From the dark alleys of Pyongyang, the showpiece North Korean capital, tiny specks of torchlight shine carefully into the eyes of passersby, leading to bustling and illegal street markets where traders, usually women, call out "buy, buy!"
The maeddugi shijang, or grasshopper markets, get their name from the lightning-quick way traders must pack up and hop from place to place to evade authorities in a country making a grudging embrace of free enterprise.
As markets have taken hold in North Korea, the government has sporadically legalized and formalized them, while at the same time imposing new crackdowns, taxes, and bribes, forcing smaller traders back on to the streets where they set up grasshopper markets selling goods for cash.