BRUSSELS -- North Korea is changing, embracing the market. Colorful stalls that sell all manner of mundane goods, from food to flowers, are blossoming along Pyongyang's streets. The local Tong-Il market is thronged with customers haggling and buying a cornucopia of products. Another new market in central Pyongyang is under construction and scheduled to open in May. Each city has been promised its own. Marx's slogan from "each according to his ability to each according to need" is being substituted by "from each according to his productivity to each according to his pocket."
The drive of the market works better than chemistry to raise productivity. In the agricultural sector, farms and cooperatives whose sole commitment to the central government is a low-target delivery of cereal for public distribution and whose excesses can now be sold at market have shown productivity increases far higher than those procured with the mere application of fertilizers -- a positive advertisement for Vietnamese- or Chinese-style socialism.
Yet difficulties remain. For starters, market openings may work in the agricultural sector, but not in manufacturing. Inputs are missing and are unobtainable due to the half-century-long U.S. embargo combined with a chronic lack of hard currency.