North Korean Johns in Need of More Effective Consumer Protection

As a worker at a state enterprise, at Chongjin city, North Hamkyung Province, he came to Pyungsung City on a business trip. As a beautiful woman approached him and said the motel had a warm cozy room as well as a “high-class waiting room” (rooms where prostitutes wait for travelers who want sexual intercourse), he went to a one-story house in Yangji-dong. [Open Radio for N. Korea]

What could possibly go wrong with a story that begins like that?

For those of you with a more (ahem) academic interest in the subject matter, Open Radio offers a comprehensive history of North Korea’s newest oldest profession:

Prostitutes form groups with other ones. Each group has the ringleader (the “Big sister”). Rank among prostitutes is decided according to the age and work experience. Best customer unconditionally goes to the “Big sister. If someone disobeys this rule, one has to leave the group and the region. “˜Cadets’ are put together a team with the “˜Drillmaster Sister’ and two people help each other in serving the customer. Each prostitute group has its territory. There are other kinds that wander around one province to the other. [Open Radio for N. Korea]

Despite the martial rank structure — no surprise to observers of camp town culture in South Korea, by the way — the industry’s customary military discount is now a thing of the past. That’s a pretty harsh thing when you consider how few opportunities North Korean soldiers have for dating or marriage. And I’ll just let you figure out the rest of that by yourself.

There’s going to be a lot of moral and social decay evident when the regime finally collapses.