Ready to Leave the Old Time: North Korea Wants to Follow China's Path. but Will George W Bush Let It Do So?

Ford, Glyn, New Statesman (1996)

In the middle of Pyongyang's high-rise apartments, the Tong-il market is buzzing. Thousands of North Koreans haggle and buy goods. On offer are fresh meat and dried fish, Spanish oranges and North African dates, suits, skirts, shoes, light bulbs, computer parts--and embroidered armbands that declare the wearer an engine driver, controller of machines or captain of guards.

This is a country where one in eight people (three million) died in a famine just a few years ago. The People's Distribution Centres, it was recognised, could no longer provide for the population's basic needs, particularly in the urban areas. As a result, there emerged farmers' markets, barely tolerated by the authorities and well off-limits to foreigners, where food was traded for cash or kind.

Since then the climate has changed. Kim Jong-il, North Korea's …

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Publication information: Article title: Ready to Leave the Old Time: North Korea Wants to Follow China's Path. but Will George W Bush Let It Do So?. Contributors: Ford, Glyn - Author. Magazine title: New Statesman (1996). Volume: 132. Issue: 4661 Publication date: October 27, 2003. Page number: 33. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group.

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