mid-ranking government official earns 2,700 won. A worker at a state farm earns in the region of 1,700 won, a kindergarten teacher 1,700 won and a pensioner gets between 700 and 1,500 won. A seamstress in a successful factory with export contracts can earn 5,000 won a month.
Accommodation, healthcare and schooling are free and in Pyongyang officials get double food rations to everyone else, but still, there is a mystery here.
With such tiny wages how come so many people seem to have the money for (imported) televisions in the Tongil market that cost some 72,000 won? And what about other items? An average North Korean made man’s jacket costs 4,500 won. Who has such money if most people are earning 2,700 won a month?
And here is another mystery. Pyongyang is full of restaurants and they are often full. The food is good too. But again, the price of a meal is an average month’s salary.
Clearly, an unknown number of North Koreans have access to foreign currency, especially those with family in Japan or South Korea. Some people are making money too, either because they are getting paid more or because they are doing some sort of business. But who is driving the Mercedes and yakking into mobile phones? Foreigners are obliged to leave theirs at the airport.
Foreign journalists are accompanied by government minders at all times when they visit North Korea _ and mine admitted that the question of who had money was “a riddle.” I asked him to tell me the answer to it and he said: “Write good things about us first and then we will allow you back and then we’ll tell you.”
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