North Korea scrambles for raw materials to revive light industry

Two North Korean trade bureaus are scrambling to source raw materials as part of a state-driven push to revitalize the country’s light industry sector.

A source in South Pyongan province told Daily NK on Wednesday that the Rakwon Trade Guidance Bureau and the Ponghwa Trade Bureau received urgent cabinet orders on March 1 to secure raw materials. The directive follows commitments made at the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which wrapped up in late February, where light industry development was presented as a key avenue for improving living standards.

The orders target five areas deemed priorities: basic foodstuffs, household goods, school supplies, cosmetics, and footwear. Authorities are pushing for a measurable increase in domestic production across all five within the first quarter of the year.

The urgency reflects a sector in serious trouble. Soap and toothpaste producers have run out of the chemical additives and surfactants needed for manufacturing. Cosmetics and food companies lack the high-quality printer paper and packaging film required to modernize their labeling. Shoe factories have ground to a halt due to shortages of synthetic leather and adhesives, while a scarcity of vinyl has disrupted production of student backpacks and other everyday goods.

Garment factories, meanwhile, are short on cloth and thread — and with most workers away on 8.3 arrangements, under which employees pay their nominal employer a fee in exchange for permission to work elsewhere, many factories are meeting state targets in cash rather than in goods.

“Improving product quality and developing new products were emphasized during the Ninth Party Congress, and there was talk about increasing production of everyday necessities,” the source said. “The problem is that the factories that make these products are all suffering from a shortage of raw materials.”

To address the crisis, the cabinet has designated March as a raw materials procurement month, instructing both bureaus to import the necessary supplies from China by whatever means available. But officials say the mandate is unfunded.

“The central government expects us to source materials without giving us any foreign currency to work with, so I don’t know how that’s supposed to work,” one source said. “In the end, we’ll have to scrape together some foreign currency or rely on smuggling and other backroom deals.”

The scramble for hard currency is already rippling into North Korean markets. As the two bureaus compete for dollars and yuan, demand has spiked — feeding a vicious cycle in which exchange rate instability pushes prices higher across the board.

Read in Korean

A Note to Readers

Daily NK operates networks of sources inside North Korea who document events in real-time and transmit information through secure channels. Unlike reporting based on state media, satellite imagery, or defector accounts from years past, our journalism comes directly from people currently living under the regime.

We verify reports through multiple independent sources and cross-reference details before publication. Our sources remain anonymous because contact with foreign media is treated as a capital offense in North Korea—discovery means imprisonment or execution.

This network-based approach allows Daily NK to report on developments other outlets cannot access: market trends, policy implementation, public sentiment, and daily realities that never appear in official narratives. Maintaining these secure communication channels and protecting source identities requires specialized protocols and constant vigilance.

Daily NK serves as a bridge between North Koreans and the outside world, documenting what’s happening inside one of the world’s most closed societies.