Conditions Worsen in Pyongyang

[Update:   The Daily NK  also has an  interesting new  Pyongyang photo gallery from a Russian visitor with a real talent for  furtive photography.  I’m not sure how new this is; some of the pics look vaguely familiar.]  

The Emerald City, where only the privileged live and where food has always been relatively plentiful,  is losing is hue:

“Nowadays, it is even hard for people in Pyongyang to live. Although rations are given, it is not enough to live on.

Lee informed “Compared to the country, rules and regulations are even stricter in Pyongyang to the point all men must go to work. Alternatively, the majority of housewives utilize the markets and trains to travel to the rural districts selling goods.

“Even the people in Pyongyang must engage in trade, otherwise they have nothing to eat but rice porridge. While the elite are living lives more privileged than the times of the “˜march of suffering,’ the common worker in Pyongyang is indifferent to the citizens in the country” he said.  [Daily NK]

Elsewhere, the article notes that families are cooking and  heating their  homes, including apartments, by burning coal in them, which strikes me as a very dangerous thing to do.