(No, this shouldn't be in Touring!)
Cycling, the workers transport, must be the default transport for North Koreans since the Great Leader started leading his great people on their great road to greatness, mustn't it? Just like China only more so. No. It turns out cycling was illegal till 1992. What's more, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea has unexpected similarities to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The backbone of North Korea’s transport infrastructure is formed by bikes.
Bicycles were illegal in Pyongyang until 1992, and this ban was strictly enforced – but since it was lifted, bike use has really taken off. In smaller towns they often serve as a status symbol as much as transport, much as cars do for many in the west. The wealthiest now ride electric assisted bikes imported from China, though the Ford of North Korea is the Pyongjin bike company, which has cornered 70% of the market according to the leading North Korea scholar Andrei Lankov.
It is still technically illegal for a woman to ride a bike, but this ban is not strictly enforced. (I know of one woman who used to ride her technically illegal bike to her technically illegal small business, a bicycle repair shop.) Legally, every bike needs a license plate, and each rider needs take a test and get a license – but this too is mostly unenforced.
It is illegal to ride on North Korea’s mostly empty roads. This ban is not enforced in most cities, but is in Pyongyang, where the government has started creating cycle paths on the pavements as well as a bike hire scheme. If you can’t afford a bike yourself, a ‘bicycle carrier’ will give you a lift for about five US cents per kilometre – although, like a land based Ryanair, you have to pay more for bags. Both customers and workers in this sector tend to be very poor.
http://www.citymetric.com/transport/how-do-north-koreans-get-work-guide-transport-dprk-3421
