The scene takes place in the 90s, when a Western tourist who visited Pyongyang tells the story same strange experience: He could travel down gigantic avenues for whole minutes without hardly crossing paths with another vehicle. Some roads seemed so empty that many thought they had been built more like decoration propaganda than to support real traffic. Decades later, that same city begins to discover a problem that for a long time seemed reserved for the rest of the world.
The most unexpected paradox. For decades, one of the most recognizable images of North Korea was its enormous practically empty avenues. Pyongyang was designed as a monumental capital to display state power, but with very few cars circulating really through its streets. Reuters counted that now the situation is changing so rapidly that the regime is beginning to face a problem that would have seemed absurd just a few years ago: traffic jams, lack of parking and difficulties in managing the growth of private traffic.
The most striking thing is that much of this transformation has a very specific origin. Although international sanctions prohibit the export of vehicles to the country, North Korean roads are filling up with cars and components arriving directly or indirectly. from china. The result is a most fascinating paradox: one of the countries most isolated on the planet It is beginning to look, little by little, like any large Asian city trapped by its own automobile boom.
Kim has opened a door. The traffic explosion is not accidental. In recent years, North Korea has legalized and regulated partially private ownership of automobiles, allowing certain citizens to purchase one vehicle per household through state-controlled dealerships. The move is part of a broader strategy by Kim Jong-un to absorb and control economic activities that previously operated in gray or directly clandestine markets.
Of course, the private car remains a luxury reserved above all for urban elites and the business class. known as donjubut the simple fact that a relatively formalized market already exists is rapidly altering daily life in Pyongyang. Where military and official vehicles with blue or black license plates once predominated, yellow license plates for private cars are now beginning to multiply.
Pyongyang several years ago
China as a silent engine. The most important detail is that this new car culture depends almost entirely from china. Officially, Beijing barely recognizes vehicle exports to North Korea since UN sanctions came into effect. in 2017.
However, parts and supplies export figures tell a story completely different. Shipments of tires, rearview mirrors, lubricants and related auto components have skyrocketed in recent years. To this, Reuters recalled Added to this is the informal flow of used and new cars that cross the border through networks of intermediaries and smuggling. Many vehicles change hands several times before entering North Korea, making it difficult track your final destination. Thus, while officially cars hardly arrive in the country, the streets of Pyongyang are increasingly filled with Chinese models from brands such as Changan, Chery or Geely.
Suffering as if it were London. The consequences are beginning to be visible throughout the capital. Foreign visitors and satellite analysis describe hotels with saturated parking lots, vehicles occupying adjacent streets and congestion points unprecedented until a few years ago. Some new businesses and buildings already incorporate underground parkingsomething extremely rare in the city traditionally. Infrastructure for electric taxis and limited charging stations are even beginning to appear.
The most symbolic thing is perhaps the psychological change: finding a parking space begins to become an everyday concern among wealthy sectors of Pyongyang. The image of almost empty avenues It is rapidly disappearing and being replaced by something much more recognizable for any large contemporary city: slow traffic, traffic jams and streets saturated with private cars.
Nothing stops China. All of this also reflects the extent to which North Korea economically dependent of China despite international isolation. The expansion of the private car It is strengthening that relationship even more. The cars, parts, fuel and much of the infrastructure needed to sustain this growth come directly or indirectly from the Chinese market.
Even European brands like BMW or Audi appear occasionally in Pyongyang through channels that are difficult to trace. If you like, the situation shows (again) an uncomfortable reality for the sanctions system: although trade is officially restricted, the border with China continues to function as an economical valve fundamental for the North Korean regime.
And now that dependency is becoming visible in a very concrete and almost surreal way: North Korea is having trouble finding parking because Pyongyang’s roads are filling up with Chinese cars that, on paper, should never have arrived there.
Image | (stephan), Roman Harak
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