Fake Meat, Free Markets Ease North Koreans’ Hunger

Fake Meat, Free Markets Ease North Koreans’ Hunger
FILE PHOTO: People enjoy ice-cream in central Pyongyang, North Korea April 16, 2017. Reuters/Damir Sagolj/File Photo
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SEOUL—Take the dregs left from making soy bean oil, which usually go to feed the pigs. Press and roll them into a sandy-colored paste. Stuff with rice, and top with chilli sauce. The dish’s name, injogogi, means “man-made meat.”

In North Korea for years it was a recipe for survival. Today it is a popular street food, traded alongside other goods and services on informal markets, known as jangmadang. Defectors say there are hundreds of these markets. The creation and informal trade of injogogi and other foods offers a window into a barter economy that has kept North Korea afloat despite years of isolation, abuse and sanctions.