When we talk about any particular society, we tend to pay attention to the average income of its people. How much does a skilled worker make? And what about a high-ranking official? A junior military officer?

Such questions are important, to be sure, but North Korea is a country where such simple questions are nearly impossible to answer with any precision.

The North Korean system of official salaries is a complete mess, and always has been. Admittedly things have become somewhat clearer in the last decade or so, but even now formal income (official and