The Kim Jong-un regime's campaign against private economic activity appears to be tightening further. According to a reporting partner in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, who filed a report in mid-April, authorities have been conducting home searches and confiscating parts from roadside bicycle repair operators. (HONG Mari / KANG Jiwon)
◆ Home Searches and Parts Confiscations
Since the COVID pandemic, the Kim Jong-un regime has imposed strict controls on private economic activity, including trade. Merchants who once operated freely have been brought under the authority of the Sangŏp Kwalliso (Commercial Management Office — a department of the People's Committee that oversees the distribution of consumer goods), and are now required to register both their suppliers and their selling prices.
A reporting partner recently described a new wave of enforcement measures:
"You know how they've been cracking down on private trade? The authorities tried to go after people who were undercutting the Commercial Management Office on bicycle repairs, but it wasn't working. So now they've started labeling the independent repairers as handlers of stolen goods, and people in the repair business are being hauled in. Someone nearby had their home searched and their bicycle parts confiscated."
Bicycle use surged in North Korea during the mass economic collapse of the mid-1990s. With workplaces failing to provide either food rations or wages, people threw themselves into private trade en masse. Demand for bicycles — essential for both travel and hauling goods — spiked sharply, and large quantities of used bicycles were imported from Japan. The rapid spread of bicycles gave rise to a thriving repair trade:
tire patching and parts replacement became a fixture of daily commerce, and independent bicycle repairers became a common sight throughout the country.
In late January, a reporting partner informed ASIAPRESS that authorities had begun cracking down on home-based garment tailoring operations. The current targeting of bicycle repairers appears to be part of the same broader pattern: the Kim Jong-un regime bringing informal private economic activity that had previously slipped through the cracks under formal state control.
