"A trader" is no longer an unfamiliar term in North Korea and "the trading business is the only way to survive" has emerged as a phrase in fashion. Former Korean residents in Japan who have migrated to North Korea have thus far symbolized the rich class in the North, but those who have made fortunes through trading have recently joined the ranks of the rich.

Most attractive trading items in the North at present include second-hand foreign cars, rice, gold, antiques, precious metals, clothing, pet dogs and marine products. The trading is done mainly with Japan and China.

Engaged in trading of scale are mostly purchasing officers or foreign exchange earners at business establishments. Particularly foreign exchange earners assigned to organizations under the jurisdiction of such powerful state institutions as the military, the Ministry of People's Security (the police) and the State Security Agency (the intelligence) can make good money with relative safety and ease. Some housewives too conduct large-scale trading.

It's still illegal in the North for individuals to do trading, but some people nevertheless indulge in trading, disregarding their routine jobs, adroitly evading controls by law enforcement authorities or in collusion with them.

Smuggling is the royal road to making quick money. North Koreans carrying foreign exchange can buy goods in China more than 30% below the price at which they are sold in the North by Korean-Chinese. Bringing into the country Chinese commodities in quantity, they dispose of them to wholesalers at a margin of around 20%. Wholesalers then sell this merchandize inland at a profit margin of 20%-30%. A ton of hulled rice can be purchased in China at around NKW40, which is sold for NKW50-60 in the border area. It may be sold at a higher price to a wholesaler who takes the rice inland. A transaction of 1 ton of hulled rice may usually rake in a profit of NKW 20,000 overnight. In comparison, North Korean workers' monthly wages average at NKW80-100. If such a transaction is repeated several times, one can make a big fortune.

Some make great fortunes by storing rice for months before selling it on the market when its price has peaked. Many people holding foreign exchange are alleged to have pocketed enormous profits in and around 1997 by buying foreign aid food at cheap prices and selling the food on the market. Rice dealing is rather risky, because it is liable to be spotted by the authorities.

Making greatest fortunes are second-hand car smugglers and antique dealers. They purchase used cars in Japan for US$1,500-US$2,000 and sell them in China for between US$30,000 and US$50,000 per unit - a deal resulting in 20 times profit margin. Chinese security police are reportedly troubled by second-hand Japanese cars flowing into China via North Korea. In May a Chinese security police officer was killed by a North Korean in Kaishandun, a village on the Chinese border with the North, when the police officer raided a spot dealing with smuggled second-hand cars.

Some mid-level merchants make handsome profits by dealing with sea cucumber, squid, wild ginseng, copper and precious stones. They usually operate with a fund ranging from NKW50,000 and NKW100,000. Buying marine products at ports, they sell them to contraband dealers in the border area at a margin of between 20% and 30%.

Such commercial activities in the North are said to have considerably waned in recent months in the face of stepped-up crackdowns by the authorities on people whose source of income is not transparent. Since the state rationing system has collapsed, however, it should be impossible to eliminate the black market and block the trend of traders emerging as a new rich class. .

(Kang Chol Hwan, nkch@chosun.com )