North Korean cargo vessels with such strange names as "Taehungdan," "Tumen River" and "Paikma River" have recently become the focus of abrupt news due to their violation of South Korean territorial waters. Those cargo ships are in fact small party apparatuses. Regarded as "organs" of the party, officials without fail exercise political command over the crew including captain, navigators and engineers. A party chairman assumes the post of deputy captain, who is effectively above the vessels actual captain. A security officer in charge of intelligence also is on board a vessel. These party officials wield considerable authority, and are said to often develop, wittingly or unwittingly, disputes with the crew.

Merchant ship crewmembers, however, all belong to the privileged elite. Being trade workers with wealth, they enjoy more power than state security personnel. North Korean authorities attach so much importance to their service that upon completion of every 100 voyages, they get letters of gratitude or decorations from the Central Committee of the Workers' Party. As they are paid their salaries in foreign currencies in addition to the local currency, they are given exceptional treatment in the North.

Being the objects of envy, it's very difficult to become cargo ship crew. Since only a small portion of graduates from Rajin Maritime College’s five-year course, and Nampo Maritime College’s three-year course, are selected, in-campus competition is fierce. "Incoming students were mostly children of leading officials of the party headquarters," reminisces Kim Tae Pom, a graduate from Pyongyang Maritime Junior College, the precursor of Nampo Maritime College, who came to the South in 1994. "Only 20%-30% of successful graduates are screened as merchant ship crew members. Internal competition was so severe that, even a minor mistake was not tolerated."

Married status being a requirement, cargo ship crew aspirants tend to get married early. A voyage to a foreign port usually takes four to six months and crewmembers upon return home have to undergo a 20-day "ideological struggle course" in an attempt to cleanse themselves of foreign influences. Only then can they take a leave of 20 days or so with their families. While in foreign ports, they are allowed to do shopping.

On the other hand, deep-sea fishermen, on account of their roughness and risky lives, used to be looked down upon, but their profession gained a better reputation in the 1990s because the crews of boats operating off the Russian Kuril Islands and elsewhere were able to bring home a quantity of dried pollack for their own disposal. When boats anchor at ports, shrewd merchants visit crew's homes to purchase marine produce at cheap prices.

However, North Korean ships have been unable to escape from petroleum shortages and even before the food shortage assailed the North, fishing boats, in a bid to save fuel, went out to the sea using the ebb tide without starting their engines, and used petroleum on way back to port only. With the situation further deteriorated since the mid-1990s, sailing boats have emerged. Fishing boats with white sails present a novel landscape, according to a North Korean defector in the South who used to sell marine produce at such eastern ports as Nakwon and Hongwon. The popularity of fishermen has surged, while fishing conditions have been aggravated.

(Kim Mi Young, miyoung@chosun.com )