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North Korea's antique food
rationing
By Andrei Lankov
SEOUL - Travelers' tales told by those who
escape to South Korea are among the only sources
of information about North Korea. And now, those
who make their way to the South are talking about
the end of the Public Distribution System (PDS),
the rationing system that was supposed to ensure
food security. No more.
When in 2002 the
North Korean government introduced what the
foreign media chose to describe as "reform
measures", one of the components of new policy was
a dramatic reduction of the PDS. However, from
reports about the so-called "1st of July
measures", many foreign readers and and observers
got an impression that the PDS was introduced by
Pyongyang during escalating food shortages some
time in the early 1990s. This was not the case. As
a matter of fact, the PDS has been a
quintessential feature of North Korean life for
many decades.
To some extent, this
reflected a peculiarity of the centrally planned
economy. In such an economy, prices are fixed, so
demands and supply cannot be balanced by price
fluctuation in a "natural" way as in a market
economy. Therefore, governments that adopted
central planning nearly always had to step in and
start deciding how to distribute scarce goods. But
in most communist countries, only the more
prestigious and valuable goods were subject to
rationing and distribution. In the former Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics, the comprehensive
rationing system ceased to operate in the late
1940s, although from the 1970s it was partially
reborn under the pressure of mounting economic
problems. In most communist countries of Eastern
Europe, food was no longer rationed from around
1950.
In North Korea, rationing was first
introduced in 1946, initially only for the
employees of state companies. By the mid-1950s,
this group of beneficiaries included 3 million to
3.4 million people, a majority of the entire
population at the time, according to a Soviet
intelligence report. In those days, the daily
rations included 600-900 grams of grain per
working adult, depending on the type of job and
its exertion and calorie demands. These norms were
to remain essentially unchanged for the next four
decades.
The Public Distribution System
was augmented by free trade, conducted both at the
markets and in private shops. However, in December
1957 free trade in grain was outlawed: all cereals
were to be distributed through the PDS only. It
seems that this ban was enforced quite
efficiently, so until the late 1980s, few if any
North Koreans would dare sell or buy grain on the
market. In 1957-58 the authorities closed down all
private shops and undertook an unsuccessful
attempt to get rid of private markets as well.
Throughout the 1960s, less and less could
be bought and sold freely in the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Soy sauce,
cabbage, radishes and other basic ingredients of
Koreans' staple food could not be bought without
rationing coupons in the state shops, which
eventually became distribution points rather than
centers of retail. From around 1970, almost
nothing except stationery and books could be
purchased without producing a ration coupon. Of
course, there were markets, even if in the late
1960s they were almost exterminated as well.
However, markets were not flourishing, and prices
there were exorbitant. Back in 1985, a chicken
would cost some 40 won (at today's exchange rate
about US$18), more than half of the average
monthly salary.
Meanwhile, official prices
of cereals and other daily necessities were kept
at a very low level, providing North Korean
propaganda with good material for boasting. For
decades, one kilogram of rice cost 0.08 won (over
this time, the average monthly salary increased
from about 50 to about 100 won). But the prices
did not matter much: even if a person had money,
he or she could not buy more than was allowed by
the state.
Actually, trade in a normal
sense of the word nearly ceased to exist in North
Korea in the 1960s. As Nickolas Eberstadt, the
world's leading expert on the North Korean
economy, put it: "Clearly, the medium of domestic
currency was almost marginal to the operation of
the DPRK economy ... In this respect, the DPRK is
an extreme outlier from the modern economic
experience. The only other economy to come close
would be Cambodia in the late 1970s, under the
dark days of the Khmer Rouge, when the Pol Pot
leadership simply abolished money for a time."
Basically, every North Korean, including
inmates of mushrooming prison camps, was entitled
to a certain amount of cereals. The largest
amount, 900g daily, was reserved for workers
engaged in hard manual labor: steelworkers,
miners, loggers and others. A majority of the
population was entitled to a daily ration of 700g.
College and high-school students were given 600g
and younger students received 300-400g, depending
on their age. Retirees were also entitled to 300g
of cereals. The North Koreans were given some
other foodstuffs - cabbage, soy sauce and other
products - but in terms of nutrition almost all
calories in their diet came from rice and other
cereals.
The rice rations were paid every
15th day. On an established day, a family
representative, usually a housewife, since it was
daytime, went to the distribution center with her
identification and rationing coupons for her
entire family. She produced the coupons, paid the
token price and then took home the rice for the
next two weeks.
Rations consisted of a mix
of different grains. In the 1970s, in Pyongyang
rice represented as much as 70% of the allowance,
but even in those relatively prosperous times, in
more remote areas rations consisted entirely of
corn and barley, which have fewer calories than
rice - but excessive weight has never been a
problem in North Korea. The proportions between
rice and other less valuable kinds of grains
depended largely on one's place of residence, with
Pyongyang and other major cities being most
privileged.
But what about meat and fish?
Well, there were no regular norms for providing
these luxuries. As a rule, a family was issued
about a kilogram of meat two or three times a
year, normally on the eve of major holidays -
especially North Korean founder Kim Il-sung's
birthday. Milk was provided to schoolchildren in
Pyongyang in very small quantities. Sugar was
dropped from the rations in the early 1970s, and
since then could be bought only by lucky owners of
foreign currency (for a hyper-Stalinist regime,
North Korea always had a remarkably relaxed
currency-control system). Admittedly, fish was
more available, but still not a part of daily
diet.
Liquor and tobacco were rationed as
well. A commoner was entitled to have booze a few
times a year, before the major official holidays.
On the eve of an official holiday, commoners were
issued rationing coupons that allowed them to buy
one bottle of soju (a traditional Korean
liquor) and three bottles of beer. In case of some
family event, people had to go to a local office
and petition, then they were issued "special
liquor coupons". To prove their eligibility, they
had to produce an official certificate confirming
that their family was indeed having a wedding or a
funeral. The norm was five bottles per family.
The Public Distribution System dealt not
only with foodstuffs but also with consumables.
Some durables were simply outside the system - for
example, refrigerators, which were seen as an
ultimate luxury item, a North Korean analogue to a
sports car. But some other durables, such as color
television sets, were distributed to people via
long waiting lists. Normally, distribution of such
goods was handled by their work units, with the
party secretary being in a position to deny or
speed up access.
Of course, the North
Korean elite took good care of themselves. The
cadres were entitled to special rations that were
much more generous than those accorded to the
humble folk - and also included goods of higher
quality.
In general, the system worked -
at least as long as the North Koreans were
separated from the outside world and could not
compare their lives with the lives of people in
more prosperous countries (actually, official
propaganda insisted that there was no more
prosperous country than North Korea). The private
markets, even when they were finally re-legalized
around 1969, remained marginal to the economy.
Common people went there only on special
occasions.
Actually, the ration of 700g a
day might appear generous, at least concerning
calories. However, even in the late 1970s,
malnutrition was not unknown in North Korea. The
reason is that the official 700g was increasingly
a theoretical norm.
The first downsizing
of the rations took place in 1973 when the
country's economic growth began to decelerate. In
September 1973 it was declared that "due to the
dangerous international situation" the rations
would be reduced: every fortnight two daily
rations would be sacrificed for the strategic
reserves. In 1989 the rations were cut further -
by 10%: this was necessary, the authorities
explained, to prepare the country for the
forthcoming International Youth Festival. In 1992
a new 10% cut was imposed. These cuts meant that
on the eve of North Korea's Great Famine of
1995-99, the average worker received less than
500g of cereals. A retiree had to subsist on 220g
- not exactly a generous amount.
From 1992
the North Korean media began to explain that for
better health one only had to have two meals a day
(the tradition of three meals was described as
excessive and unhealthy). In those times people in
some remote areas could not get food. They were
still issued rationing coupons, but actual
delivery of rations was delayed for days, and then
for weeks.
And then came the real
catastrophe. In July and August 1995, unusually
heavy rains led to disastrous floods. The
authorities blamed the floods for all subsequent
food disasters, though in fact the situation had
been deteriorating from the mid-1980s.
In
1996, the country harvested some 3 million tons of
grain - just above half of the pre-crisis level.
In the new situation no rations could be
delivered. By 1996 the distribution of food
stopped throughout the countryside, with people
Pyongyang and some other major cities getting half
of what they used to receive in better times.
The Public Distribution System survived in
some areas longer than in others. In 1999-2000
South Korean sociologists conducted a large-scale
survey of North Korean defectors in China. One of
the questions was "when did the PDS cease to
function in your native county?" Some 23.5% said
this happened in 1993 or before, 40.9% said 1994
and 31.5% told the pollsters that the rations were
no longer delivered in 1995. The survey needs some
correction, since most of its participants came
from northern provinces that were hit much harder
than central or southern parts of the country. In
all probability, the nationwide result would be
different, with delivery stopped in most areas
around 1995 or 1996, rather than 1993 or 1994. But
it was stopped in any case, and the population was
left to its own devices for survival.
The
collapse of the PDS in 1993-95 is remembered by
most North Koreans as a turning point in their
lives. The events are often described as having
taken place "before the distribution ended" or
"before the distribution ended". Indeed, the end
of the PDS (which was never formally abolished)
heralded the start of a new life. Old certainties
were gone, and nobody could take for granted even
one's own physical survival.
Markets
spread across entire country, with the population
engaged in trade and handicraft. The old
government economy collapsed, with the country's
gross national product shrinking some 50% over a
decade. And finally, in 2002, the "July reforms"
heralded that the North Korean government finally
admitted the situation that had existed for a few
years. Retail prices of basic goods and services
were increased dramatically, obviously in an
attempt to approximate the market prices. Thus one
kilogram of rice, which used to cost 0.08 won, has
since July 2002 cost 44 won, or some 550 times as
much. Wages have risen as well. It was estimated
that the average increase in wages has been
approximately 2,500% (that is, 25 times). At the
same time, prices have increased 30-40 times.
These changes were widely interpreted as a
sign of reforms. They can be better described as a
reluctant admission of the facts that North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Il and his government could not
possibly change.
Perhaps the fate of the
Public Distribution System is yet another
confirmation of this collapsing state of affairs.
When in the spring of 2004 the South Korean media
printed reports about complete abolition of the
system, the North Korean officials denied this.
However, nowadays the PDS operates only in major
urban centers inhabited by more privileged groups
- exactly as it did from around 1996. These groups
have to be kept content, and they are still
enjoying access to some amount of almost free
food.
And what about others, the majority
of the population? They have to go to the markets
even if a monthly salary of a university professor
is not sufficient to buy seven kilograms of rice.
But nobody in North Korea lives on official salary
these days. Well, almost nobody - apart from the
privileged few who receive high salaries, often in
hard currency. Paradoxically, they are often the
people who still can use the Public Distribution
System.
Dr Andrei Lankov is a
lecturer in the faculty of Asian Studies, China
and Korea Center, Australian National University.
He graduated from Leningrad State University with
a PhD in Far Eastern history and China, with
emphasis on Korea; his thesis focused on
factionalism in the Yin Dynasty. He has published
books and articles on Korea and North Asia. He is
currently on leave, teaching at Kookmin
University, Seoul.
(Copyright 2005
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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