Police in some regions of North Korea take bribes to protect transport of goods
In a telephone conversation on Thursday, a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK that police officers tasked with controlling streetside commerce were “pathetically” taking so-called kababi, or bribes. “They are taking money from big businessmen to protect the transport of goods,” he said.
North Korea has been waging a “mop up operation” against streetside commerce since April. Police have stepped up crackdowns against so-called “grasshopper merchants,” whom the authorities blame for fostering an “anti-socialist and non-socialist” atmosphere.
Included as a target are wagon drivers who team up with stall merchants to transport goods. Police have generated an atmosphere of fear, confiscating the goods of those who get caught and dragging the offenders off to labor camps.
You have to pay a hefty bribe to get your confiscated goods back. In fact, somebody reportedly paid RMB 1,000 to get 500 kilograms of rice back. Moreover, you have to know somebody in the police.
If you calculate according to current market prices in North Korea (KPW 5,800 for a kilogram of rice) and the exchange rate (KPW 500 to the yuan), RMB 1,000 equals KPW 500,000, enough to buy about 86 kilograms of rice. ......
[Source: Daily NK]
