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I read a blogger who knows North Korean situation extensively http://tttkkk.lj.ru/ http://tttkkk.lj.ru/ And the curious thing he tells: North Korea now has a

I read a blogger who knows North Korean situation extensively http://tttkkk.lj.ru/ http://tttkkk.lj.ru/ And the curious thing he tells: North Korea now has a surge in a small businesses (who of course bribe the locals to exist), but no mafia. No organized crime. Crime is low. In most of the rest of the world crime would explode under such conditions (it did in ex-USSR after it reverted from planned economy), but in NK - it didn't, for some reason.

deleted 15y ago
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nekitamo 15y ago
How in the world can you say there is no organized crime in North Korea? The entire government is a case study in organized crime and worse! The reason there is no "mafia" is because they're all in the government, or they're dead.
- guard-of-terra 15y ago
  Organized crime is a term with defined meaning, so you can't have "organized crime and worse", like you can't have, e.g., "preemptive multitasking and worse". And the thing denoted by that specific term, NK doesn't have.
analyst74 15y ago
Same reason why there was very little crime for many years in China when The Party ruled the country with iron fist. Laws are written by people in power -- be it dictatorship or democracy, the stronger the ruling class (represented by government, police/military and judiciary system), the harder to conduct criminal activities. When a criminal activity gains enough support, it will be legalized, like marijuana and prostitution.
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Yevgeny 15y ago
With regards to the aforementioned comments concerning the USSR and the strange similarity in connection between the mafia and government... When the Soviet Union was making the transition from oppressive communist control, to more 'capitalistic" ventures, or free entrepreneurship as they called it, there were 2 things that happened. As a preface, it is important to understand that at the time of the USSR the government was the mafia in its own right. The KGB, which is not the same thing as the mafia (for the record), is a statehood security council (aka Russian CIA) with strong links to the political thresh hold. Anyways, first being, the "stipends" awarded to now oligarch businessmen. These billionaire barons, were all once soviet army members, or those of the KGB. The government could no longer control the rights to country-owned natural resource producing companies. Somebody had to take the helm. That somebody needed to be willing to give paybacks, majority of the time under the table. Secondly, in the late 80's and early 90's as communism was virtually dead, Russian began to see the birth of the Russia mafia as we know it today. With the government out of the way, per se, individual businesses began to spread like wild fire. Unfortunately, there was no regulation, or in this case, protection for the business or the owner. If you owned your own business, were profitable, you would get a knock on your door. You couldn't go to the cops/government because they were paid off and you damn well couldn't refuse to pay. Otherwise, you would end up dead, if not your family as well...

deleted 15y ago

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nekitamo 15y ago

How in the world can you say there is no organized crime in North Korea? The entire government is a case study in organized crime and worse! The reason there is no "mafia" is because they're all in the government, or they're dead.

guard-of-terra 15y ago
Organized crime is a term with defined meaning, so you can't have "organized crime and worse", like you can't have, e.g., "preemptive multitasking and worse". And the thing denoted by that specific term, NK doesn't have.

analyst74 15y ago

Same reason why there was very little crime for many years in China when The Party ruled the country with iron fist. Laws are written by people in power -- be it dictatorship or democracy, the stronger the ruling class (represented by government, police/military and judiciary system), the harder to conduct criminal activities. When a criminal activity gains enough support, it will be legalized, like marijuana and prostitution.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

Yevgeny 15y ago

With regards to the aforementioned comments concerning the USSR and the strange similarity in connection between the mafia and government... When the Soviet Union was making the transition from oppressive communist control, to more 'capitalistic" ventures, or free entrepreneurship as they called it, there were 2 things that happened. As a preface, it is important to understand that at the time of the USSR the government was the mafia in its own right. The KGB, which is not the same thing as the mafia (for the record), is a statehood security council (aka Russian CIA) with strong links to the political thresh hold. Anyways, first being, the "stipends" awarded to now oligarch businessmen. These billionaire barons, were all once soviet army members, or those of the KGB. The government could no longer control the rights to country-owned natural resource producing companies. Somebody had to take the helm. That somebody needed to be willing to give paybacks, majority of the time under the table. Secondly, in the late 80's and early 90's as communism was virtually dead, Russian began to see the birth of the Russia mafia as we know it today. With the government out of the way, per se, individual businesses began to spread like wild fire. Unfortunately, there was no regulation, or in this case, protection for the business or the owner. If you owned your own business, were profitable, you would get a knock on your door. You couldn't go to the cops/government because they were paid off and you damn well couldn't refuse to pay. Otherwise, you would end up dead, if not your family as well...