ⓒ KBS

In South Korea, the term “Generation MZ” indicates a pairing of two groups, namely, millennials and Generation Z, referring to those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. This generation places priority on individual happiness and puts sharing above possession. Members of this age group tend to wield influence on the back of smartphones and social media. 

Taking up over 30 percent of South Korea’s population, Generation MZ is emerging as the major economic player and exerting an influence across society. So, how about the young generation in North Korea? 

Today, we’ll learn about the North Korean version of Generation MZ from Dr. Jeong Eun Mee, research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. 

Generation MZ’s North Korean counterpart is called the new generation or the jangmadang generation. Jangmadang literally means marketplace. It is a kind of private or black market that cropped up during North Korea’s extreme economic difficulty in the 1990s. 

North Korea classifies generations in accordance with major historical events. The first revolutionary generation, for example, refers to those who were born between 1910 and 1930. Members of the second revolutionary generation, also known as the Chollima generation, participated in the Korean War and went through post-war recovery and economic revival. Those who led the Three-Revolution Team Movement in the 1970s belong to the third revolutionary generation, while the fourth revolutionary generation is called the Arduous March generation. During the painful Arduous March period from mid-to late-1990s, when North Korea suffered from the most devastating famine ever, as many as three million people are known to have died of starvation. 

As state rations stopped due to the famine and the internal economic crisis, North Korean residents had to find a way to survive on their own. They began to make ends meet by trading goods for other necessities at the private market or jangmadang. 

Those who were born or spent their teenage years during the Arduous March period are named the jangmadang generation, as they considered the unofficial market as part of their daily lives from childhood. It is estimated that some three-point-five million people belong to this generation, accounting for 14 percent of the country’s population. 

A documentary titled Jangmadang Generation was shown at the ninth North Korean Human Rights International Film Festival in 2019. North Korean interviewees who appear in the film show that this new generation is quite different from the older generation. 

The Washington Post unveiled the documentary on its website and explained that the collapse of the state rationing system during the Arduous March period transformed the jangmadang generation into independent, capitalistic individuals. It also noted that members of the brave generation have the courage to pioneer their own destinies.

The jangmadang generation did not benefit from North Korea’s socialist system. It is easy to understand that collectivism and related rules did not really work for those young people, and there is not enough cohesion to bring them together ideologically. They attach more importance to themselves and their family. This is a very significant change in perception. 

Also, the younger generation absolutely depends on the market. In the past, North Koreans were able to maintain their basic livelihoods as long as they showed loyalty to the state. But today, a majority of the population earns a living through market activities. It is little wonder the market is the priority of their lives. 

The jangmadang generation, from childhood, has directly and indirectly experienced what it is like to earn money and get food in the market. For that reason, this generation is more used to a market economy than the socialist rationing system. Another distinctive part of those young people is that they are more digital-friendly. 

One of the major policies of the Kim Jong-un regime is to cultivate human resources in science and technology. In a joint editorial on January 1, 2012, the first year of Kim’s rule, North Korea presented a national goal of transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy. In the same year, the North introduced a 12-year compulsory education system and strengthened information technology education. Later, North Korea opened some 190 technical schools specializing in information technology nationwide and expanded distance learning. Thanks to these series of policies, young people in North Korea have been able to improve their ability to use digital devices. 

Their strong desire to enjoy a wide range of foreign cultural content has also prompted them to use such devices. Against the backdrop, the new generation in North Korea is familiar with digital culture. 

Foreign culture began to enter North Korea through the jangmadang during the Arduous March period in the 1990s. Following the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, South and North Korea actively engaged in bilateral exchanges in various areas in the 2000s, with more of outside culture flowing into the reclusive North from the mid-and late-2000s. South Korean pop culture, among others, enjoyed explosive popularity in the North. 

The Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University has conducted a survey on North Korean defectors every year since 2011. According to a survey on 227 defectors who escaped from North Korea between 2018 and 2020, 87-point-two percent of the respondents said they had experienced South Korean cultural content in their home country. For respondents in their 20s, 30s and 40s, the figure rose to over 90 percent. The survey shows that North Koreans have consumed South Korean cultural content at least once. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who was born in 1984, actually belongs to the jangmadang generation. He even studied in Switzerland when he was younger. That’s why young people in North Korea had expected that the leader would be more flexible about outside culture. 

In fact, the young leader seemed to attempt to raise the level of North Korean culture, staying away from the previous practice of forcing the people to consume heavily ideological culture strictly controlled by the state. The creation of the Moranbong Band in July 2012 is a good example. Members of the North Korean girl group played electronic instruments under laser lighting, wearing off-the-shoulder dresses, fancy accessories and heavy make-up. The unconventional band was regarded as a symbol of change in the new Kim Jong-un era. 

The band’s performance at the Mansudae Art Theater came as a shock to North Korean society. The performance featuring famous Western songs including music from Disney cartoons and Theme from Rocky signaled a change in the North Korean performing art scene. 

Unlike the spectacular stage, however, North Korean art troupes had a clear purpose of regime propaganda. Their limits were so evident that they could not replace South Korean pop culture that provides a wide array of content. 

According to a report released by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, Kim Jong-un’s approval rating among those in their 20s recorded 71-point-one percent, the highest across all age groups. The rating had been on a steady rise since he came to power, but it moved downward after 2018. Two North Korean defectors share their opinions. 

#1: The leader was quite popular in the early years. People expected him to govern the country in a different way. He seemed to have something special. But later, people came to realize he was not any different. 

#2: I had high expectations for Chairman Kim because the young leader had studied in Switzerland. I expected North Korea could develop like China, although it may not go as far as to become like South Korea. Due to the expectations, though, I felt all the more disappointed. 

Apparently, the younger generation in North Korea was looking forward to change and openness. Contrary to their expectations, however, their society has remained closed over the last ten years even after Kim Jong-un rose to power. 

When I asked young North Korean defectors what they were unhappy about in the North, many said that children of the ruling elite and high officials are never punished even though they see South Korean videos, and it is only the weak people who fall into the hands of the law. They complain that North Korea, without providing high-level cultural content, only cracks down on young people looking for such content. 

The world they see in South Korean videos is free and more equal. In contrast, they feel that the world they actually live in is discriminative and that their government continues to control them without giving anything to them. I think these feelings could cause social discontent with the North Korean regime. 

In December 2017, Kim Jong-un urged secretaries of party cells, the most elementary units of the ruling Workers’ Party, to eradicate non-socialist practices. In his New Year’s message in 2018, he said that a vigorous struggle should be waged to eliminate all kinds of non-socialist practices.  

In the process of being exposed to South Korean videos and emulating South Korean pop culture, young people in the North may end up admiring the free South Korean society. This is one of the most threatening elements that shake the North Korean regime. 

A head of the public prosecutors’ office in Ryanggang Province contributed an article to the July edition of an official magazine of the Workers’ Party in 2019. In the writing, he said that illegal publications as well as clothes and things with unusual patterns on them are entering North Korea through various channels, prompting authorities to crack down on them constantly. He also claimed that the most dangerous enemy is not the enemy outside the border but the indecent, bizarre trend that runs counter to the socialist lifestyle. The article shows that North Korean authorities are extra wary of and even feel threatened by the serious impact of foreign ideas and culture on the regime. 

North Korea adopted a law banning reactionary ideology and culture in December 2020. Details of the law were not disclosed, but it prohibits people from distributing foreign cultural content, including South Korea’s. Violators are subject to punishments that include the death penalty. 

North Korea not only regulates the jangmadang generation but also mobilizes the young people for major events. During a military parade marking the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army in April, many young people participated in a card stunt that created mosaic images of letters indicating phrases like “prosperity and military power.” The Korean Central Television reported that leader Kim Jong-un took commemorative photos with those young people. 

A photo that shows the image of the top leader is called “Photo No.1.” Analysts say the wide media coverage of the important photo taking is aimed at the jangmadang generation, who is familiar with a market economy. 

North Korean reports say that the leader took photos with young people as many as 20 times, apparently reminding the young generation that the dear leader highly values them. In fact, North Korea has sent young people to tough areas and production sites, giving them little, if any, material reward. Taking photos with the top leader will be very useful for their future career. In this sense, the commemorative photos were politically-motivated. By providing the young people with an effective incentive, North Korea is using a low-cost, highly efficient governing strategy.

Compared to the older generation, North Korea’s jangmadang generation’s loyalty to the party and ideological unity is rather weak. Will Kim Jong-un be able to win the hearts of the young people, who belong to the same generation as the leader? We’ll have to carefully watch a potential change to be brought about by this generation, the backbone of North Korean society.