North Korea's Rising Food Prices and Their War Against South Korean Pop Culture — Crossing Borders - Helping North Korean Refugees and Orphans

North Korea has literally enacted “fashion police” through youth organizations that report on clothing such as skinny jeans, lip or nose piercings, or branded western clothing.
Police are now authorized to detain anyone foreign clothing or hairstyles.
Secret police conduct raids searching for any DVDs or USBs smuggled from China or South Korea.
Three boys and four girls in North Korea were recently sentenced to five years at North Korea’s re-education camps for crimes worthy of a “life sentence of re-education through labor” or “execution.”
The children were found guilty of watching and sharing South Korean media - film and television - with their classmates.
In the past three years North Korean police have increased their surveillance and raids on North Koreans suspected of being influenced by South Korean culture.

Kim Jong Un recently denounced Korean pop music culture, as well as its “attire, hairstyles, speeches, behaviors” to be a corruption in the North Korean youth and a “vicious cancer”.
Kim Jong Un has dedicated several speeches in the past month about the “anti-socialist and nonnsocialist’ influence of South Korean dramas and K-pop.
While state propaganda in North Korea states that South Korea is starving and poor, South Korean media portrays the opposite, and smuggled media threatens the North Korean government’s ability to be the single source of information for its citizens.
Jiro Ishimaru, chief editor of Asia Press International, noted that Kim Jong Un sees South Korean media as a “cultural invasion” that may cause the North Korean people to “start considering the South an alternative Korea to replace the North.”

Wild fluctuations in food prices while North Korea’s preaches self-reliance

“I don’t understand why food prices and exchange rates are constantly changing,” remarked a North Korean resident of Pyongyang, as the prices of food fluctuated dramatically in the span of a few days.
According to some sources, food prices were suddenly more expensive in evenings than in mornings for unknown reasons.
Citizens report fears and concerns about food prices increasing dramatically as their hopes for North Korea resuming trade on the border with China are dwindling.
One Pyongyang resident, seeing the price of rice grow by 50% in the span of a month, stated: “I have lived in Pyongyang for more than 20 years, but I’ve never seen such high food prices.”
In response to the growing concerns, North Korea has begun to enforce ideological education sessions for its citizens, focusing on the North Korean concepts of “juche” - self-reliance in North Korea’s economic and cultural isolation from the world.
The government has released studies emphasizing independence from imports and stabilization through self-sufficiency.
Sources indicate that not all North Koreans are quick to accept what seems like an “unrealistic” expectation upon them from the government. “Some residents shouted that they are too busy making ends meet or tending to their vegetable gardens and cannot understand why the authorities are trying to tie their feet by making them come learn about ideology three times a week,” said a North Korean citizen.

North Korea has appointed a new and secret “second-in-command”

According to excerpts of a North Korean government document, North Korea has recently created the position of a second-in-command to leader Kim Jong Un.
It is unclear who now occupies the position. Experts believe that there are several candidates.
- Jo Yong Won is one of Kim Jong Un’s most tenured aides and serves in the Worker’s Party’s central committee.
- Kim Tok Hun is one of the highest ranking officials in the North Korean government.
Kim Yo Jong, sister to Kim Jong Un, despite her growing influence and publicity, is not likely to have taken the position, as she is not a member of the North Korean Politburo Standing Committee, the highest echelon of North Korea’s leaders.
Director of North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, Cheong Seong-chang, stated that Kim Jong Un’s delegation of power to ease his growing centralization of power may indicate that the North Korean leader is confident in his “grip on power”.