North Korea's Secret Rich Class: How the Donju Merchants Are Reshaping the Hermit Kingdom From Within
The Man With the Mercedes In the spring of 2016, a black Mercedes-Benz S-Class edged through the potholed streets of Pyongyang's Moranbong district, past the grey concrete apartment blocks and the billboards praising the Supreme Leader. Behind the wheel sat a man in his fifties wearing a tailored suit — not a party uniform, not a military jacket, but the kind of Italian cut that would not look out of place in Seoul or Shanghai. His name, according to two defectors who separately described the same figure to this reporter, was Choe Yong-nam. He was not a general. He was not a senior party official. He was a coal trader. And he was, by any measure, extraordinarily wealthy. Choe Yong-nam represents a phenomenon that has quietly redefined the social and economic fabric of North Korea over the past two decades: the donju . The word translates roughly as "masters of money," and it refers to a class of private merchants and entrepreneurs who have accumulated significant capital...