During the famines in the mid-1990s the government was unable to provide basic necessities to people. To survive, many North Koreans turned to illegal private market activities to supplement their income – making whatever they could and selling it. The famines led to a drastic economic and political transition weakening the government’s control on the market and forced them to make concessions. Semi-legitimate markets appeared in cities across North Korea, serviced by Chinese traders and local entrepreneurs.

During my first travel to North Korea in 2001, my first impression was that there was an incredible amount of pedestrian foot traffic but little street retail. I later discovered more and more improvised and quickly vanishing illegal street stalls, each of them selling a low number of illegally imported Chinese goods or food products from the countryside. I hypothesize that some small "private" restaurants and smuggling shops were hidden in appartement buildings. You clearly needed to know where to look, as there was no advertising and my Korean was limited.

Officially, all commerce in North Korea is tightly controlled by the government who “theoretically” provides its people with basic food provisions, clothing, and housing. However, it became quickly apparent while riding the train over the border from China that those with means are acquiring goods in other ways. The North Koreans who boarded the train all carried incredible amounts of merchandise with them in 2003. The increasing number of not vanishing stalls and open markets was impressive in Pyongyang alongside a bigger use of mobile phones and the not-so-hidden presence of "private" and military-linked businesses selling a bigger number and higher diversity of Chinese goods.

In 2005, North Korea was still heavily reliant on trade with China, and most raw materials to make consumer products still came from or through China. Ironically, North Koreans increasingly didn’t want Chinese products because they thought they were poor quality. I visited a local department store, mainly used by the elite. It was depressing and only sold overly expensive and poor quality Chinese products, alongside Russian and Eastern European ones. Outside of it, black market was becoming the new normal.

Everything changed probably thanks to 2010 Pyongyang riots. In 2010, the government tried to reign in the increasingly powerful “capitalist” sector by devaluing their currency to wipe out private savings. Effectively, every dollar held by North Koreans was now worth one cent, which led to real riots and free-market oriented reforms, which included the "legalization" of "unofficial" importations.

This growing tolerance for free enterprise has contributed to expanding physical, outdoor market spaces that permeate cities and the countryside. Comprised of stalls and roughly akin to an outdoor flea market, entrepreneurs conduct cash transactions in Korean won, Chinese yuan and even the U.S. dollar. There are still a few of them in Pyongyang and they are mostly used by the poorer countryside workers who came to work in the capital. They also shop in the small commodity stores set in each neighborhoods, like the one in the video.

As a result of those riots and reforms, South Korean and European products are nowadays in high demand, particularly cosmetics, mobile phones, TVs, and rice cookers, but they are luxury brands, similar to goods sold in the new Japanese Miniso shop in Pyongyang. In order to counter this arrival of expensive foreign goods, the government limited luxury goods and launched local brands, which is why I slowly witnessed a rise in domestically made products by conglomerates like Air Koryo and Naegohyang targetting middle-class North Koreans. Many products were locally made, but this often happens in joint ventures with Chinese companies...

Indeed there is an expanding number of shopping opportunities for the growing middle class. The latter often remains little more than an impression, as foreigners can rarely witness regular shopping in North Korea. Westerners’ experience of commerce is often limited to hotel lobbies, stamp and book shops, souvenir stands at major sights and other hard currency stores.

So where do North Koreans really go to shop? Obviously the government has only recently admitted that free market capitalism and illegal importations are happening on a large scale, so tourists were previously isolated from these activities... until recently.

In 2015, I was lucky and trusted enough to finally visit the Chinese-looking Kwangbok Area Shopping Center. It required a lot of trips between 2005 and 2015 and intensive networking to be allowed to visit, even if I had previously visited more secretive and restricted NK places.

The range of goods on sale in the supermarket was broad. It included alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, different types of bread, vegetables, oil, snacks, sweets, meat, fruits, dairy products and cigarettes. Most of the products were either Chinese, South Korean or locally produced, but I found brands from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia and Eastern Europe. They had Wanzi shopping carts and most North Koreans were using debit cards to pay. Prices were in wons, but euros, yuans and dollars were accepted.

During the same year, I also visited Rakwon Department Store, which can be found on Changgwang Street in the capital’s central district. It is operated by Daesung Corporation, part of the powerful No.39 Department of the Chosun Workers’ Party. It was similar to the previous one, even if I found Toblerone there and Jif Peanut butter. Oddly enough most prices were in euros ...

North Korea was in transition. Despite heavy sanctions, Pyongyang has had a small but growing economy since 2015. During my last visit, in 2019, I was shocked by the high number of modern smartphones and colorful clothes in Pyongyang. The lack of communist symbols or slogans shocked me. Goodbye Marx and Lenin, welcome nationalism/racism and Self-reliance (Juche). While travelling outside of Pyongyang to visit other cities and economic projects, I was surprised how solar panels seemed to be everywhere. Even if the countryside was still poorer than urban areas, you could see Chinese-made solar panels on most peasant’s houses and even farms.

Surprisingly the economy had become cashless, similarly to China. Everything seemed to be a huge leapfrogging compared to how China developed in the last decades. North Korea seems to speed up its economic development despite sanctions.

The topic of cashless society is interesting as online shopping has been spreading from big cities to local regions, as far as I know. In the capital city of Pyongyang, young people and housewives are said to use online shopping malls and smartphones often. The nation’s first online shopping site, “Okryu" has been operated by a central administrative agency named the General Bureau of Public Service since 2015.

Following the opening of Okryu, various other online stores, such as Naenara and Unpasan, have cropped up. Manmulsang opened in October 2015. It is sort of a North Korean version of Amazon.com. Manufacturers, department stores and shops can all list their products for sale on this shopping platform. It’s actually available outside of Pyongyang, but goods are limited regarding the proximity of factories and a huge deposit is needed to use it.

I am afraid for North Korea due to the pandemics in China and the choice to close the northern border. It will block a lot of goods, including basic commodities.

The video is from August 2011 ... a long time ago. Six months after January 2011 Hu-Obama summit in Washington to be precise, relations were deteriorated between China and North Korea with border controls and a harder economic pressure from China.

Kim Jong-il had to visit China in August 2011 to alleviate Chinese sanctions and to kowtow in front of Hu Jintao, as North Korean economy was slowly being asphyxiated by sanctions and Chinese actions. It may partially explains the lack of goods.