Since the mid-1990s, when an estimated one million people died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses during the famine that plagued North Korea, jangmadang (private markets) have emerged as a critical means of survival for average North Koreans. Having replaced the public distribution system as the primary means for food distribution, they have survived all attempts by the regime to limit or control them. The private markets remain the only independent space in North Korea within which its citizens can operate outside the control of the regime.
George W Bush Institute
Recognizing the potential of these markets to serve as more than simple barter-style, grassroots markets, Daily NK, in partnership with its networks in the Asia region, carried out a research project from 2013 to 2016 to provide the international community detailed and contextual information on the marketization phenomenon and to explore the potential of private markets to plant the seeds of positive change in North Korea.
Daily NK runs one of the largest and most influential online newspapers on North Korea-related news and information. The outlet utilizes an extensive network of citizen journalists and stringer reporters throughout the Asia region.
North Korea will be a top challenge for the new administration. North Korea’s unprecedented and accelerating tempo of missile tests and nuclear detonations shows no signs of abating. But denuclearization can neither be pursued nor attained without addressing the human rights abuses in the country, Lindsay Lloyd writes for the George W Bush Institute (HT: FPI).
February 03, 2017
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
10:30am: Opening Remarks by Carl Gershman
10:45am: Panel discussion In Ho Park, North Korean research head at Daily NK Grayson Walker, Communications and International Team lead at Daily NK Curtis Melvin, US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins SAIS Moderated by Lynn Lee, Senior Program Officer, East Asia, NED
11:30am: Q&A
