The North Korean authorities have

introduced temporary market restrictions for the first time this year. Taken in the context of the study of Kim Jong Eun’s

New Year’s Address and mass mobilization to produce biological fertilizer

for the agricultural season, the step has led to concerns, as yet unfulfilled in practice, that price inflation could rear its ugly head.

“Recently, the people have been mobilized

from early in the morning until late in the afternoon for the production of fertilizer,

so markets have not been open,” a source from North Korea’s Yangkang Province reported

to Daily NK on the 13th.

“People have been confused by the sudden restrictions. Markets went on as normal when the aunt’s husband [Jang Song Taek] was purged [December 8-12], and they believed the authorities when they said that there would be public distribution [in January],” the source went on.

“If people can’t shop for a prolonged

period because of fertilizer production then prices could rise,” he warned. “People are worried that they aren’t going to be able to make enough

side dishes [dishes eaten with rice].”

“The material that can be made into fertilizer

is limited, so every day people are going around the village hunting for it and

you can even hear quiet complaint about how difficult the whole thing is,” he went on to recall. In

addition, “Some people are openly declaring that the fertilizer task and New

Year’s Address study is all just a nuisance.’

The source explained his presumption that the

authorities, inspired by a good 2013 harvest due to excellent farming weather conditions, are hoping to register further

agricultural production increases this year. Therefore, they have launched the annual mass

mobilization for fertilizer production with greater energy than in previous years, when it was often easier for people to avoid participation with a

small bribe.

“The Marshal [Kim Jong Eun, in his New Year’s Address] ordered that

the farming sector be a priority sector this year, and at Chosun Agricultural

Labor Union rallies they are emphasizing the production struggle,” he said. “Given the fact that

fertilizer is limited they have handed people the task of preparing it, and it

looks as if they want to see big results.”

Market closures don’t stop all trade, however, and at the time of writing market controls had

not unduly affected prices. “Markets are closed up but the price of rice and

side dishes hasn’t changed particularly; rice is being traded as it was last

month in the middle and high 4000 won range,” he said.

However, “A lot of people here didn’t get

rations at New Year, and they are worried that if markets are controlled for a

long period of time then ‘prices could suddenly go up.’”