North Korea is a peculiar country. While the oft-repeated description of the DPRK as the “last surviving Stalinist state” is misleading, the real-life country presents us with a seemingly improbable, and sometimes an even comical combination of features, some of which would indeed be common in communist states while other are capitalist to the extreme.

The involvement of state institutions in the market commercial activities is one such feature of North Korean life.

The experience of my contact Ms. Roh (not her real name) is a great example of how the commercial spirit infiltrates even institutions which are decisively anti-commercial in