Some answers given here are entirely detatched from the reality. The pleasure troupe or band talked about here is only a particular kind of case confined to political elites. Here is the real story I encountered when I worked with North Korean defectors last year.
There emerged lots of prostitutes following the famine in s when there was little food left to people and housewives were compelled to seek food to feed their children and elders in the family. Private markets, known as jangmadang, have yet been allowed in North Korea at that time, so lots of women chose to work as prostitutes Private markets, known as jangmadang, have yet been allowed in North Korea at that time, so lots of women chose to work as prostitutes rather than do small businesses.
They were commonly seen around train stations in cities and towns, and their customers were usually soldiers and government officials.
This scene became less common when North Korean authorities began to install market mechanisms and allow citizens to make their own livings by engaging in businesses - though small in scale and volatile in general.
This is what a North Korean tour guide told me in The old pleasure troupe was disbanded after the death of his father. Every year government officials search the countryside for pretty girls. The family receives a large sum of money and the girls are taken and become the great leader's private singers, dancers and the prettiest become his concubines.
