North Korea’s shadow economy and unofficial markets are not yet spaces for collective political resistance or anti-regime practices, an academic report published in May claims.

The report, North Korea’s Shadow Economy: A force for Authoritarian Resilience of Corrosion?, is based on 35 semi-structured interviews of North Korean defectors in 2011 and 2012.

The report found that overt political resistance, such as “anti-state” conversations or activities, were largely limited to occur between close friends and family rather than openly in unofficial market spaces.

Therefore despite the proliferation of a shadow economy, which began largely outside of the regime’s control and