Transition beyond Denuclearisation by Chan Young Bang

Author:Chan Young Bang
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811543166
Publisher: Springer Singapore

2.6.1 Implications of Bottom-Up Marketization on Gender Hierarchies

In North Korea, wealth and social status has traditionally been determined based on loyalty to the party and zeal for the revolution, which was based on the political background of the family. The problem is that there are gender-based differences in the process of determining this. The North’s revolutionary-centered history, created with loyalty to the party and passion for the revolution, has been a history of men. Thus, the political hierarchy created on this basis was also hereditary through the male-dominated family, thus the male-centered hierarchy emerged.24

This distribution of capital on a political basis also affected activities in the market. Women were enabled to engage in market activities and gain some wealth but unable to ensure their own political protection. They had no choice but to rely on the existing political power structure, which is dominated by men, given that they had to secure political and economic power that would guarantee their safety even if they engaged in illegal business. In this way, the male-dominated hierarchy has been reenacted in the unofficial markets.

Gender hierarchies that are evident in society also are found in markets. State intervention in the market led to the establishment of a management system for the market.25 The state began to directly coordinate market behavior of its residents through the market management office, thus delegating an enormous amount of power to coordinators who are typically male. A market manager directly managing a market has absolute power within a market, and a market manager is an entity exercising substantial power. The market manager is the general manager of the market and can exercise direct power to merchants because he has close ties to the interests of merchants in the market and is responsible for cracking down on irregularity and managing the market. People who do business in the market are mostly women, and managers are mostly male. Therefore, the male-dominated hierarchy is reenacted and men still exist as major actors of power in the market.26

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