CSM article by way of WPR's Media Roundup on NorKo lifting restrictions on private market activity in response to persistent famine conditions:
North Korea appears to be allowing private enterprise in local markets in a desperate search for an antidote to rising hunger and potential unrest.
South Korean analysts, with contacts inside North Korea, report a loosening of state restrictions on the private sales of goods as North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il smooths the way for the takeover of his youngest son, Kim Jong-un.
The lifting of state restrictions on the operation of local markets selling food and other goods comes amid reports of an economy that is now descending to the level of the 1990s, when aid experts estimate two million people died of disease and starvation. Several years ago, markets were opened briefly – for similar reasons – before authorities again clamped down.
The most definitive report on free-market opening comes from Good Friends, a non-governmental organization in Seoul that has long attempted to provide food and other aid to North Koreans and receives information by a network of informants inside the North. Food rations have also been suspended, according to the group.
Private stands selling food and small items are operating with minimal official harassment, according to these reports, though it’s not clear whether they are fully legal or simply given tacit acceptance.
A guiding factor appears to be the desire to appease conflicting forces, including a small but influential middle class that suffered huge losses from revaluation of the currency. It’s critical, say South Korean analysts, to settle differences in the run-up to an extraordinary convention of the ruling Workers’ Party in September at which leadership changes – notably confirmation of a post for Kim Jong-un – are expected.
Familiar tactic for totalitarian system undergoing political change: ramp up the tension with rest of world while offering bread to the masses to keep them quiet.
Unfortunately for the NorKo masses, all the relevant great powers are more than happy to let this situation proceed. SouKo doesn't want the problem, nor does China, nor does the US.