State policy in the Kim Jong-un era has failed to build a young force that is willing, and able, to pledge allegiance to the leader from thought to action.
Reporter’s Note: How do young North Koreans today view North Korea, their leader and their own lives? In order to get as close as possible to the answer to this question, I went to South Korea to interview several young defectors who had just left North Korea for South Korea. They had previously lived on the border and in the interior of the country, in the countryside and in the city, and belonged to different walks of life. Although it is hard to say that their thoughts represent those of the mainstream young people in North Korea, under the current conditions, their expressions may be more realistic and representative than those obtained through interviews in North Korea.
Because of the special conditions of the interview, I was not able to fully verify the information provided by these young defectors. However, based on the state of the conversation at the scene, the cross-checking of the information with other defectors, and the experience gained from five years of reporting on North Korea, I judge that the information and ideas provided by these defectors are of considerable value.
After listening to the stories told by the young defectors, Jinda, who has fled the DPRK for nearly 20 years, was a bit surprised. What surprised him most is that the North Korean children now do not have to do the following application problems as he did back then: “The anti-Japanese guerrillas under the leadership of the great General Kim Il Sung attacked the Japanese army, killed 18 Japanese soldiers, captured 28, and ran away with 50, how many Japanese soldiers were there in total?”
When Jinda learned how to do application problems in North Korea, the socialist camp had not yet disintegrated and the country was still under the leadership of its first leader, Kim Il Sung. At that time, the elders in the family remembered the Korean War, the Thousand-Mile Campaign (an alias for the DPRK’s 1957-1961 Five-Year Plan) and the Cold War. But unlike young North Koreans nowadays, they have not caught up with either the war or the good old days of rapid industrialization.
In the 1990s, the DPRK entered the “March of Misery”, Jin Da remembers that his father saved the noodles allocated by the unit for his children to eat, and eventually starved to death, and remembers that he and his mother took salt and walked to the countryside 100 kilometers away to exchange potatoes. Today’s young North Koreans are more accustomed to the days when their mothers pushed a two-wheeled van to the marketplace to do business, and when the family watched foreign movies quietly at night with the curtains drawn. Meat and rice are still luxuries, power outages are rare, houses can be bought and sold, and bribes are needed to get into a university. Most of society’s resources are allocated under the distorted principles of the market. Young people are always hearing legendary stories from relatives and friends about people who have made money back home from hostile forces in China or in the south. These stories are diametrically opposed to government propaganda, but they have not prevented people from skillfully expressing their loyalty under the bronze statues of their leaders.
The North Korea that young people live in today is unknown to Jinda. As a defector who left North Korea in 1996, Kinda feels that North Korea seems to be freer now than it was at his time, and that the government’s control is weaker. While he left his country for food, young people nowadays have more complicated reasons for leaving the country.
Should I cry when Kim Jong Il dies?
On December 19, 2011, just after 8:00 a.m., the radio in the unit went off. The radio said that Comrade Kim Jong-il, who had worked so hard for the people, had died on a train on his way to inspect the country, and that before he died, he was unable to tie his shoes. North Korea had not experienced such a moment of grief since the death of its previous leader, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.
With the sound of weeping around her, Kim Shin-hee (a pseudonym) was confused and hesitant to cry, having been born in 1994, the year Kim Il-sung died. She had never experienced what to do when a leader dies. Unlike the adults around her, they were already skilled at it. This time, after a short while of crying, the loud speaker, which was filled with sadness for the leader, suddenly went silent due to a power outage.
Even if they could not hear the broadcast, the people in their units knew what to do. To be more precise, all the people of North Korea know what to do next – first, they cry bitterly, and then there are a series of memorial services, wakes, and laying of flowers. According to national regulations, the mourning lasts for 100 days, with the first week being the most solemn.
In Kim Shin-hee’s hometown, mourning simplified.
Her hometown is in North Hamgyong Province, a small village below the city of Hoiryeong. In North Korea’s epic narrative of the revolution, Hoiryeong is sacred as the birthplace of Kim Jong-sook, the heroic mother of Kim Jong-il. In the real world, Hoiryeong is one of North Korea’s furthest frontier regions from Pyongyang. Kim Shin-hee’s village borders China’s Yanji region, across the Tumen River. Many people in the village have relatives across the river. This means that locals travel to and from China much more frequently than they do from Pyongyang.
In order to pay tribute, this small village has temporarily set aside a memorial hall. The village stipulated that every unit should organize its employees to pay tribute and lay flowers, once in the morning, once in the evening and three times a day. The memorial hall has a special register, who came several times, remember exactly.
Those who are old enough can clearly feel that the atmosphere is different from that of 1994. At that time, there was no need to register, and people spontaneously paid their respects on time. Now, even with the means of registration, there are still people who are lazy and can’t even last three days. The village cadres had to gather everyone together and scold those bad guys with low loyalty to their faces. However, there was no word of anyone being taken to jail for going less.
December 26 was the winter solstice of the year. The memorial activities did not affect the mood of the locals to prepare for the holiday, and people went on as usual to buy winter solstice ingredients to improve their meals. Kim Shin-hee heard that a reporter from Pyongyang’s Central Television (CCTV) made a special trip to the hometown of the hero’s mother, Kim Jong-sook, where they had expected a higher level of loyalty and a more sorrowful atmosphere. Unfortunately, the reporter who came down saw people on the street chewing gum and riding bicycles around, even preparing for the festival, and was so scared that he ran back to Pyongyang without filming anything.
Compared to Kim Shin-hee, Park Chang-kae experienced a much grander memorialization. Park was a high school student living in the relatively affluent city of Sunchon on the mainland. Once the industrial base of socialist North Korea, Sunchon has since become one of the country’s largest domestic wholesale market hubs.
The sudden death of the leader led to the cancellation of sports events at several schools in Suncheon. Park’s school also set up a memorial hall, manned by students, 24 hours a day. For the first week, the entire city was immersed in frequent and solemn memorial services. Then, people’s studies and work gradually returned to normal. For 100 days, no alcohol was allowed to be sold in downtown kiosks. So it’s hard for Park to believe what he heard after he fled North Korea: that the day after the leader’s death, some of the North Korean soldiers manning the border started playing soccer.
Park Chang-kae was in class when the news of the leader’s death came. He couldn’t cry either, so he had to pretend to cry. He felt that more than half of the students around him were deliberately squeezing tears from their eyes.
The kids said: this leader is too fat
Two days after the winter solstice in 2011, a ceremony to bid farewell to Kim Jong Il’s body was held in the capital Pyongyang. According to the Pyongyang publication Marshal Kim Jong-un 2012, at the “solemn moment of saying goodbye to him [Kim Jong-il], the hearse rolled away. The beloved comrade Kim Jong-un followed step by step. With one hand on the hearse, he walked side by side with it. His face was filled with sadness. His footsteps, which moved with the posture of the most faithful guard warrior, pulled at the heartstrings of the nation.”
For most North Koreans, this is the first time they let their heartstrings get tied to Kim Jong-un. They feel that the first-time Kim Jong-un is too young and has only inherited power from his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and father, Kim Jong-il. There are doubts about his political leadership, but also some expectations.
Kim Shin-hee, like all teenagers across the country, grew up learning the sacred family history of North Korea’s leaders. Through more than a decade of study, she knows almost more about the leader than she does about her own parents. But she is not at all familiar with Kim Jong-un, the third leaderof the Holy Family. It’s not her fault that until 2010, not a single photo of Kim Jong-un could be seen in North Korea, or even in the world.
Kim Shin-hee first heard of Kim Jong-un in 2010. It was the year before Kim Jong-il’s death, and Kim Jong-un was visiting Hoiryeong. At the time, the North Korean government popularized a new song praising him called “Footsteps:” “Chop-chop-chop! 脚步声，我们金队长的脚步声，显示着二月的气概向前进嚓嚓嚓，脚步声脚步声有力地踏着大地，全国人民紧跟随嚓嚓嚓⋯⋯”一年后，队长变成了将军。
Before Kim Jong Il’s farewell ceremony, the unit informed the workers to go home and watch TV on time to see the new generation of leaders. Seeing that there was no reaction from the staff, the unit leader decided to organize them to watch the event together. While watching TV, the older ones exclaimed that this young man really looked like his grandfather, Kim Il Sung.
Kim Shin-hee remembers that later, the unit sent out special materials about Kim Jong-un, mainly about how great Comrade Kim Jong-il said Kim Jong-un was. The material said that Kim Jong-un could shoot at the age of four. But Park Chang-kae, who was studying, remembers it better: Kim Jong-un learned to shoot at the age of three.
Park Changkai came to understand who Kim Jong-un was about a year after Kim Shin-hee.In 2011, the teacher taught the group to sing “Footsteps,” and Park and his classmates assumed that the lyrics sang about Captain Kim being Kim Jong-il. It was only later that it dawned on them that Captain Kim was their next leader, Kim Jong-un.
Park remembers that since 2013, the school has organized special lectures on Kim Jong-un for students, once a week for 45 minutes. During the class, Park Changkai learned not only that leader Kim Jong-un learned to shoot a gun at the age of three, but also that when Kim Jong-un was six years old, he raced American competitors in a speedboat race on the beach in Wonsan City. Of course, Kim Jong-un won.
Adults and classmates around Park would privately discuss the new leader. The adults thought it was a bit unbelievable that this young man had assumed power within three days of his father’s death, while the younger children said that the leader was too fat.
The corpulent new leader has come out swinging. In the first four months, most of the seven senior North Korean officials who carried his father’s coffin with Kim Jong-un were purged. As the leader’s aunt, Jang Sung-taek’s good fortune only lasted a year when, at the end of 2013, Kim Jong-un executed the “auxiliary ministers” left behind by his father.
Park heard the adults talking about how people could treat their aunts like that. But he and his circle of friends had a different view of Kim Jong-un. Around the time of his first year in power, Kim Jong-un pushed for new long-range missile launches and nuclear tests. A series of tough moves further irritated the international community, but brought prestige to the leader at home. The young Park felt that if the country would actually go to war, he would not feel intimidated as a young leader.
At the same time, Kim Jong-un has made frequent public appearances internally, promoting market liberalization and focusing on people’s livelihoods. A series of reports and conferences have also given Park and the young people around him the sense that Kim Jong-un has the decisiveness of a young leader in him.
Of course, there are young people who are unhappy with the new leader. The gap between the rich and the poor has galvanized the minds of young people, with some saying that they are the same age as the leader, but their lives are worlds apart.
The Kim Jong-un Era of Widening Gap Between Rich and Poor
In theory, teenagers in North Korea don’t need to think too much about their future. The State is responsible for education and assigns jobs. In recent years, the DPRK has amended its compulsory education law to extend the years of compulsory education from 12 to 17. For students in small border areas, the school they most want to go to is the Kimtser Polytechnic University in Pyongyang. But in order to go to the university, you usually have to find connections and pay money. The average family doesn’t have the connections, which saves them the trouble. Therefore, not many of the students want to go to university.
In the village, Kim Shin-hee’s family is in the middle of the pack, not good or bad. Every year, on the birthdays of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung, the government would give each resident a few pounds of meat. The poorest families would sell the meat for potatoes to eat; Kim’s family didn’t need it yet and could keep the rare opportunity to eat meat.
In 2012, Kim Jong-un began to engage in a new economic management system, and agricultural management was transformed. Under Pyongyang’s policy, farm land is parceled out to small groups, with the state, collectives and farmers sharing the harvest proportionally. In some places, farmers are allowed to keep 30 percent of their production. In some places, the ratio is said to be as high as 60 percent. Pyongyang experts say to the outside world that North Korea’s economy is getting better because the agricultural changes are having an effect. Some foreign scholars have also speculated that North Korea wants to learn from China and Vietnam and engage in reform and opening up.
Two years before Kim Jong-il’s death, Pyongyang’s currency reforms nearly led to an economic collapse. Since then, the government, which had done a bad job, has had to loosen the reins of society slightly. The private market was given more room to maneuver. By the time of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s economic indicators showed improvement, and GDP even showed positive growth. You know, under Kim Jong Il, a flat GDP was a good year.
North Korea’s openness is also rare in the Kim Jong-il era, with the number of North Korean defectors going to China through official channels in 2013 already double the number in 2009. In addition, the number of North Korean defectors has shrunk dramatically since Kim Jong-un took power in 2012, from 2,706 in 2011 to 1,502 in 2012, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. Reuters reported the same year that defectors were sending more than $10 million in remittances to North Korea each year. The phenomenon has been dubbed the “Hanasan Stream”.
In 2013, Kim Shin-hee’s hometown also began to implement the new policy. The villagers were given a lot of land, and they began to work hard. However, the good intentions of the central government were always ruined by the bad local officials. The local officials took the extra harvest forcibly and left the villagers with very little in their hands. After being cheated, everyone’s motivation dropped again.
This makes Kim Shin-hee feel that the village is having a more difficult time since Kim Jong-un came to power.
In addition, during the Kim Jong Il period, people who worked could go into business. All they had to do was make a deal with the organization and turn around and give part of the money to the organization. But Kim Jong-un didn’t allow people to do that. Of course, there are still people who do it secretly.
The gap between urban and rural areas in the DPRK has not improved much. Some people leave their villages in order to go to the city and marry city residents under false pretenses. The women of the village would go to the market to do petty trading. The men felt it was disgraceful to go into this business and would do smuggling business with the Chinese across the river. People in Kim Shin-hee’s village are more familiar with the outside world than those in the interior of North Korea, where almost every family has someone who has gone to China to earn money.
Perhaps it is the difference between urban and rural areas, or perhaps it is the difference between the mainland border, young people from North Korea’s mainland cities do not feel the same way as Kim Shin-hee. Park Chang-kae, who grew up in a family of urban businessmen, remembers that in the year of Kim Jong-il’s death, the family didn’t have to eat corn rice anymore and could eat white rice every day. So things are still getting better.
Li Yiping, 26, originally learned to drive at a school in the interior of North Korea, where currency reforms in 2009 forced the government to deregulate the economy, which nearly collapsed when prices rose tenfold. Later, in the city where Lee lives, private individuals were allowed to open trucking companies and engage in logistics within North Korea. After graduation, Lee worked for a private employer in freight forwarding and did business with Chinese businessmen, trading squid and corn.
After Kim Jong-un came to power, he tightened control over the border. In the past, if you went to the border to run transportation, you could pay a little money to get across, but now you have to use a newly issued pass. Of course, like most documents in North Korea, this one can be bought for money. So for Lee Yi-Pyong and his boss, the new leader’s rise to power has only increased the cost of doing business, and it hasn’t made much of a difference.
Compared to most of his classmates, Li Yiping’s income is considered very good, and his classmates usually join the army, go to college, or go to the factory. In factories, although the salary is not high, but you can quietly take out the things in the factory to sell, but also a little gray income.
Lee Seol-hwa, a young defector who used to do business in the market, noticed that in the DPRK, business in the market has started to be active, and it is easy for ordinary traders to do business compared to the past. In the past, it was the management cadres who had money, but now a large part of the defectors’ families and middlemen and smugglers have more money. In general, businessmen are richer than cadres.
Lee Yiping, who has traveled extensively in his truck, realizes that the gap between rich and poor in North Korea is widening since Kim Jong-un came to power.
Young women dressed like Lee Seol-jung
North Korean cities have always been tightly controlled, with real and fake flowers neatly arranged on the balconies of residential buildings. In the militarized cities, markets are the most relaxed spaces for communication, where people do business at stalls and exchange rumors with each other.
In the market, it is often said that the appearance of Kim Jong-un as well as his wife, Lee Seol-ju, was impressive. There is a sense that Kim Jong-un will not be a reclusive leader and will bring a different model of leadership compared to his father who was in mourning for three years. There are also rumors in the market that Kim Jong-un is the most trusted child of Kim Jong-il and that Kim Jong-un was named as the successor because of his military proficiency.
In the city where Li Xuehua lives, the quality of life of the people has improved, especially women’s dress has changed a lot. The dress style of the actors of the Central Art Troupe, which was unthinkable in the past, can now be seen in the market, and many women buy or customize clothes to resemble Li Xuezhu’s dress.
For Park Chang-kae, the entertainment of a middle school student is when a classmate has a birthday and gets to go to his house for a cake. The cake can be bought at the market in Suncheon. Classmates also give gifts, usually 10,000 dongs, less than 10 yuan, which buys about two kilograms of rice. For a working family in the city, this is equivalent to one month’s salary.
Li Yiping, who drives a van, does disco, but his entertainment is mostly tablet computers. He’s played a Chinese game to beat the Japanese. He also has the Sherlock Holmes mysteries on his tablet. Some pornographic books and adult movies were also popular among friends. Of course, everyone was careful not to let the police find out.
Kim Shin-hee can’t afford a tablet computer, but someone in the village has a Chinese VCD player at home. A relative bought one just two years ago, endorsed by Hong Kong movie star Simon Yam.
After 2008, Chinese VCDs reached North Korea. Especially after 2009, the relationship between China and North Korea is better, Chinese movies and TV dramas can be sold openly in the market, and Hong Kong’s popular martial arts movies can also be seen. Kim Shin-hee still remembers a Chinese movie “Liang Zhu”.
Kim Shin-hee also saw American movies when she was a child, but of course they were banned. Last year, the Americans made a movie The Interview, a movie about a foreign journalist assassinating Kim Jong-un, and someone quietly brought it into North Korea to show it, which made Pyongyang very nervous. Some Chinese movies are also banned, and if they are caught, they will be sentenced to one to six months of re-education through labor.
In North Korea, the most heavily censored are Korean TV dramas and movies. Watching such movies is similar to listening to enemy stations. Kim Shin-hee heard people say that if they were caught watching such movies, they would be arrested and sent to reform through labor, never to return. But this is just a rumor. In real life, there are so many people who watch these movies that it is impossible to catch them. In fact, from Kim Shin-hee’s village to Lee Yi-pyeong’s city, information about the ostensibly strict ban has long been popular. Lee Yi-pyeong is a self-proclaimed fan of Korean movie star Ahn Jae-wook.
Rice and Freedom
Since 2002, when the DPRK adopted the economic changes of “Measure 7.1”, there have been several reversals, and the power of the state has become much less effective in controlling society. In her book North Korea: Markets and Military Rule, North Korea scholar Hazel Smith writes that state policies during the Kim Jong-un era have failed to create a youthful force in the country that is willing, willing, and able to pledge allegiance to Kim Jong-un in both thought and action. Young people live outside of politics, searching for more possibilities in life in parks, movie theaters, and sports arenas, and they are no longer willing to accept the political surveillance that permeates every detail.
Nineteen years ago, Jinda, a previous generation of defectors, crossed the shallow Tumen River to China. He saw that in the Chinese countryside across the river, even dogs had rice and meat in their rice bowls. This became the biggest reason for his determination to leave North Korea.
But the new generation of young defectors is different. Kim Shin-hee came to South Korea because she wanted to earn money to treat her stay-at-home mom. Lee Yi-pyeong had a desire to live freely in the South when he was in high school. Park Chang-kae came both to be with his mother and because he had little future at home with the reputation of being a defector’s family member.
Lee Seol-hwa, a North Korean defector who is 10 years older than Park, thinks similarly. Her parents left the country at an early age. At first, she felt abandoned by her parents, and although she was able to get by financially, she was psychologically and spiritually depressed. Therefore, she avoided her friends as much as possible and avoided talking about her parents’ departure from North Korea. In fact, she was surrounded by friends from similar backgrounds.
Last year, Li Xuehua came to Korea to talk to her mother to realize why they were so eager to escape, and the complaints she once had have slowly faded with time, and now she lives happily with her family and has hope for the future.
This article was published in Initium Media 2016, translated by DeepL.
娱乐、赚钱与自由渴望：新时代的朝鲜年轻人
金正恩时代的国家政策没能建立起一个从思想到行动上都愿意，并有能力效忠于领导人的年轻力量。
记者手记：当下的朝鲜年轻人如何看待朝鲜，看待领袖和自己的生活?为了尽可能地接近这个问题的答案，我去韩国採访了几个年轻的，刚刚离开朝鲜来到韩国的脱北者。他们此前分别生活在朝鲜的边境和内地、乡村和城市，分属不同的阶层。虽然很难说他们的想法能代表朝鲜主流年轻人的想法，但是在目前的条件下，他们的表达，或许比去朝鲜采访获得的更真实，更有代表性。
采访条件特殊，我没有办法完全核实这几个年轻脱北者提供的信息。不过，基于现场的对话状态，和其他脱北者信息的交叉验证以及五年来报导朝鲜议题积累的经验判断，这几个脱北者提供的资讯、想法具备相当的价值。
听青年脱北者讲完故事，已逃离朝鲜近20年的金达有些诧异。最让他吃惊的是，现在的朝鲜孩子竟然不用像他当年那样做如下的应用题：“伟大的金日成将军领导的抗日游击队攻击日本军队，杀了18个日本兵，抓住了28个，跑掉了50个，一共有多少个日本兵?”
金达在朝鲜学做应用题的时候，社会主义阵营还没有解体，朝鲜还在第一代领导人金日成的领导下。那时候家里的长辈对朝鲜战争、千里马运动(朝鲜1957年至1961年五年计划的别称)和冷战记忆犹新。但现在的朝鲜年轻人不同，他们既没赶上战争也没赶上快速工业化的好日子。
上个世纪90年代，朝鲜进入“苦难行军”，金达记得父亲把单位分配的麵条省下来给孩子吃，最后自己饿死，记得自己和母亲带上盐走路去100公里外的乡下换土豆。如今的朝鲜年轻人，更习惯小时候妈妈推着两个轮子的小货车去集贸市场做生意，夜里家里人把窗帘拉着悄悄看外国电影。吃肉和大米饭还是奢侈的事情，停电也稀鬆平常，房屋可以买卖，考大学需要行贿。社会的大部分资源在扭曲的市场原则下分配。年轻人从亲戚朋友那里，总能听到有人从中国或南边的敌对势力那里挣钱回家的传奇故事。这些故事和政府的宣传截然相反，但也没妨碍人们在领袖铜像下熟练地表达忠诚。
当下年轻人生活的朝鲜是金达所不了解的。作为1996年离开朝鲜的脱北者，金达觉得，现在的朝鲜比他那个时候好像更自由，政府的管控力更弱。当年他为了吃上饭离开祖国，现在的年轻人脱北的原因更複杂些。
金正日死了，我要不要哭?
2011年12月19日早上8点多，单位的广播响了。广播里说，金正日同志为民操劳，视察的途中，在火车上去世，死之前，鞋带都没办法系。自从1994年上一代领导人金日成去世后，朝鲜还没有经历过如此悲痛的时刻。
身边的哭泣声此起彼伏，金申姬(化名)有些茫然，犹豫着要不要哭。1994年金日成去世那年，金才出生。领袖去世时应该怎麽做这种事情，她还没经历过。身边的大人不同，他们已经很熟练了。这次，大家哭了不一会儿，因为停电，那个满怀悲情悼念领袖的大喇叭突然就没了声音。
即使听不到广播，单位上的人也知道该怎麽做。更准确地说，全朝鲜的人民都知道接下来的程序——先是痛哭，然后是一系列悼念活动，守灵、献花。按照全国统一规定，悼念活动持续一百天，头一个星期是最隆重的。
在金申姬的家乡，悼念简化了。
她的老家在咸镜北道，会宁市下面的小村庄。在朝鲜的革命史诗叙事中，会宁是金正日的英雄母亲金正淑出生地，地位神圣。现实世界里，会宁是朝鲜离平壤最远的边陲地区之一。金申姬所在村庄和中国延吉地区相邻，隔着一条图门江。村里很多人家在对面有亲戚。这意味着本地人往来中国要比平壤频繁得多。
为了悼念，这个小村庄临时划定了纪念堂。村里规定，每个单位都要组织员工去悼念、献花，早中晚各一次，一天三次。纪念堂有专门的登记簿，谁来了几次，记得一清二楚。
年纪大的人能明显感到气氛和1994年不一样。那时候，不用登记，民众自发按时悼念。现在，即使有了登记手段，还有人偷懒，连三天都坚持不了。村干部只好把大家召集起来，当面骂那些忠诚度低的坏家伙。不过，也没听说谁因为少去了被抓去坐牢。
12月26日是这年冬至。追悼活动并没有影响当地人准备过节的心情，人们照常採购冬至食材，改善伙食。金申姬听说，平壤中央电视台记者特意到英雄母亲金正淑家乡来採访，他们本以为这里的忠诚度会更高，气氛更悲痛。可惜下来的记者看到大街上的人嚼着口香糖，骑着自行车乱逛，竟然还在准备过节，吓得跑回平壤，什麽也没拍。
和金申姬比，朴常凯经历的追悼要隆重得多。朴是个高中生，生活在内地相对富裕的顺川市。顺川曾经是社会主义朝鲜的工业基地，后来又成为朝鲜国内最大的批发市场集散地之一。
领袖突然去世，顺川几所学校的运动会取消了。朴的学校也设立了纪念堂，由学生值班，一天24小时有人值守。头个星期，整个城市沉浸在频繁而隆重的悼念活动中。随后，人们的学习、工作渐渐恢复正常。百天内，市区小卖部不许卖酒。所以，朴很难相信，逃离朝鲜之后听到的消息：领袖去世次日，有些边境上值守的朝鲜军人，竟开始踢足球。
领袖去世的消息传来时，朴常凯在上课。他也哭不出来，只能装哭。他觉得，身边的同学中，一半以上都在故意挤眼泪。
小孩子们说：这个领导太胖了
2011年冬至过了两天，金正日遗体告别仪式在首都平壤举行。根据平壤出版的《2012年的金正恩元帅》记载，在“同他(金正日)永别的肃穆时刻，灵车徐徐开动。敬爱的金正恩同志一步步紧跟随。他一隻手扶着灵车，与灵车并排走着。他的脸上充满悲哀。他那以最忠实警卫战士的姿态，挪动的脚步声，扣动了全国人民的心弦。”
对于大部分朝鲜人来说，这是他们头一次让自己的心弦和金正恩挂上钩。他们觉得，头次亮相的金正恩太年轻，只是从祖父金日成，父亲金正日那里继承了权力。人们对他的政治领导力存有疑心，但也抱有一些期待。
金申姬和全国所有的青少年一样，从小就学习朝鲜领导人的神圣家庭史。通过十馀年的学习，她对领袖的了解几乎要超过对自己父母的了解。但是，对于神圣家庭的第三代领袖金正恩，她却一点也不熟悉。这不怪她，全朝鲜、乃至全世界在2010年以前，连一张金正恩的照片都看不到。
金申姬最早听说金正恩是在2010年。那是金正日去世的前一年，金正恩视察会宁。当时朝鲜政府普及一首赞美他的新歌《脚步》：“嚓嚓嚓嚓!脚步声，我们金队长的脚步声，显示着二月的气概向前进嚓嚓嚓，脚步声脚步声有力地踏着大地，全国人民紧跟随嚓嚓嚓⋯⋯”一年后，队长变成了将军。
金正日告别仪式前，单位通知职工回家准时收看电视，看新一代领袖。单位领导看大家没什麽反应，还是决定组织起来一起收看。看电视的时候，年长一点的感叹，这个年轻人真像他的爷爷金日成。
金申姬记得，后来，单位专门发了关于金正恩的材料，主要内容是，金正日同志说金正恩如何伟大。材料中说，金正恩四岁会射击。可是，正在读书的朴常凯记得更清楚：金正恩三岁就学会开枪。
朴常凯明白谁是金正恩的时间，比金申姬要晚一年左右。2011年，老师教大家唱《脚步》，朴和同学们以为歌词唱的金队长是金正日。后来才明白过来，金队长是他们的下一任领袖金正恩。
朴记得，从2013年开始，学校特别给学生安排了关于金正恩的讲座，每周一次，一次45分钟。在课上，朴常凯不仅知道领袖金正恩三岁就学会了打枪，还了解到金正恩六岁时，在元山市的海边和美国选手比赛快艇。当然，金正恩赢了。
朴身边的大人和同学们会私下讨论新的领导人。大人们觉得这个年轻人在父亲去世三天内掌握权力，有些不可思议，小孩子们则说，这个领袖太胖了。
体态偏胖的新领导人出手不凡。在前4个月，和金正恩一起为父亲抬棺的7名高级朝鲜官员已肃清大半。作为领导人的姑父，张成泽的幸运只延长了一年，2013年年底，金正恩把這位父亲留下的“辅政大臣”处决了。
朴听到大人们议论，人怎麽可以这样对待自己的姑父。但是他和自己圈子里的朋友们对金正恩有不同的看法。在上台一年的时间前后，金正恩推动了新的远程导弹发射和核试验。一系列强硬的举动进一步刺激了国际社会，但在国内为领导人带来了声望。年轻的朴觉得，如果国家真的会有战争，作为年轻的领导人不会有畏惧感。
同时，金正恩对内公开露面频率很高，推动市场开放，关注民生。一系列的报告、大会，也让朴和身边的年轻人感到金正恩身上有年轻领导人的决断力。
当然，也有年轻人对新领袖不满。贫富差距刺激着年轻人的心态，有人说自己和领袖是同龄人，但生活却有天壤之别。
贫富差距日益扩大的金正恩时代
理论上，朝鲜的青少年不需要太考虑自己的未来。国家负责教育，并分配工作。近几年，朝鲜修改了义务教育法，将义务教育的年限从12岁延长到17岁。对于边陲小地方的学生来说，最想去的学校是平壤金策工业大学。可是要想上大学，一般都要找关系给钱。一般家庭没有门路，倒也省了心。所以，同学们中想要考大学的并不多。
在村里，金申姬的家境居中，不好不坏。每年到金正日、金日成生日的时候，政府会给每户居民发几斤肉。最穷的人家会把肉卖了换土豆吃，金的家庭还不需要，可以保留难得的吃肉机会。
2012年，金正恩开始搞新经济管理体制，农业管理发生变革。按照平壤的政策，农场土地包产到小组，国家、集体和农户按比例分配收成。有些地方，农户可以留下产量的30%。据说有的地方，比例可以高达60%。平壤专家对外说，朝鲜经济变好是因为农业变革有了效果。也有国外学者因此猜测，朝鲜要学习中国、越南，搞改革开放。
在金正日去世前两年，平壤的货币改革差点导致经济崩盘。此后，干了坏事的政府不得不给社会略作鬆绑。民间市场获得更多的腾挪空间。到金正恩时期，朝鲜经济指标出现好转，GDP甚至出现正增长。要知道，金正日时期，GDP持平即是丰年。
朝鲜的开放程度也是金正日时代罕见的。2013年朝鲜由正式渠道去中国的人数已经达到2009年的两倍。此外，据韩国统一部提供的数据，自金正恩2012年掌权后，朝鲜“脱北者”规模大幅缩小，由2011年的2706人骤减至2012年的1502人。路透社同年报导称每年脱北者为朝鲜汇款超过1000万美元。这一现象被称为“汉拿山溪流”。
2013年，金申姬的家乡也开始实施新政策。村民分了很多地，大家开始拚命干活。可是，中央的好心总是被地方的坏官搞砸了。当地官员见财起意，把多出来的收成强收走，落到村民自己手里的所剩无几。被骗以后，大家的积极性又降下来了。
这让金申姬觉得，金正恩上台后，村里的日子更困难了。
此外，在金正日时期，上班的人可以去做生意。只要和单位谈好，回头把一部分钱交给单位即可。但是金正恩不许人们这麽干。当然，还是有人偷偷去做。
朝鲜城乡间的差距并无多大改善。有些人为了进城，和城里的居民假结婚，离开村子。村里的女人们会去市场做小买卖。男人们觉得去干这个没面子，会和江对面的中国人做走私生意。对于外面的世界，金申姬村子里的人比朝鲜内地的更熟悉，这里几乎每家每户都有人去中国挣钱。
或许是城乡差别，或许是内地边境有别，来自朝鲜内地城市的年轻人感受和金申姬并不一样。城市商人家庭长大的朴常凯记得，在金正日去世那年，家里不用再吃玉米饭，可以天天吃白米饭。所以日子还是变好了。
今年26岁的李轶平原来在朝鲜内地的学校学开车。2009年，朝鲜搞货币改革，物价上涨了10倍，经济几乎崩溃，逼迫政府放鬆管制。后来，在李居住的城市，私人可以开货车运输公司，在朝鲜境内搞物流。毕业后，李跟私人老闆干货运，和中国商人做生意，买卖鱿鱼、玉米。
金正恩上台后，加强对边境的控制。以前去边境跑运输，交点钱就能过去，现在要用新发的通行证。当然，和朝鲜绝大部分证件一样，这个证也能花钱买。所以对于李轶平和他的老闆来说，新领导人的上台只是增加了生意的成本，并没有太大不同。
和大多数同学比，李轶平的收入算很不错，他的同学一般当兵、上大学或者去工厂。在工厂的话，工资虽然不高，但是可以悄悄把工厂里的东西拿出去卖，也能有点灰色收入。
曾在市场做生意的年轻脱北者李雪花注意到，在朝鲜，市场上的生意开始活跃，相比过去，一般的商贩也能很容易地做起生意来。以前是管理干部们有钱，现在一大部分的脱北者家属和中间商、走私犯更有钱。总的来说，商人比干部们更富裕。
李轶平开着卡车走南闯北，他意识到金正恩上台后，朝鲜的贫富差距在扩大。
年轻女性模彷李雪主穿着
朝鲜城市向来受到严格管控，居民楼的阳台都整齐划一地摆着真花和假花。在军营化的城市里，市场是最宽鬆的交流空间，人们在摊位做生意，也彼此交换着传言。
在市场里，人们经常说到金正恩以及他的夫人李雪主的亮相令人印像深刻。人们感到金正恩和他曾守孝三年的父亲相比，不会是隐遁的领导者，会带来不一样的领导模式。市场上也有传言说金正恩是金正日最为信任的子女，指明金正恩为继承者是因为他精通军事。
在李雪花生活的城市，百姓生活质量有了改善，特别是女性的着装有了很大的变化。以前想都不敢想的中央艺术团演员的着装款式现在在市场上都可以看到，很多女性买或者订造衣服时会模彷李雪主的穿着。
对于朴常凯来说，中学生的娱乐是同学过生日，可以去他家吃蛋糕。蛋糕在顺川的市场里能买到。同学们也给礼金，通常是1万朝币，人民币不到10块钱，大约能买两公斤的大米。对于市里的工人家庭来说，相当于一个月的工资。
开货车的李轶平会跳迪斯科 (Disco)，但他的娱乐活动主要是玩平板电脑。他玩过一个中国游戏，打日本人的。他还在平板电脑里装了夏洛克·福尔摩斯探案集。朋友间也流行一些黄书和成人电影。当然，大家很小心，不能让警察查到。
金申姬买不起平板电脑，但是村里有人家里装了中国的VCD机。有个亲戚前两年才买了一台，香港影星任达华代言的。
2008年以后，中国的VCD传到朝鲜。尤其是2009年以后，中朝关系好了，中国的电影、电视剧在市场上能公开卖，香港流行的武打片也能看到。金申姬至今记得一部中国电影《梁祝》。
金申姬小时候也看过美国电影，当然是禁片。去年美国人拍了一部外国记者刺杀金正恩的电影 The Interview，有人悄悄带到朝鲜国内放，搞得平壤很紧张。有些中国片子，也成了禁片，如果被抓住，要劳教1个月到半年。
在朝鲜，查得最严的是韩国电视剧和电影。看这种片子和收听敌台差不多。金申姬听人说，如果被发现看这种片子，会被抓去劳改，再也回不来。但这只是传言，现实生活中看片的到处都是，根本抓不过来。实际上，从金申姬的村庄到李轶平所在的城市，表面上被严禁的资讯早已流行开。李轶平自称韩国影星安在旭的粉丝。
大米饭与自由
从2002年朝鲜採取“7.1措施”的经济变革以来，几经反覆，国家权力对社会的管制力大不如前。朝鲜问题学者 Hazel Smith 在她的 North Korea: Markets and Military Rule 一书中写道，金正恩时代的国家政策没能使朝鲜建立起一个从思想到行动上都愿意，并有能力效忠于金正恩的年轻力量。年轻人生活在政治之外，在公园、电影院、运动场上寻找生活更多的可能性，他们已经不愿再接受渗透于每个细节的政治监控。
19年前，上一辈脱北者金达跨过浅浅的图们江来到中国。他看到在一江之隔的中国农村里，即使是狗的饭盆里也有大米饭和肉。这成为他决心脱离朝鲜的最大原因。
但新一代的年轻脱北者不同。金申姬到韩国，是想要挣钱给在家的妈妈治病。李轶平在高中时代即有了向往南方自由生活的愿望。朴常凯既是为了和母亲相聚，也是因为身背脱北者家属的名声，在国内没什么前途。
比朴大10岁的脱北者李雪花的想法也类似。她的父母很早即离开朝鲜。她起初觉得被父母抛弃了，虽然在经济上能过得去，但是心理上、精神上都很忧郁黯淡。所以尽可能地回避朋友们，回避有关父母脱北的话题。实际上，她身边类似家境的朋友都差不多。
去年李雪花来到韩国和母亲聊天才知道当时他们为什麽急于逃离，曾经有过的抱怨也随着时间慢慢淡化，现在和家人生活在一起很幸福，对未来也抱有希望。
本文发表在2016年 香港端传媒
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