An American expert on North Korea says a growing number of people in the impoverished state are depending on informal markets to make up for shortages of food and other necessities.Stephen Linton, chairman of the Eugene Bell Foundation, told an audience in Washington Tuesday that the communist government turns a blind eye to many practices that are inconsistent with Pyongyang's state-controlled economy. He said people from various socioeconomic groups, including farmers, factory workers and government officials, increasingly benefit from these unauthorized markets. These markets, he said, thrive especially along the border with China, North Korea's closest ally.
Abraham Kim, vice president of the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute, told VOA he had seen the same thing on a visit to North Korea last month.Kim said the government appears to be a contradiction between the markets and the government's strict state control of the economy. But he said officials tolerate the situation because the markets are making needed food and consumer goods available to the public.