North Korean government "listening" to the people's opinion?
One explanation is that this could be an evidence for (albeit somewhat circumlocutory) the inability of the North Korean government to exert the kind of control over its population that it had been able to in the past.
The other is that the North Korean leadership is actually concerned about the state of the nation's economy. Speaking of economy, Kim Jong-il recently visited Rason (which was his first visit since Rason was named a free trade zone). That's somewhat interesting as well.
North Korea Today, No. 316 – Hot Topics (Good Friends)
12/17/2009
The Central Party issued a directive, “to listen to the people’s opinion as to what would be the best the government could do with food supply to the people and market prices.” Accordingly, beginning December 12, all the city and county party administration officials initiated national surveys on public opinion by selecting three households at random within each neighborhood unit. They paid visits to the randomly selected households and asked the heads of the households of their opinion on the currency revaluation. Questions were centered on whether laborers were compensated properly and whether the market prices were set appropriately. They also asked for frank and honest opinions about the national policies. They tried to persuade people hesitant to speak out that nothing would happen to them for their opinions. Information on the trends of public opinion collected in this manner by the propaganda section of city (county) party was sent to the central party through the provincial party. A party official made a comment, “City propaganda section listened to the words on the appropriateness of national policies and what people’s interests are. They found that presently, all the prices including grain price are going up too fast and closure of markets are causing hard times to people.”
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