A cosmetics gift set for Mother’s Day in North Korea. (Daily NK)North Korea is warning trading company officials not to sell public goods for personal gain.
“In Saturday study sessions for officials at trading companies in Pyongyang on June 28 and July 25, the Party’s Discipline Inspection Department issued a stern warning about trading company officials selling cosmetic products on the side,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK recently.
The lecture materials distributed during three Saturday sessions between June 28 and July 12 contained a notice from the Central Committee’s Discipline Inspection Department. According to the notice, it has become common for trading company officials to report goods at artificially low prices and then sell them at marketplaces for much higher prices, pocketing the difference.
The department notice strongly criticized officials who were arranging or allowing these sales. “These practices are undermining the authority of the state and eroding public trust in the goods it produces,” the notice said.
“The only explanation for market prices being several times higher than the official retail price is that trading company officials are manipulating prices and splitting the proceeds. These items are provided by the Party for a trusting public. To sell those materials on the side is an act of treason against the Party, the supreme leader, and the system itself. Any officials turning a blind eye to such practices will be regarded as accomplices,” the notice stated.
As an example, the Discipline Inspection Department cited a cosmetics set in the Eight Fairies brand by the Chosun Changun Trading Company that was given an official price of 150,000 North Korean won but was actually selling at marketplaces for over one million won. Huge price variations across the country make the official price meaningless, the notice complained.
“The Discipline Inspection Department said this issue, which appears to represent a coordinated scheme for private gain, is a serious political offense that cannot be ignored. They added that the officials in question had already been turned over to authorities for questioning,” the source said.
The Discipline Inspection Department demanded that trade officials acknowledge their ideological errors and view the three weeks of Saturday lectures not as mere study sessions, but as an opportunity for ideological correction.
“After the Saturday study session, there was tension among trading company officials. Some officials were disappointed that their old habit of taking a cut will no longer be tolerated,” the source said.
“Officials are becoming more aware of the surveillance that’s increasingly embedded in their daily lives. They’re reminding each other to watch what they say around others, given the likelihood that work units where problems are detected will be publicly criticized during the project review session at the end of the year.”