Nearly every kind of economic activity regularly encountered in North Korea is, strictly speaking, illegal. But as everybody with some exposure to DPRK life knows, private economic activity is a considerable force in the country. 

This creates an unusual situation. When police patrol the marketplace, they could justifiably arrest every single person they see. 

Of course, they don’t, not just because it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but because the police are often on the payroll of the people whose activities they are supposed to stop.

BRIBERY BEGINS

Corruption is a part of life in present-day North Korea, but