Sinuiju’s well-off and low-income families celebrated the New Year’s holiday in very different ways, with particularly stark differences in what kind of meals they were able to enjoy, according to a source in North Pyongan Province on Wednesday.
“Most of the well-to-do people went to restaurants on the New Year holiday and spent a lot of money on meals. The average amount they spent at restaurants was RMB 300 to 500 for four people [around USD 42 – 70],” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
On the other hand, low-income people not only avoided restaurants for the holiday, but also spent about RMB 10 to 14 yuan (approximately USD 1.40 to 2.11) on their purchases of ingredients for holiday meals.
All in all, many well-ff people spent about 30 to 35 times what low-income people paid to obtain ingredients for their holiday meals.
For example, one low-income household in Sinuiju spent a total of RMB 13 (around USD 1.83) on rice, corn, pork, and tofu to prepare their New Year meal. Another low-income household had such difficulties that they could not even think of eating meat or seafood, ending up eating only tofu soup and rice instead.
“Before the coronavirus – and no matter how difficult life was – families would prepare at least two types of food for the New Year holiday, including rice cakes, dumplings, pork, and pollack. These days, however, it’s not easy for low-income families to even eat rice on the holidays,” the source said.
“Meanwhile, well-off people are making money through whatever means necessary, which has led to a deepening gap between those with and those without, with the well-off continuing to live better lives while low-income people are forced to live increasingly more difficult lives.”
The source further reported there were stark differences in how the well-off and the poor prepared their ancestral rites tables.
“Siblings in families without money pooled their cash together or the wealthier siblings paid to prepare a simple ancestral rite table themselves. However, more well-off families ordered most of the food to be placed on the ancestral rites tables from well-known food vendors.”
Edited by Robert Lauler.
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January 04, 2024 at 02:18PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)