“Young people in North Korea are looking for Lululemon, but it is impossible to challenge the Kim Jong-un regime.”

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Hong Jeong-gyu = The experience of the head of a North Korean aid organization was revealed, saying that although a change in mindset different from the past can be detected in North Korea's younger generation, it is difficult to find anti-regime movements that can challenge the Kim Jong-un regime.

Cathy Zellweger, who is from Switzerland and frequently traveled to North Korea as head of the relief organization Caritas in Hong Kong, summarized the changes in North Korea as '6M' at an event hosted by the Stimson Center introducing her book 'Miss Cathy' on the 8th (local time).

The 6M expressed by Zellweger is a change in the “Mindsets of the younger generation” in addition to “Money, Markets, Mobiles, Motor cars, and Middle Class.”

However, he said that among North Koreans, "I have never felt any overt hostility toward the government. I even did not get the feeling that anti-regime activities were even remotely similar to those that existed in China, the former Soviet Union, and Vietnam."

He said, "(North Korean) people are instilled with loyalty to the regime and leader from a very young age. It's like the Joseon Dynasty in the 16th century," and added, "A modern Leninist organizational system and political control are overlaid on top of that. Therefore, it becomes almost impossible to challenge the regime."

Zellweger explained, "They are young people born during or after the great famine (in 1995), and they are a generation that did not experience the system where the government handed out everything."

Zellweger had been doing relief work between North Korea and Hong Kong until the end of 2019, before North Korea closed its borders due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He recalled, "1995 was a truly terrible year. It was an unbelievably large-scale disaster. It pushed a country that was already short of food, fuel, electricity, and other production materials into a terrible famine."

Although North Korea's economy has since recovered, "there is a stark gap between Pyongyang, home to a relatively wealthy elite, and the country's mostly underdeveloped rural areas, where residents still suffer from deprivation and poor infrastructure," it said.

In rural areas, which are completely cut off from the outside world, daily life is only about survival, such as “Is there something to eat,” “Is anyone sick,” and “Are the children going to school?” However, in Pyongyang, women are raising the heels of their shoes and parasols have appeared to block ultraviolet rays.

Zellweger said that one of her colleagues who recently went to North Korea received a request from a North Korean person asking her to bring Lululemon yoga clothes. She also said, "Pets are also noticeable on the streets of Pyongyang."

Zellweger, who ran the 'Pyongyang Business School' while staying in North Korea, said that among the city's younger generation, "there was a strong desire to learn" and that when you go to a hotel, you can see all the employees sitting in front of the TV learning Chinese and English.

At the Pyongyang Business School, education about the capitalist economy was also provided, and he recalled that he was embarrassed at first because there was no concept of 'profit'. Additionally, the instructors said that they could mention examples of Chinese, Japanese, and multinational companies, but they should not mention Korean companies.

“It has become almost impossible to raise money for North Korea (in Europe) because North Koreans are fighting on the side of Russia in the war in Ukraine,” Zellweger said.

Regarding the United States and South Korea's humanitarian aid efforts against North Korea, he advised, "If you push too hard, you won't get what you want. Sometimes it's much better to take a step back and wait."