Kim jong un

Pyongyang Apartment Prices Soar Amid Thaw Pyongyang Becoming Rapidly Westernized Kim Jong-un Opens Glitzy High-Rise Street in Pyongyang How Pyongyang's Elite Live Now Pyongyang Spruces up Subway N.Korea Still Uses Trucks Donated in Thaw 18 Years Ago Pets Become Fashionable in Pyongyang Cab Driving Is Pyongyang's Most Lucrative Job Pyongyang Booms at the Expense of the Rest of N.Korea How Capitalist Is N.Korea? … [Read more...] about Kim Jong-un Rushes Completion of Potemkin Village

Cho Bong-hyun of the IBK Economic Research Institute said there are around 500,000 businesses in the North at present. Around 400,000 are small service businesses such as barber shops and restaurants, and around 100,000 are involved in manufacturing. Although private businesses are prohibited in principle, they are tolerated as long as they give a portion of their earnings to the state. This has created employers like store owners and people who own fishing boats or transport. … [Read more...] about How Capitalist Is N.Korea?

Divisions have existed since the 1970s, when nation founder Kim Il-sung parceled the population into three categories -- core (10-20 percent), basic (60-70 percent) and complicated (20 percent) -- and implemented discriminatory policies in terms of housing, party membership, schooling and employment. … [Read more...] about Pyongyang Booms at the Expense of the Rest of N.Korea

A source who recently visited Pyongyang said the cook who was in charge of preparing the broth died of old age early this month without passing on his secret recipe. "People used to wait in line in front of the restaurant for two or three hours, but the queues are gone," the source said. … [Read more...] about Cab Driving Is Pyongyang’s Most Lucrative Job

This made pet ownership fashionable in the capital and led to the creation of trading companies that specialized in the import of dogs. Authorities banned pet ownership again in 2011 citing health concerns, but current leader Kim Jong-un tacitly permitted it again. … [Read more...] about Pets Become Fashionable in Pyongyang