North Korean authorities are pressing South Pyongan province farm workers to load their savings onto electronic payment cards, saying the cashless shift will prevent lost money and make everyday transactions easier. Many farm workers, however, suspect a thinly veiled bid to pull private cash into state banks and track how money moves.
The Mundok county agricultural management committee issued an urgent directive on Oct. 4, a Daily NK source in the province said Monday. County agricultural management committees are state bodies that oversee collective farms, setting production plans and deciding how harvests are divided. The directive told every farm management committee in the county to cut cash use and expand bank-issued electronic payment cards. It arrived just ahead of the autumn distribution, the annual settlement in which farm workers receive their share of the harvest.
Farms must reportedly have workers deposit all the North Korean won they keep at home into card-linked accounts. Any dollars or yuan held by farm households are supposed to go into those accounts as well.
County officials relayed the order to farm management committee chairmen and village party officials gathered at one of the county’s farms. Farm party secretaries then gave lectures to farm workers on how to use the cards. The lectures stressed that cards reduce the risk of losing cash and end the hassle of change and exchange fees.
North Korea’s Central Bank began issuing the Jonsong debit card in 2010, and a 2021 law sought to shrink cash transactions. Even so, card and mobile payments remain rare outside Pyongyang and a few other large cities.
Farm workers see electronic payment cards as a cash grab
Farm workers view the order as an effort to tighten state control over their money rather than a simple payment upgrade. Many North Koreans believe money placed in a state bank is hard to withdraw when they need it. Much of that distrust traces back to the 2009 currency redenomination, which wiped out a large share of family savings.
“People know from long experience that once you put money in the bank, it’s hard to get it back,” the source said. “That’s why so many people are asking whether this order is just the state’s way of collecting the money individuals have saved.”
Some farm workers link the directive to the Kim Jong Un regime’s recent crackdown on using dollars and yuan. As enforcement tightened, more families began stashing cash at home, and deposits at state financial institutions fell.
In their view, talk of convenience and loss prevention is a cover story for a deeper goal. They believe the state wants to absorb private cash into its banks and monitor even person-to-person deals.
Others complain that the order ignores conditions in rural North Korea, where basic infrastructure is badly lacking. Power supplies outside major cities are so unreliable that card readers often fail to work at all. Farm workers warn that restricting cash without a backup plan could throw daily life into confusion.
“When the party secretary talked up how convenient the cards are, the farm workers just laughed at him,” the source said. They asked why he never mentioned that a card can barely buy a measure of rice or a kilogram of wheat. “Most people see this as nothing more than an order to hand their money over to the state,” the source added.
North Korean authorities are also stepping up crackdowns on cash deals and currency exchange in local markets, known as jangmadang. The source said the Mundok county social security department (local police) and inspection patrols have already formed patrol teams for the campaign. Starting Oct. 5, the teams planned to target large cash deals and currency brokers at markets and stalls near the county’s farms.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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