North Korean shoppers buy Western goods using dollars
RARE footage from inside North Korea shows shop customers buying Western goods with dollars, as the secretive state scrambles for hard currency to feed its people and to further its nuclear ambitions.
The video, obtained by The New York Times, offers a rare glimpse inside the reclusive regime, showing the shelves of a small, state-run convenience store lined with well-known Western brands including Procter & Gamble and Unilever as well as creams, shampoos and detergents from Germany, Japan and Indonesia.
What appears to be secretly filmed footage reveals a customer paying a young female cashier for items in dollars, although change is given in the local currency, the North Korean won.
With the country reeling from deep economic woes brought about by international sanctions, the pandemic and natural disasters, Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s authoritarian leader, is desperately gathering resources
to fund his nuclear weapons and missile programmes. Pyongyang has test-fired an unprecedented number of ballistic and cruise missiles this year, including its intercontinental range Hwasong-17, which is theoretically capable of hitting mainland United States.
These tests have gained pace despite an economic crisis and severe food shortages that have been exacerbated by border closures and a resulting plunge in cross-border trade with China during the pandemic. Experts fear famine may be rising across the country.
Mr Kim warned his people last year to brace for hunger. At a meeting of the ruling politburo last week, Mr Kim said that the “internal and external circumstances” of 2022 were “the
unprecedented adversity that tested our will and fighting efficiency”, according to state media agency KCNA.
The political elites in Pyongyang have been largely shielded from the worst hardships endured by the majority of the people. The farming system is centred on providing first for the military and wealthy ruling class.
Those with financial resources can also enjoy limited supplies of luxury goods smuggled in, similar to the products seen in The New York Times video.
In 2018, The Daily Telegraph was granted access to a high-end supermarket at Pyongyang’s Gwangbok department store, where shoppers could buy a bottle of 21-year-old Ballantine’s whisky for about $120 (£98) or other luxuries.