How Is Life Like for A Teenager in North Korean?

Just like everywhere else, issues of class and wealth play a role in the lives of teens in North Korea--although the gulf between the haves and have nots is much wider than in several other countries. Aside from having lots of moolah, citizens are part of the elite when they have notable political, government, and military connections. A large part of being a teenager is figuring out your sense of style, how you like to dress and your identity. It’s not easy to do that when you live in a repressive country.You may have seen posters for allowedNorth Korea hairstyles on the internet. While it’s not true that North Korea forces citizens to have a particular hairstyle, the government does encourage people to have state approved hairstyles.

Many teens are exposed to makeup, fashion and a variety of hairstyles thru foreign movies and music. South Korean skin care routines are popular too. Little makeup and skincare is sold in shops, most devotees purchase their goods at the Jangmadang or local North Korean markets that sell everything from food to household products to clothing. These marketplaces also sell illegal products smuggled into the country such as USB drives containing western movies, music and South Korean soap operas, as well as makeup and foreign clothes. While there are not any official appearance rules that we were able to find, North Korea places a strong emphasis on a tidy, clean and appropriate appearance.

Assuming they have the money to purchase expensive smuggled goods, in private North Korean teens experiment with a variety of non permanent looks. However, publicly women wear minimal makeup such as lightly tinted lipstick--never red, because as one defector explains, wearing red lipstick is unimaginable in North Korea becausethe color red represents capitalism. It is unacceptable for males to wear any makeup. Fashion is definitely a subtle form of resistance. Due to the widespread influence of foreign media and young citizens willing to push the boundaries, in recent years North Korea’s unspoken rules regarding appearance have loosened slightly. Citizens now wear brightly colored clothing, some even dare to wear jeans and ladies fairly short skirts. However, the prevailing attitude depends on where one is in the country.

Fashion acceptable in Pyongyang may not be acceptable in a small village. Wearing too much makeup, skimpy clothing or too tight clothes may cause citizens to run afoul of the Gyuchaldae or fashion police. The Gyuchaldae patrol pedestrian areas making sure that everyone’s appearance is ‘suitable’. If caught with an ‘inappropriate’ appearance the fashion police issue punishments. Common punishments involve public humiliation--offenders are made to stand in the middle of a town's square and endure harsh criticism from officers. Also, short stints of hard labor and fines are also given as punishment. What’s school like for a North Korean teen? In the DPRK education is entirely controlled by the government.

Kindergarten, primary and secondary schooling are free and all citizens are required to attend--North Korea is surprisingly progressive when it comes to the education of women. After kindergarten, primary school, known as the “People’s Schools,” is attended from the ages of 6 to 9. Then from 10 to 16, pupils attend a secondary school which may concentrate on a specialty such as music, art, economics or foreign languages. Children of the elite may go to a secondary school which focuses on training them for leadership positions or to be officers in the Korean People’s Army. North Korea claims that their school system is top notch.

According to UNESCO, North Korea’s literacy rate for people 15 and older who can read and write is 98-100 percent. But then again, this statistic is self-reported. Throughout the school years, all information taught to students is carefully censored. Many subjects are taught in a way that promotes allegiance to Kim Jong un and the Kim family. Other commonly taught propaganda is military nationalism and Juche or the North Korean concept of self-sufficiency. While school for city dwellers and the elite may be well funded by North Korean standards, reports have leaked out of underfunded rural schools with not enough resources and poorly trained teachers. In recent years, students have been forced to cover school costs such as workbooks or helping to heat their school in the winter. Impoverished families have a hard time coming up with money to pay school fees and teens sometimes drop out.

While more middle class families are able to hire tutors for their children as an alternative to school--which can actually be cheaper than school fees, poor kids are left in the lurch. The dropouts take menial jobs to survive. The government seems to turn a blind eye to dropouts, especially since their work often provides supplemental money and food to keep poor households going. After finishing secondary school at age 17, citizens must serve in the military. Men are conscripted into the military for 10 years and women for 6 years, until age 23. Conscripts can be drafted into elite special forces depending on their social class, or if they have outstanding athletic abilities. There are exemptions to joining the military though. Teenagers with good grades from elite families may be invited to sit for entry exams at one of North Korea’s universities. If they are accepted, they may delay, shorten or even bypass military service. Certain skilled workers and technicians may also bypass or shorten military service.

Many North Korean teens don't have a lot of free time. When they aren’t at school or studying, many teens work, helping their families to make ends meet. The types of jobs available to teens are mainly informal work such as selling charcoal door to door, selling smuggled goods in the marketplace or tutoring and childcare for younger children. During their free time, if teens are lucky enough to live in an area that has a cinema and they can afford it, you might find them at the movies. However North Korea cinemas only have 1 or 2 screens and often have the same few movies showing for months. Some of the larger cities have a bowling alley, arcade or mini golf, but it’s quite expensive and the average middle class teen may visit such places infrequently. The same for roller rinks and ice skating arenas, but they're expensive too and since so few of them exist, they stay crowded.

Teens who are donju or part of the 1% may receive an allowance. That may not sound like a big deal, but in a country where in 2018 the official salary is roughly $10 USD a month, it is. Having an allowance makes for a great social life. Donju teens most likely live in the capital of Pyongyang. They hang out at 24 hour coffee shops and drink lattes, which at $4 USD a drink, is incredibly out of the reach of most North Korean citizens. They also frequently visit water theme parks, ski, hang out in pool bars and have gym memberships. They may eat out both at fast food restaurants and fine dining where they eat expensive cuts of steak, an unimaginable luxury for most citizens. Like everywhere else, teens hang out with their friends--in the park or at home.

They may play video games on older consoles that they’ve bought on the black market. Newer game systems that require online access aren’t suitable as home internet access in North Korea is virtually non existent. Friends also get together and watch foreign, often western movies on DVD or flash drives also purchased from smugglers. It’s extremely common for North Koreans to pass around flash drives containing videos, music and news. In fact, as a way to educate North Korea about the world, various activist and religious organizations smuggle USB sticks with subversive media into the country.

North Korean teens do have to be careful who they trust and share media with. In the spring of 2018, a group of teens in the Ryanggang Province were arrested and stood public trial. Their crime? Dancing and distributing K-pop music. Six teens ages 16 and 17 were convicted. Four of them were found guilty of "anti-national" conspiracy and received a year of labor. The sentence for the other two teens is unknown, however all were sent to an offenders' institution after the trial. Ironically, about 2 weeks later several K-pop bands visited Pyongyang to perform for Kim Jon Un and North Korean government officials. Ultimately, this case is a sad, yet perfect illustration of how North Korea is run.

Kim Jon Un and government officials at the top can do whatever they like, but they will punish ordinary citizens if they try to do the same. The repressive nature of North Korean society causes anger, depression and disillusionment among its people. Many citizens turn to drugs and alcohol to mitigate the pain. In 2016, an institute interviewed defectors about life in North Korea. Many of the defectors said that around 30% of North Koreans, including teens, are addicted to drugs. While it’s hard to gage how accurate this claim is, in the winter of 2019 North Korea began making a concerted effort to crack down on teenage drug abuse, especially use of opium, which is readily available. There have been a few incidents where a roving band of high teens caused a disturbance or brawled in the street with police.

North Korea’s drug issues are a problem of their own making. For many years the production of opium was a state-run industry where North Korea sold drugs on the international black market as a way to get around sanctions. Middle school students were mobilized to harvest poppies and produce opium powder on poppy farms. It was only evitable that citizens would begin to try the product. In 2013 North Korea implemented a death penalty for illicit drug manufacture. In recent years they have also created harsh laws targeting drug runners who sell to minors. Dating in North Korea is somewhat taboo. Society, especially older people frown upon it. Young women are expected to remain chaste, marry young and then have lots of children for the sake of the great nation. There is no sex education taught in school. Porn is illegal and if caught with it, a citizen will be sent to a reeducation camp.

College campuses have strict rules against dating. Arranged marriages are still common in North Korea, but increasingly due to the influence of foreign movies, it’s becoming more common to marry for love. Teens get around society's disapproval by having group dates and assignations. When couples go out alone, there’s no public display of affection. Even just holding hands is not acceptable. However some parents turn a blind eye to their teens dating as long as they don’t shame the family. Correspondence passed between sweethearts to set up dates can be tricky, especially if the parents do not approve.

The majority of North Koreans don’t have telephones. Although, increasingly cell phones, especially smartphones are popular. It;s estimated that about 25% or 6 million people in North Korea have a cell phone. Locally made smartphones are popular with teens of the Donju, but as they are rumored to cost upwards of $400 USD, rarely do ordinary citizens own them. They can’t be used to call overseas or connect to the internet. Instead they connect to the country's internal, state-run intranet on 3G. Despite the intranet, for apps, North Korean smartphone users have to visit a physical store where they can download apps approved by the North Korean government. Aso it’s rumored that the government accesses them to spy on people.

Recently business has begun to boom for smugglers of Chinese-made phones. Using smuggled phones, North Koreans can not only call locally but stay in contact with relatives who have defected to South Korea. Apps such as WeChat are used to bypass having calls monitored by the Ministry of State Security (MSS). More and more as the youth of the DKRP become aware of the outside world, they’re changing North Korean society. There’s only so long that Kim Jong UN is going to be able to rule with an iron fist.