 Until around 1990 , the North Korean state required every able @-@ bodied male to be employed by some state enterprise . However , some 30 % of married women of working age were allowed to stay at home as full @-@ time housewives ( less than some countries in the same region like South Korean \ Japan and Taiwan , more than Soviet Union \ <unk> China or Nordic countries like Sweden , about the same as Today 's USA ) . ) In the early 1990s , an estimated 600 @,@ 000 @-@ 900 @,@ 000 people perished in the famine , which was largely a product of the North Korean government 's unwillingness to reform the economy , and the old system began to fall apart . In some cases women began by selling household items they could do without or <unk> food . Today at least three @-@ quarters of North Korean market <unk> are women . A joke making the rounds in <unk> goes : ' What do a husband and a pet dog have in common ? ' <unk> : ' Neither works nor earns money , but both are cute , stay at home and can scare away <unk> 
