{"id":300291,"date":"2025-07-29T04:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T04:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/300291\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T04:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T04:38:13","slug":"falsified-weights-spark-daily-confrontations-in-n-koreas-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/300291\/","title":{"rendered":"Falsified weights spark daily confrontations in N. Korea\u2019s markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Street<\/a>FILE PHOTO: North Koreans are seen peddling goods at a street market in Hyesan, Yanggang Province. (\u00a9 Daily NK)<\/p>\n

Tensions have grown between buyers and sellers in North Korea\u2019s markets<\/a> as more merchants falsify the weight of their goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Hamhung\u2019s Sapo Market<\/a> and other major markets in the city recently, more vegetable buyers are complaining that they\u2019re getting less than what they paid for,\u201d a Daily NK source in South Hamgyong province said recently. \u201cThis is happening because vegetable sellers routinely lie about the weight of their produce.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the source, vegetable sellers in Hamhung\u2019s markets often label their produce as 1 kilogram, but they\u2019re actually selling only 700 or 800 grams.<\/p>\n

As a result, shoppers frequently return with their vegetables in hand to argue or demand refunds because they received much less than the marked amount. This sometimes leads to shouting matches or even physical fights.<\/p>\n

A Hamhung resident identified as Kim bought what was supposed to be a kilogram each of cucumbers and peppers from a market on July 12. When she got home, however, she discovered that the cucumbers were 200 grams light, while the peppers were 250 grams short.<\/p>\n

Kim went back to the seller immediately and demanded a refund, but the merchant stubbornly refused, insisting that they had given her the measured amount and that vegetables naturally lose weight as moisture evaporates.<\/p>\n

As Kim kept demanding her refund and the merchant kept refusing, their argument grew more heated, eventually turning into a physical fight. Only when nearby merchants and shoppers rushed over to break them up did they stop.<\/p>\n

During the scuffle, though, the merchant\u2019s vegetables scattered across the ground, creating a loss for the seller. In the end, Kim went home empty-handed.<\/p>\n

Merchants struggle with razor-thin margins<\/p>\n

\u201cMerchants who deal in vegetables complain that they won\u2019t make any money<\/a> if they sell things by their actual weight,\u201d the source explained. \u201cEspecially because vegetable weights drop rapidly in summer<\/a> as moisture evaporates, merchants will take a loss if they sell produce at the proper weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you subtract the various costs, including transportation and market taxes, practically no profit is left,\u201d he said. \u201cYou often lose money if you sell exactly by the kilo, but if you raise prices, nobody wants to buy, putting sellers in a tough spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, some sellers want to sell by the unit rather than by weight, the source added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the markets, vegetables were always the item merchants most often skimped on, but recently, it\u2019s gotten even worse,\u201d the source said. \u201cIn the past, buyers used to overlook this, saying they understood, but with times getting harder, people often demand refunds nowadays even if what they bought is just 100 grams short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, merchants would quickly make up any shortfalls if customers complained, but recently, they often refuse outright, arguing that they gave buyers the measured amount, which creates tensions with the public.<\/p>\n

The same thing is happening elsewhere. \u201cIt\u2019s unusual when a day passes without a fight at a vegetable stand,\u201d a source in Ryanggang province said. \u201cSometimes, there are as many as four or five fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople buy vegetables without much suspicion because the merchants weigh the produce with electronic scales, but they often return to the market to protest after they get home and find that the actual weight was less,\u201d the source said. \u201cVegetable sellers are having a harder time making money, so they reduce their losses by rigging the scales to display more than the actual weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read in Korean<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE PHOTO: North Koreans are seen peddling goods at a street market in Hyesan, Yanggang Province. (\u00a9 Daily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-300291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114934677878585169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}