What would you expect to find in the marketplace of a country whose people are starving? Well, according to Reuters, at the market on Kumgansan:
A couple of Westerners traveling on the tour bought a packet of 10 capsules of Yangchunsamnok, marketed as an “accelerator for erectility,” for $10.
“It’s very good and more effective than Viagra made in the USA,” said one of the North Korean guides in broken English. “It’s also good for your health.”
The product is made of “various medicinal herbs in Korea on the basis of modern medicinal science and technology and the theories of traditional Korean medicine.” Among the listed ingredients is antler.
A jar of jam sold for $5, and honey was going for $7 a pot. Traditional dolls were priced at around $25.
Reuters – in another article by the same writer - described the market at Rajin as:
The Rajin market looked like many markets in the Western world, overflowing with goods from rice and other grains, to all kinds of meats and even items such as sofas and cabinets.
The market was divided into different sections: food, clothing, home furnishings, electronics and children’s toys.
There was a foreign exchange office, but it was closed. Zheng said yuan and Russian rubles could be exchanged there at the official state rate. U.S. dollars cannot be converted.
The market was a hive of activity, although the North Koreans were clearly surprised to see the chain of foreigners weaving through their stalls. The journalists were forbidden from taking any video or photographs, and from writing in notepads.
The stall holders, all wearing official badges, and customers eagerly encouraged buyers to part with their cash. A pair of black shoes were being sold for 75 yuan ($11.75), traditional communist style caps 20 yuan, while 5 doughnuts cost 1 yuan.
Hmmm…overflowing with rice, grains and meats – kind of makes you wonder why the South and the United States are expected to provide the NORKs with food aid.
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Of course THOSE meats, grains and rice are only suitable to the stomachs of Western Imperialists and Capitalistic Devils. Dear Leader has scientifically proven it would immediately turn to dust when placed into the free and grateful mouths of his peoples. It is therefor that he does cause the grass to grow, it with the ability to provide nutritional value and satiate hunger far greater for the people.
I am not surprised.
The Rajin market is in the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone.
Most North Koreans are not permitted to travel, especially not allowed to travel to the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone.
The Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone was built to promote economic growth through foreign investment. (Get foreign dollars – Yuan and Russian).
Of course it will overflow with goods from rice and other grains, to all kinds of meats and even items such as sofas and cabinets.
North Koreans outside of PyongYang and outside of the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone, must grow their own food and rely of what little bits of rations the NK government allows them.
Their really is no need for aid to be sent to North Korea though, because most of the aid will end up being sold in the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone (to raise foreign dollars) and distributed amongst the elite in PyongYang and the soldiers, whilst the “common people” for whom the aid is meant for, won’t receive it.
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