Gangsters are reportedly taking full advantage of market workers and lorry drivers after Kim Jong-un’s regime was slapped with the single largest economic sanctions package ever following a series of nuclear tests.
The criminals are targeting markets across North Korea, including Chongjin’s Sunam market where the gangsters, usually ex-convicts, demand a large fee from traders and truck drivers hoping to enter to deliver and sell goods.
The fee ranges from £112 (1,000 yuan) up to £560 (5,000 yuan) to enter and the gangs reportedly hand 40 per cent of what they take to police officers working at the market.
A source told RFA’s Korean Service: “They do not allow trucks to approach certain areas near the market, and only the trucks that pay them money are allowed to drive up to the market to load the goods they need to deliver.
“These thugs make secret arrangements with the police officers and extort money from merchants and truck drivers who are in a hurry.
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“Merchants and truck drivers are becoming increasingly resentful of this situation.”
It comes at a time when demand to buy and sell goods is at all an time high after Kim Jong-un’s hermit state was hit by US-backed UN sanctions over its growing nuclear programme.
The sanctions ball all North Korea exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood.
It also limits the number of North Koreans permitted to work abroad, and bars countries from entering into new joint ventures with North Korea or investing in current ones.
The resolution also adds nine people and four entities – including North Korea’s primary foreign exchange bank – to the UN blacklist.
The sanctions were imposed amid threats Kim’s regime could hit the United States with nuclear warheads.
Kim’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party is said to be turning a blind eye to the crime as the markets continue to make high profits.