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THE VESSEL TO COOK IS ALSO A VESSEL FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES.


The Yalu and Tumen Rivers flow along the border between North Korea and China. In the winter, the rivers often freeze, allowing people and materials (including USB drives, SD cards, DVDs, and more) to traverse its surface and flow in and out of the country. 

The Yalu River is one part of a deep, complex network of people, interactions, and transactions that bring the world's information and media into North Korea. Through these networks, North Korea's underground markets were born, largely led by women covertly selling necessities and occasional luxuries to other community members while their husbands worked state-mandated jobs that paid meager wages.


These markets don’t just sell food and clothes. While avoiding government oversight, they also sell USBs, SD cards, DVDs, and other devices that contain the world's media. North Koreans with access to these markets could not only provide for themselves and their families, but also get their hands on materials whose import has long been banned through official channels.




Photos by Stephen Gladieu
Owner of SCHOOL GALLERY, Paris: ARTCO GALLERY, Germany, Cape Town, Joshua Tree