evidence: Key Findings - A Beyond Parallel study of markets in North Korea found that there are at least 436 officially sanctioned markets located across the country.5 Markets are located in rural and urban areas and appear to be deeply integrated into both the economy and society. There is an average of 48 markets located in each of the nine provinces, including the special cities of Pyongyang, Nampo, and Rason. Less populated provinces such as Chagang and Ryanggang, however, have less markets than the average. [...] Informal markets gave way to regularized, state-sponsored markets over time. Since 2002 and 2003, the regime has tacitly allowed the operation of some markets with formal and informal taxation of vendors. Thriving trade on the border between North Korea and China also supported the growth of these markets, particularly in earlier years when smuggling was highly profitable for goods that were hard to produce or acquire inside the country. The process of marketization over the last 20 years has been full of fits and starts and is arguably far from complete. There have been periods when the process was driven by "bottom-up marketization" and market activity adopted by the North Korean populace for the purposes of human survival.