PYONGYANG — The once-sleepy streets of North Korea’s capital, where the city’s iconic traffic controllers would stand in the middle of usually deserted intersections to direct what few cars came by, are now looking a lot busier. So much so, in fact, that a new word has entered the North Korean lexicon: “Jam”, as in traffic jam.

Traffic in Pyongyang has become visibly heavier over the past year or so, with more trucks, taxis, passenger cars and other vehicles plying the streets and giving the often empty-seeming city of roughly 2.5 million people a much more lively look.

To be clear, Los Angeles or Jakarta it is not. It is unusual to have more than a dozen or so cars waiting behind a red light at any time of day, in any part of the city. At night, the roads remain virtually empty.

Most residents still get around on foot, pedal their way around town on bicycles, or use public transport. Unlike any other city in North Korea, Pyongyang has a subway system.

What is driving the increase in traffic in Pyongyang is something of a mystery, such as many things about North Korea. Obtaining official figures on vehicle numbers is virtually impossible, given the opaque nature of the government bureaucracy.

But the trend does seem to fit with an increase in construction going back about five years, which has meant more trucks are on the road to deliver workers and building materials, and the spread of entrepreneurial-style businesses backed by state-run organisations. Such businesses could be generating the kind of profits needed for their mother organisations and their own managers or workers to use automobiles.

Pyongyang streets continue to be dominated by trolleys, buses, cargo-carrying trucks and the official vehicles of the military, government or party elites. And while the number of taxis has swelled over the past few years, they are still probably in the 1,000-plus range. It remains exceptionally rare for any North Korean to have a car that is strictly for personal use.

Most passenger cars are either overtly from China or brought in from China and then given some final assembly touches and rebranded with local markings. North Korea only has one domestic car maker, Pyeonghwa Motors, and its production output is believed to be very low.

Nevertheless, the ripple effects from the growth in traffic — and efforts to deal with it — are beginning to stand out.

For one, the number of traffic lights has been steadily increasing, though they probably do not pose much of a threat to the traffic controllers, who are mostly young women and whose ubiquitous presence and bright uniforms that change with each season have long made them a symbol of the capital.

Parking lots that charge hourly fees, including the one at Pyongyang’s new airport, are also springing up all over the city.

Lots outside some department stores are now charging fees and so are attendants in the parking area outside the popular Tong-il market, a bazaar-like spot off-limits to most foreigners but normally crowded with locals and diplomats.

It has also become a lot easier to find a petrol station, even outside the city. Though paying for petrol is a big hurdle to car ownership, the price has reportedly gone down recently.

At one Pyongyang petrol station last week, the price for 1kg of petrol — that is the most commonly used unit instead of litres — was 73.33 North Korean won (S$0.11), or 80.06 won if bought with a debit card. Diesel costs 63.33 won. AP