Archive for December, 2007

State of the market in the DPRK

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

Institute of Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 07-12-5-1
12/11/2007

North Korean authorities are increasing market regulation. Beginning December 1st, women under the age of 49 were prohibited from running businesses in Pyongyang. Age restrictions were placed on female merchants since the inter-Korean summit meeting in October, at first prohibiting those 39 years and under, but now includes anyone under the age of 49.

In North Korea, because males are officially required to be at their assigned workplace, women generally run the businesses. However, market regulations started being enforced in order to eradicate South Korean dramas, movies, and other so-called non-socialist elements from the marketplace.

According to the results from a Daily NK survey on the present state of the North Korean marketplace, although market activity has slowed, these new regulations are not being enforced aggressively outside of the cities, and businesses still continue to operate because the regulation officers are receptive to bribes.

Also, because of the direct link between business regulations and the issue of making a living, citizens’ voices of opposition are getting louder than ever. Let us explore the present state of the North Korean marketplace.

Although not an exact statistic, it seems that there are roughly two to four marketplaces within a city. In the case of the most-populated city, Pyongyang (19 districts), there is a marketplace in every district. Tongil-geori has two because of its large population. In Sinuiju, the bridgehead of trade between North Korea and China, there is one in South Sinuiju, and three in Sinuiju itself (Chaeha, Namjung, and Dongseo [The Peace Market]). In North Korea’s second largest city after Pyongyang, Chungjin, there are two marketplaces in the larger districts. In the case of counties, there is a town marketplace, and one to two smaller farmers’ markets.

The marketplace is generally active, except during the rice-planting and harvest period. However, it has become very stagnant recently due to the enforcement of restrictive measures like price regulations and age restrictions on merchants. For instance, in Pyongyang, there used to be around 50-60 merchants in one area, but now there are only 7 or 8. Now, It is that much more difficult to find good products at the market.

Stallholders’ daily earnings differ depending on their products. In the case of agricultural goods, merchants earn an average of 3,000 won per day, and around 5,000-6,000 won per day for marine products. Merchants who sell manufactured goods could make around 10,000 won.

In addition to the age restrictions, there are increasing measures regulating products sold at the marketplace. There are officers who patrol the marketplace enforcing regulations. Outside the marketplace, safety officers regulate the businesses. The level of control depends on the person, but if bribes are given, they tend to slack off.

With exception of large cities in North Hamkyong Province such as Hoeryeong, Musan, and Chungjin, market activity remains ‘business as usual’ in smaller cities and counties, despite the regulations.

Because everyone knows each other in small cities and counties, it is not possible for the regulations to be strictly enforced. Moreover, even in main cities, there are many merchants under the age of 40 who carry out their business, and if they are not able to in the marketplace, they are still able to sell products in alleys and other locations.

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New York Philharmonic to play in N.Korea: paper

Monday, December 10th, 2007

Reuters (via Washington Post)
12/10/2007

Striking a note of musical diplomacy, the New York Philharmonic plans to visit North Korea in February — the first major U.S. cultural visit to the reclusive country, the New York Times reported on Monday.

Pyongyang’s invitation to play a concert comes as North Korea is disabling its nuclear facilities under an agreement in February, after years of six-way talks, and is beginning to see a thaw in its relations with the United States.

“It would signal that North Korea is beginning to come out of its shell, which everyone understands is a long-term process,” Christopher Hill, the Bush administration’s lead negotiator with North Korea, told the newspaper.

“It does represent a shift in how they view us, and it’s the sort of shift that can be helpful as we go forward in nuclear weapons negotiations.”

The daunting logistics of sending 250 people and bulky instruments to impoverished North Korea were being overcome with help from the U.S. State Department, South Korean companies and the Korea Society.

The concert is set for February 26 at the end of the Philharmonic’s planned tour of China, the paper said, with the orchestra expected to stay in Pyongyang for two nights to do some teaching and attend a ceremonial dinner.

Details of the trip, which the paper said has generated a measure of controversy among musicians and commentators, were expected to be formally announced on Tuesday.

After a faxed invitation in August by the North Korean culture ministry, the concert took its final steps towards reality late last week after a visit to South Korea’s capital by Zarin Mehta, the orchestra’s president, the paper said.

Hill, who plans to attend Tuesday’s news conference, said he had spoken privately to the orchestra members and believed the conditions set by the Philharmonic had been met.

The paper said those included the presence of foreign reporters, a nationwide broadcast so that not just a tiny elite would hear the concert, acoustical adjustments to the East Pyongyang Grand Theater, an assurance that eight musicians of Korean origin would not encounter problems and that the orchestra could play “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“PRETTY NIFTY”

The orchestra will also play a concert in Seoul after its return from Pyongyang, said Evans Revere, president of the Korea Society and a former senior U.S. diplomat.

“The balance that’s being achieved here is pretty nifty,” Revere said. “It’s a nice message being sent to the peninsula that the premier American orchestra is performing in both capitals within hours of each other.”

Critics of the trip have questioned the appropriateness of visiting a country run by Kim Jong-il’s repressive regime.

“It would be a mistake to hand Kim Jong-il a propaganda coup,” Richard Allen, a former national security adviser, and Chuck Downs, both board members of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, wrote on October 28 in The New York Times.

Hill said “in a very theoretical way” any kind of opening would lend legitimacy to North Korea’s government.

“But not opening up has not had any positive effect in bringing North Korea out of its shell,” Hill said.

(Reporting by John O’Callaghan; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Balancing Between 2 Communist Powers

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
12/9/2007

By 1963, the inhabitants of the huge Soviet Embassy compound in downtown Pyongyang felt themselves under siege. All their communications with Koreans were supervised, and most North Koreans who had expressed some sympathy with Moscow had disappeared without a trace. Soviet aid nearly stopped, and most Soviet advisors left the North. On quite a few occasions, the official media of North Korea and Soviet Russia exchanged broadsides of sharply worded critical statements.

In short, in 1963-65 few people doubted that North Korea, together with Albania and, to a lesser extent, North Vietnam, chose to side with Beijing in its quarrel with Moscow. There were good reasons for this: Moscow was too liberal in its domestic policies, too disdainful of Kim Il-sung’s personality cult, too ready to compromise with the arch-villain of U.S. imperialism. And it was prone to an arrogant attitude in its dealings with the small East Asian country, too.

But then things changed, dramatically and irreversibly. The anti-Soviet pro-Maoist block, clearly in the making in the early 1960s, felt apart in 1966-67. The reason was the Cultural Revolution, the ten years of madness, which engulfed China. Some people believe that there was a system in this madness. Perhaps. But I personally find this system extremely difficult to discover.

It was not the only “cultural revolution,” of course. The Vietnam War demonstrated that China, despite its bellicose rhetoric, was unable to provide enough aid. The Russians provided Hanoi with missiles and tanks while the Chinese largely limited themselves to shipping the “little red books” full of Mao’s quotations.

But it was the “cultural revolution” that played the major role in the alienation between Korea and China. Kim Il-sung was perplexed by the new developments in his sponsor country. Everything looked like madness, and in September 1966 the Cuban Ambassador noticed that North Korean top officials began to make jokes about China and Mao the Great Helmsman himself (they suggested that a bit of Korean ginseng would help the Chinese leader who was obviously becoming senile).

Around the same time, in late 1966, the internal propaganda of North Korea began to criticize “dogmatism” and “superpower chauvinism,” clearly associated with China. For years, the major culprit in the internal propaganda was the “modern revisionism” (read: the Soviet Union). In December 1966, at a secret meeting with the Soviet leader Brezhnev, Kim Il-sung described the “cultural revolution” as a “massive idiocy.” Well, he was probably correct, even if his own policies were not exactly an embodiment of wise statesmanship.

At that stage, China still could play down the differences and probably keep North Korea on its side. But it seems that Beijing was not in control of the situation, or was not able to make reasonable decisions, so in early 1967 the Chinese press began to attack Kim Il-sung. Throughout 1967, the Red Guards newspapers frequently called Kim Il-sung a “revisionist,” the worst term of abuse in their (quite limited) vocabulary. He was accused of “blocking the revolutionary will of masses” and not starting a cultural revolution in his realm.

In early 1967, the Red Guards’ media reported an alleged attempted coup in Pyongyang. As far as we know, the story was a complete fake, but it prompted the North Korean press to react. In January 1967, Nodong Sinmun rebuffed the statements.

The propaganda war escalated. It was meaningless from the Chinese point of view: in its feud with the USSR China needed as many allies as possible. But it seems that the considerations of real politick were rejected by the zealots who required a complete adherence to the then current Chinese political line. Kim Il-sung and his entourage were not famous for their readiness to follow foreigners’ advice, so the situation went from bad to worse.

Bernd Schaefer penned a wonderful monograph based on the now de-classified East German archives, and noted some rather extreme episodes in the late 1960s. In the summer of 1968 the Chinese installed loudspeakers on the border and used them to blast North Korea with Chinese propaganda, largely with tales about the unparalleled wisdom of Mao. The Koreans retaliated in kind, by installing their own loudspeakers and bombarding their opponents with stories of Kim Il-sung’s greatness and superhuman wisdom.

The Chinese accused Kim Il-sung himself of enjoying a luxurious life, very different from the lifestyle of his subjects. This was correct, even if the same thing could be said about Mao. However, these personal accusations made Kim even less willing to accommodate the Chinese.

On one occasion, a group of Chinese soldiers crossed the border, obviously in hope of provoking a clash, but the North Koreans did not react and Chinese soon withdrew. There were also reports that bodies of ethnic Korean officials who were slaughtered in China by the Red Guards were put on a train and sent to the North. Personally, I am somewhat skeptical, but this story was indeed reported in the contemporary diplomatic messages cited by Bernd Schaefer and thus might be true.

Relations reached their nadir in late 1968. However, Kim Il-sung understood that his best policy would be a balancing act between the two Communist great powers, and he was ready to find a path to rapprochement. Fortunately for him, China was gradually coming to some semblance of normality, so from around 1970 it was once again possible to resume the balancing act policy. But that is another story.

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South to Send Steel Plates to North

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Korea Times
Yoon Won-sup
12/9/2007

South Korea will provide 5,100 tons of steel plates to North Korea on Dec. 17 in a six-party deal that involves the provision of energy or alternatives to North Korea in exchange for the North’s disablement of its nuclear facilities by year’s-end, government officials said Sunday.

U.S. President George W. Bush sent a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last week urging him to keep his word on the disablement and declaration by Dec. 31.

The shipment is the first alternative to oil sent to the North under the agreement, although participants in the six-way talks have been taking turns to provide 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to the North every month recently.

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N. Korean leader boosts Mount Paektu inter-Korean tourism project: report

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

Yonhap
12/8/2007

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has given warm encouragement to local workers developing Mount Paektu, the highest point on the peninsula that will be opened to South Korean tourists next year, the North’s broadcaster said Saturday.

South and North Korea agreed to open a direct flight route between Seoul and the North’s Mount Paektu during their second summit in October. The inter-Korean tour, set to start in May, is organized by South Korea’s Hyundai Group.

Kim “expressed his gratitude to officials and workers who have wholeheartedly supported the development of the Mount Paektu area,” the Korean Central Broadcasting Station, monitored in Seoul, said, naming technicians, researchers and factory workers involved in the project.

Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of the Hyundai Group, agreed with North Korea during her visit to Pyongyang in early November to start in May sightseeing tours of the North’s 2,744-meter mountain, located on its border with China. A group of South Korean government officials and researchers have conducted an on-site inspection.

Mount Paektu will be the third inter-Korean tourism project organized by Hyundai Asan, a unit of the Hyundai Group in charge of North Korea business. North Korea opened its border city of Kaesong to South Korean tourists early this week, following the launch of a tourism program to the North’s east coast mountain of Geumgang nine years ago.

The Mount Paektu and Kaesong tour projects are part of agreements South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reached during their summit that sought to boost economic cooperation and reduce tension.

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Tangerine-carrying ship to leave for N.Korea

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

Yonhap
12/8/2007

A ship carrying 1,400 tons of tangerines will leave Sunday for North Korea from a port on this southern island of South Korea to help promote peace and reconciliation between the two Korean states, island officials said Saturday.

They said that the tangerines grown by local farmers have been loaded onto a 3,500-ton ship, which will set sail for the North on Sunday afternoon. With crews including three South Koreans, the Panama-registered ship will arrive at Nampo, a western port town of North Korea, Tuesday, they said.

This is the first batch of 10,000 tons of tangerines that will be sent to the North this year. The officials said that the remainder will be delivered by the end of January next year at the latest.

They said that Jeju Island has sent 36,488 tons of tangerines and 17,100 tons of carrots to the North since 1998. It was humanitarian aid designed to promote peace and co-existence between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.

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The Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung will always be with us!

Friday, December 7th, 2007

Click on the image to see a larger picture. Google Earth Coordinates:   38.374935°, 127.103343°

As many readers know, I have been mapping out North Korea on Google Earth for some time.  I have found numerous propaganda slogans displayed on hills and mountainsides throughout the country, but this recent discovery is by far the best example.  I would like to see this carving from the ground, so if anyone has pictures, please send them to me.

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DPRK Unification Front envoy tours ROK industries

Friday, December 7th, 2007

Institute for Far Eatern Studies
NK Brief No. 07-12-5-2
12/7/2007

Kim Yang-gon, head of the DPRK Workers’ Party Unification Front department, led a North Korean delegation to the South, and after two nights and three days, returned to the North on December 1. The last time a North Korean head of the KWP’s Unification Front department visited the South was seven years ago, when, in September 2000, Kim Yong-soon visited Cheju Island. Government authorities are saying that Kim’s trip to the South was publicized in order to facilitate the smooth implementation of the 2007 inter-Korean Summit Declaration

On the day Kim’s delegation arrived, the group visited the Songdo Free Trade Zone, where he and his delegation were moved by a presentation by officials explaining the value of an Inchon-Kaesong-Haeju ‘West Sea Belt’. On the second day, the group visited Daewoo shipyards in Koje, the Busan Customs House, and other facilities.

The trip was reminiscent of when DPRK Cabinet Prime Minister Kim Young-il led a group of more than thirty North Korean entrepreneurs to Vietnam last October, spending four nights and five days walking around tourist areas, an export-processing zone, port facilities, and other industrial areas.

The Unification Front department is but one department within the Workers’ Party responsible for policies toward the South and other countries. Unlike the foreign liaison department, Office 35, and the strategy office, the Unification Front operates openly, but distribution of propaganda leaflets, management of pro-North groups, enticement of overseas Koreans, and other activities are also underway.

The trip South by Kim’s delegation happened just before ROK presidential elections, and highlights the fact that there is barely a month left before North Korea must have its nuclear program frozen and fully disclosed. Kim’s trip to the ROK was promoted and publicized from the beginning, but little information was given to the press, other than coverage of tours of economic facilities.

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North Korean Children Have to Learn Computers As Well

Friday, December 7th, 2007

Daily NK
Han Young Jin
12/7/2007

In North Korea nowadays, individual-use PCs concentrated in Pyongyang and Chongjin, Shinuiju and other large-size cities have been gradually increasing. The trend has been rapidly increasing due to the propagation of computers by North Korean party organizations, the administrative committee office and middle schools.

The computerized citizen registration project by the North Korean village office was completed around the Local People’s Assembly representative elections last July.

A source from Shinuiju, North Pyungan said in a phone conversation with DailyNK on the 5th, “Provincial organizations and the village office are taking on computer-based projects. Large-city wealthy people are also acquiring computers left and right due to their children’s education.”

The new-rich class, who have made huge profits from recent trade with China, believe gradually that “The outer society cannot do anything without computers. Our children have to learn computers, too, to not get behind.”

A majority of computers provided to North Korea are Chinese and South Korean-made and have entered through official trade with North Korea, but a portion has been going through smuggling. South Korean computers, with the exception of Korean software, are permitted. North Korea uses North Korean word processors, such as “Dangun” and “Changduk.”

A portion of the upper-class use the new model computers smuggled from China, but a majority use secondhand Pentium IV-processor or below imported from China. In North Korea’s Shinuiju, a computer (Pentium II) which includes a used CTR monitor is 100~120 dollars and a computer which includes LCD monitor is 300 dollars. The offering price for a used laptop is around 300 dollars.

He said, “People cannot connect to the internet via computers, but can use most programs set up on computers. The resident registration computerization project has been completed and in Pyongyang, networks between libraries are in operation.”

North Korea is the single country in the world that is not connected to an internet cable network. North Korea, while being endowed with the national domain suffix, “kp”, does not operate a domain. People cannot use internet, but can use software programs set up on individual computers such as MS-Word, Excel, and Photoshop.

In North Korea, after 2000, the import of used and new computers from China, Japan, and South Korea through individuals and companies increased dramatically. Around 2001, around 2,000 Samsung, LG and TriGem Computer were provided to North Korea’s main colleges such as Kim Il Sung University and Kim Chaek University of Technology.

Mr. Kim said, “Chosun (North Korea) people prefer LCD monitors, not CTR monitors. Computers that have been coming in North Korea are mostly made in China and South Korean computers such as Samsung, LG, and TriGem Computer have been widely distributed as well.”

Electronic Publications Service using Domestic Network Possible

North Korea prohibits internet, so computer education mostly focused on program usage are taught in colleges and high schools. In schools for the gifted and college computer majors nationwide, a new generation of software developers is being nurtured.

Major organizations in the area of software development are Chosun (North Korea) Computer Center (KCC), Pyongyang Program Center, and the Academy of Sciences.

Since 2002, North Korea has created a network connecting the libraries of Grand People’s Study House, Kim Il Sung University, and Kim Chaek University of Technology. The network has been expanded throughout Pyongyang and the provinces. Currently, a few high officials in Pyongyang can use reportedly the Grand People’s Study House’s electronic publications service at home.

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Divorce Rate Is Skyrocketing for Economical Reasons

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

Daily NK
Yoon Il Geun
12/6/2007

Good Friends, a Seoul-based relief organization said in its weekly report released on December 3rd, “The North frequently readjusts its resident registration project in Sinuiju. Nowadays, divorced couples are banished to other areas.”

Sinuiju situated near the Yalu River is the North’s gateway to China and second largest city after Pyongyang. The resident registration project has been strictly enforced in both cities. Individuals such as Prisoners of the Korean War and South Korean defectors to the North are not allowed to reside in these major cities.

In 1989, right before the North’s celebration of Pyongyang World Festival of Youth and Students, the North Korean authorities drove out those with a bad family background (based on its unique caste system) and the disabled out of Pyongyang. At that time, the authorities also banished divorced people to the outskirts of Pyongyang for the reason of their being ‘indecent.’

Lately, the divorce rate in the North is skyrocketing. More than 90 percent of divorce cases have to do with economical reasons. Many times, men fail to bring money home even if he has a job, and women are left alone to solely take care of child rearing and homemaking.

Usually, the North Korean courts do not decree divorces. When the divorce rate increases and becomes a serious social problem in the North, Kim Jong Il orders the courts not to decree divorces and the courts do not divorce people. If Kim Jong Il makes an order to expel divorced people to the provincial areas, his order is carried out as intended. In addition, divorced party cadres and administrative officials are either demoted or dismissed. Military officials, if divorced, are discharged. Divorced teachers must leave their schools. In the North, divorced people are believed to have a corrupt ideology.

Nevertheless, divorce is increasing particularly among the poor. Mostly, it has to do with economical reasons. As women engage themselves in business in the market, women’s power has increased whereas men are often considered to be good for nothing.

It is reported that women’s consciousness has changed especially in cities as foreign films and South Korean TV dramas are introduced to the North. A new way of thinking among women conflicts with men’s traditional male-oriented thinking. It is also reported that separation among married couples is increasing, and there are many young couples who do not register their marriages.

Moreover, the number of people, who bribe the courts to divorce their spouses, has greatly surged. It costs between 50,000 and 100,000 North Korean won to have judges issue a divorce certificate. The average wage among judges is 2,000 won. The amount is less than the worth of the US $1 dollar, which is sold around at 3,300 North Korean won in the market. Apparently, had it not been for bribes taking from divorce suitors, North Korean judges would not make their living.

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