However strictly they control the marketplaces, however, the North Korean authorities are unlikely to be able to eliminate them as they flourish in the face of heavy punishments such as the confiscation of banned goods and proceeds from them, public self-criticisms, and even imprisonment, and as a result of the virtually suspended rationing of daily necessaries.

The selling of farm produce and other essentials is permitted in the North's "farmer marketplaces," set up in specific urban areas. But commerce is conducted way beyond such specified areas, constituting black markets in effect. Goods traded are not confined to farm produce, either.

It us rumored that merchants alone number 30,000 at Suman Market in Chongjin, North Hamgyong province. The neighborhood of Pyongsu Market in Hamhung, South Hamgyong province, and Songsin Market in Pyongyang swarms with people selling and buying commodities. In Pyongyang, only farmers and elderly citizens are allowed to trade in marketplaces, but the young are also engaged in business there, directly or indirectly. Large quantities of quality goods, coming from the capital, are on display at Kanri Market in the capital's suburbs.

So many pieces of equipment and tools, taken out of factories closed up due to the power shortages, are offered for sale in the marketplaces that some people lament, "If these equipment and tools alone are collected, one should be able to run a factory." "Locust market square" and "running market square" refer to areas where unauthorized commercial activities take place when surveillance becomes lax. When goods are confiscated by authorities, shouts, screams and cries are heard here and there, and desperate struggles for survival ensue in which victims strive to get confiscated goods returned by bribing officials.

Comprising control teams are People's Security officers (policemen), June 4 Group cadres and retired party and administration leaders. Merchants work out measures to cope with control networks. Apparently, an apt description has it: "Marketplaces flow like liquid." When surveillance is loosened, merchants reappear from nowhere with more commodities to sell than before.

A crowd of people moving back and forth, looking around nervously, while no goods are observed, indicates some transactions are underway. Goods are hidden elsewhere, and buyers know they can buy those items they seek through secret negotiations conducted in the crowd.

The authorities, who once stepped up controls to the extent of banning the transactions of even foodstuff, it is said, are now gradually reducing the scope of goods prohibited from sale in marketplaces, with only military supplies, specified medicines and those coming out of factories still unremoved. Foreign products, including those made in South Korea, overflow the markets so much that their transactions are difficult to control. Regardless of how much control they are brought under, the marketplaces still grow, albeit conspicuously - an indication that harsh laws cannot suppress the tenaciousness for survival.

(Kim Mi-young, miyoung@chosun.com )