The city is still under the firm grip of the state, but among many North Koreans, Chongjin is now a fashion capital of sorts. The average person there is still poor, but in this emerging capitalist era, this port city is growing in importance as a trading hub. Chongjin has thus become the first place where foreign fashions arrive.

Fashion

Even Pyongyang cannot match Chongjin in terms of style. This may seem surprising, since Pyongyang is the seat of both new money and old power. But security is much stricter in the capital, with conformity more rigorously enforced. This means that clothes a young Pyongyang woman can only wear at home may be acceptable to wear in the street elsewhere. Pyongyang is supposed to be the city of regime loyalists; Kim Jong Il is understood to have once said that his government could survive as long as he retained a firm grip on Pyongyang. He was much less interested in the provinces — and this is reflected both in the distribution of favours and the enforcement of laws.

Thus, Pyongyang is the only part of the country where the state is in full control of public order. The government will still crack down hard on serious dissent wherever it arises, but generally, it lacks the resources and respect to compel people in the provinces to adhere to the full range of its rules and regulations. Chongjin administrators in particular are understood to have a looser approach to public order. Chongjin is probably the closest North Korea has to a "Wild West."