Today's North Korea is a country with a household registration system, and North Koreans cannot move between different regions at will, and people can only live and live in their own places of registration. If North Koreans want to go to other places, they must write an application report to the unit in advance and get permission from their superiors before they can travel, especially from other parts of North Korea to Pyongyang, the capital, and must go through strict inspections before entering the city. North Korea's hukou system is so strict that even North Korean officials at all levels cannot violate it.
North Koreans have a household registration book from the moment they are born, and the household registration will not be easily changed in the life of North Koreans, and this small book determines the happiness index of North Koreans' life, because North Korea's household registration is linked to various benefits issued by the government. There is a big difference in treatment between the urban hukou and the rural hukou, and the urban hukou has incomparable advantages in terms of education and employment, so being able to obtain an urban hukou is the greatest ideal in life for many North Korean peasants.
In North Korea, the most valuable hukou is Pyongyang's hukou, and having a Pyongyang hukou can enjoy benefits that North Koreans elsewhere do not get, whether it is food supplies or other material supplies, Pyongyang is several levels higher than the rest of North Korea. For a North Korean, if he can get a household registration book in Pyongyang, it is equivalent to opening the door to a happy life in the future.
Pyongyang is a model city built with the efforts of the whole of North Korea, so Pyongyang is far superior to other cities and rural areas of North Korea in many aspects, such as urban living environment and people's living conditions. North Koreans living in Pyongyang do not have to worry about the shortage of food and other daily necessities, and no matter how tight the food supply in other parts of the DPRK is, it is necessary to ensure all kinds of supplies for Pyongyang people first. For North Koreans, if they live in Pyongyang, they can basically live without food and clothing for the rest of their lives.
In terms of housing, the Pyongyang government allocates housing to every Pyongyang citizen free of charge, and every Pyongyang person can be allocated a house of more than 30 square meters, and the quality of housing in Pyongyang is much better than that in other parts of North Korea.
In order to pay tribute to the superiority of the Korean system for foreigners, Pyongyang has all kinds of living and entertainment facilities, Pyongyang has the most beautiful parks, the most luxurious shopping malls, the largest stadium in the country, and the largest number of cinemas in the country.
In addition to enjoying the best material supplies in the whole of Korea, the people of Pyongyang can also enjoy the best cultural life in North Korea, living and living in Pyongyang, which has advantages that are incomparable to other parts of North Korea.
Pyongyang also has the best educational resources in North Korea, almost all of North Korea's key universities are located in Pyongyang, and the teaching quality of Pyongyang's primary and secondary schools is much higher than that of other regions, so Pyongyang people receive local primary and secondary education, and have more opportunities to be admitted to North Korea's key universities, and then graduate and stay in Pyongyang to work, and their careers will also have better opportunities for development.
For North Koreans, it is difficult to find a hukou in Pyongyang. North Koreans who have lived in Pyongyang for generations have a Pyongyang hukou after birth, and for North Koreans living in other places, if they want to get a Pyongyang hukou, it is quite difficult, they must be elected as a famous labor hero, or become an artist loved by the national audience, or win a championship for North Korea in an international competition, and the state will reward them with a Pyongyang hukou.
For ordinary North Koreans, if they want to change their fate and get a coveted Pyongyang hukou, they can only work hard to get admitted to a key North Korean university in Pyongyang and settle in Pyongyang after graduation.
North Korean farmers who go to Pyongyang to do business must have a permit issued by the local government to be allowed to enter Pyongyang, and the permit has a certain time limit.
Although North Korea's hukou system has recently changed to no longer strictly restrict the movement of North Koreans between different cities, a special permit is still required to travel to cities like Pyongyang or Sinuiju. In addition, peasants on the outskirts of Pyongyang are allowed to enter Pyongyang during the day, but at night they must return to their places of residence and are not allowed to live and live in Pyongyang.
North Korea's strict hukou system has also created a unique phenomenon in which long-distance relationships and long-distance marriages are very rare in North Korea, where mobility is restricted, making it difficult for lovers living in two places to get together. Pyongyang also has a special law that requires people from Pyongyang to voluntarily give up their Pyongyang hukou when they get married.
Our North Korean tour guide talked about a relationship with her friend, who was studying at a university in Pyongyang, and fell in love with a boy from Kaesong, but this relationship had a lot of trouble when both parties graduated, the boy was not admitted to the civil service in Pyongyang, so he could not get a Pyongyang hukou, which also meant that he could not work and live in Pyongyang, and it became a big problem for both parties to meet in the future, and finally the girl was forced to break up with the boy under the pressure of the girl's parents.