North Korea’s nouveau riche, or donju, have recently amassed significant wealth through real estate investments.
“Nowadays, people with money in Sinuiju invest in homes, buying several properties and fixing up their interiors to sell at a high price and turn a profit,” a Daily NK source in North Pyongan province said recently.
According to the source, one donju in his 50s in Sinuiju owns three apartments. As a trading company official, he personally participates in smuggling, amassing significant amounts of foreign currency.
When his foreign currency holdings skyrocketed with the resumption of smuggling—which had been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic—he began investing in housing construction. He has further enriched himself through real estate, either flipping homes he received as compensation for his investment or renting them out for profit.
Profiting from state construction projects
This trend is intertwined with housing construction projects pushed by the Kim Jong Un government. North Korean authorities have encouraged investments by donju to address financial shortages as they push large-scale housing construction nationwide. In return for the investments, authorities prioritize the donju for housing allotments.
In North Korea, housing is ostensibly state property, and individuals may not buy or sell it. In reality, however, housing transformed into “private property” long ago, with individuals able to buy and sell it unofficially, the source said.
A donju in his 40s in Hyesan, Ryanggang province, owns two apartments in addition to his own—which cost hundreds of thousands of Chinese yuan. He made a fortune importing cars through state-led smuggling and invested his cash in housing construction. He is now looking for an opportunity to sell the two apartments he acquired for a sizable profit.
“In the past, donju simply kept their foreign currency, but nowadays they often buy homes with it,” a source in Ryanggang province said. “For years, donju in Hyesan have increasingly recognized that simply holding onto foreign currency is dangerous, so they are turning to buying homes—a commodity—with their foreign currency more and more.”
Donju with money are increasingly allotted low-rise homes, which North Koreans prefer, after investing in the authorities’ housing construction projects, the source said. They will sometimes sell these homes to reinvest the cash if authorities push new housing construction projects, but if no such investment opportunities exist, they hold onto the homes as assets.
Thus, “people with money” are actively seeking ways to grow their wealth, including through real estate investments. Meanwhile, people without money can hardly put food on the table, and North Korean society is growing increasingly polarized as a result.
“Life is increasingly hard for ordinary people, but donju continue to grow their assets,” the source said. “With the gap between the lives of those with money and those without as wide as that between heaven and earth, it feels like they’re living in different worlds.”
In this climate, some people lament their lot in life, complaining that while the COVID-19 pandemic was “a disaster for poor people like us, it was an opportunity for the donju,” and that “even heaven favors the rich.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
