Measurement and Tasks of Living Costs of North Korean Residents

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand the cost of living for North Koreans in anexploratory level by paying attention to the “consumption” and to derive the tasks posed by the measurement. To this end, the ‘Basic Survey for Measuring the Standard Cost of Living for North Koreans’ was conducted on 37 North Korean defectors through the snowball sampling method. Our analysis found that the sources of income include business, remittance, employment, side job, and social benefits (pension) in order of descending importance. The the average monthly household expenditure was 147,000 won (South Korean won). Food expenditures accounted for 58.3% of household expenditure, followed by clothing and footwear expenses at 9.9%, housing, heat and water expenses at 8.4%, cultural entertainment expenses at 5.2%, transportation and communication expenses at 2.5%, health and medical expenses at 2.0%, and education at 1.7%. It was also found that North Koreans were using many of South Korea's minimum cost of living items. However, additional items used by North Koreans were identified differently from South Koreans in terms of heat and water expenses, education expenses, culture and entertainment expenses, and non-consumption expenses. As tasks for measuring the cost of living for North Koreans, development of items suitable for daily life in North Korea, a survey according to the number of household members, and precise price conversion were presented.