Interviews with Kim Kwang-jin

Markets started cropping up naturally during the famine; the regime tried to stop the creation of these markets, but it failed. It tries to control markets by creating what they call “composite markets.”

[In the mid-1990s, North Korea experienced mass famine that resulted in an estimated three million deaths.]

But these days, the regime accepts the creation of markets and is taking several natural measures to protect them. Eventually, the concept of markets will undermine the philosophy of socialism and communism.

So in the end, the creation of markets and prevalence of markets will hamper the regime and its ability to maintain power. Through markets, people’s values and thoughts change. In the past, for the North Koreans, the party and the great leader and expressing loyalty to the leader were a citizen’s primary values.
But when people are exposed to markets, they open their eyes to wealth, to material profits, so the object of their interests and attention shifts from the great leader to personal interests.

This will weaken unity between the great leader and the population. And it will have a negative effect on the philosophy of having an absolute leader in North Korea.

In September 2003, Kim Kwang-jin and his family rushed to an airport in Southeast Asia to fly to freedom in Seoul, South Korea. Months earlier, Kim lived a privileged life working for the government’s overseas banking operations in Singapore. Then Kim fell out of favor after he was suspected of leaking information about the regime to foreign nationals. Before being summoned back to North Korea face severe punishment, Kim made the decision to defect with his family.

During his banking career, Kim helped earn millions of dollars for what he calls North Korea’s “Royal Court Economy,” i.e., the enterprises and often illegal schemes that financially supported the country’s totalitarian dictatorship.

Since defecting, Kim Kwang-jin helped expose the North Korean government’s underhanded financial practices. He has also become an advocate for North Korean freedom and human rights. Kim currently works at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul and is a columnist for Radio Free Asia.