection,” she said. “That’s why we pay bribes and receive protection or avoid punishment from people in power.”
Support for the regime has waned. Among respondents who escaped before 2011, about 30% said they had negative feelings about the regime. That sentiment rose to 53% among escapees after 2012. For those who escaped between 2016 and 2020, the figure was over 56%.