Recent reports from North Korea indicate that private buses are increasingly prevalent not only on inter-city routes, but also locally as well. Taxi cabs are also increasingly common in North Korean cities, including in some urban centers outside of Pyongyang. These taxis might appear state-owned and state-managed, but many of them are, just like buses, operated privately. Indeed, the movement of people and produce between cities is the type of business where private capital reigns supreme nowadays.

There are also other kinds of activities in which one may suspect that private enterprise (often equipped with fake state registration) has long been dominant. It seems that the capitalist model has triumphed in the retail trade, the restaurant industry, fishing and, as stated, long-distance road transport. All these areas have been largely private since at least 2000.