Speaking at a forum cosponsored by the United States Institute of Peace, Hazel Smith, a professor of international relations at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and a consultant to major NGOs providing relief to North Korea, took on the common notion that the DPRK is a rigid society wrapped in layers of secrecy.

“I’m arguing that we can study this country like we can study others,” Smith said, adding that when studied, it becomes clear that North Korea is much less rigid than it may appear.

Experts generally do not give much attention to social change in North Korea, partially because the country’s tightly controlled political system gives the impression of total stability. Before the onset of the food crisis in 1994, virtually no reliable information on North Korea reached the outside world. At the time, United Nations’ officials didn’t even know the names of all of the DPRK’s counties. Today, after a decade’s worth of fieldwork by NGOs, the situation is vastly different: thousands of documents, rich with information on the North, are easily available through the U.N.’s web site.

The social change documented by these new sources is profound. Once a devoutly socialist economy, the famine forced many to engage in free enterprise just to survive. Mid-level bureaucrats, especially those outside Pyongyang, were the first to start buying and selling necessities. Other segments of society, which saw the bureaucrats as local leaders, followed them into trade, and soon the practice was so widespread the government had no choice but to accept it.

In this new economy, the burden of social welfare has shifted to individuals. The educational system has been devastated as teachers have left their jobs to forage for work and food. The state no longer provides effectively for the elderly and sick, family units do. A new class of wealthy entrepreneurs is snapping up once forbidden consumer goods like DVDs and secondhand Japanese cars. Waiters and waitresses who serve foreigners, and have access to their hard currency, are better off than many party officials.

Certain aspects of North Korean society, such as its prison system, continue to be opaque. Still, the influx of foreign aid workers into North Korea since 1994 has brought out so much information that DPRK government officials are starting to take notice. Recently, North Korea has taken a more assertive stance on NGO operations and Smith believes it’s because the government feels too much information on the country’s problems is getting out.