On Friday, the New York Times ran an op-ed entitled, “The Market Shall Set North Korea Free.” Written by a defector who previously worked in Kim Jong-il’s government, it offers a unique and interesting look at what things are really like inside one of the world’s most secretive and oppressive countries.
In talking about the development of an extensive underground market economy, Jang Jin-sung writes,
Trading with their U.S. dollars (many of which are counterfeit) for Chinese products, North Koreans have come to recognize the existence of leaders greater even than the Kims. Who are these men gracing U.S. bank notes? North Koreans now see that loyalty to the supreme leader has brought no tangible benefits; yet currency bearing the faces of American men is exchanged for many things: rice, meat, even a promotion at work.
This should properly be filed under “Things Anyone Who’s Read Hayek Could Have Predicted.” He goes on,
Instead of focusing on the regime and its agents as possible instigators of reform, we must recognize the power of the flourishing marketplace to slowly but definitively transform North Korea from the bottom up.
International diplomacy and military action have their place, but I’m encouraged to see markets bringing about meaningful change. They do so peacefully and unobtrusively, and the change they bring lasts, working its way through all levels of society. Indeed, the “underground” market described in the op-ed isn’t really very secretive at all anymore. Even the regime has found the power of the market irresistible.
