North Korean Economy Watch

From Koryo Tours:

Throughout 2009 we have been raising money for 2 humanitarian projects in the DPRK. We are aiming to complete one of these – a project to buy braille dictionaries which have been previously unavailable in the DPRK – by the end of October.

The total amount needed for for the dictionaries is EUR 2400 and the amount raised so far is EUR 505. We only have 2 more weeks to complete this project so your help is needed. More information about this project can be found here.

If you would like to make a donation to this worthwhile cause please do contact us for details of how to send us the money. Any amount really makes a difference! Surplus funds will be put towards our second project to buy playground equipment for an orphanage in Wonsan. If we can complete both these projects by the end of this year it will be fantastic.

Many thanks to all of you who have already donated money and we will be in touch with the results.

Nick, Simon and Hannah
Koryo Tours Ltd

On my trips to Turkmenistan and Tajikistan I encountered ethnic Koreans who grew up in the region and spoke only Russian.  Since then I have done some cursory research on the Central Asian Koreans, but not enough to satisfy my interest in this chapter of history.  This is all to say that Lankov’s most recent article on the Korean diaspora was a fulfilling read.  I have posted the first few paragraphs below but really you should just go to the Asia Times and read the whole thing.

Koreans left high and dry
Asia Times
Andrei Lankov
10/16/2009

While walking the streets of this Russian city, the capital of Sakhalin Island, a large, nearly 1,000-kilometer-long sliver of land in the north Pacific, one clearly sees manifold signs of the Korean presence.

This is not only because of the billboards advertising big Korean eateries; many people are ethnic Koreans, forming over 10% of the city population of about 185,000 people. They are present due to an unusual set of circumstances, not widely known outside their community.

Just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1989, there were some 450,000 ethnic Koreans in this huge country. Most of them then lived in Central Asia. Ethnic Koreans of the ex-Soviet Central Asia are descendants of the poor farmers who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries moved to Russia from Korea’s northern provinces. They went there because land was plentiful and taxes were light.

During the 1917 Russian revolution and subsequent civil war, ethnic Koreans overwhelmingly supported the communists, but in 1937 they were deemed politically unreliable and forcefully relocated from the border with Japan (leader Joseph Stalin and his advisers were afraid that in case of war with Japan, the ethnic Koreans would side with the Japanese). They were then settled in Central Asia.

…continue reading the full article here.

UPDATE 8:   According to the BBC, Orascom claims the final plans for the hotel have yet to be approved:

Dozens of Egyptian engineers and some 2,000 local workers are working on the Ryugyong project, which Orascom’s chief operating officer Khaled Bichara tells the BBC is “progressing well”, despite reported problems with suspect concrete and misaligned lift shafts.

“There have been no issues that have caused us too much trouble,” Mr Bichara says. “Most of the work at the moment is coverage of different areas of the building. The first job is to finish the outside – you can’t work on the insides until the outside is covered.

“You can see that we have already completed the top of the building where the revolving restaurant will be. After 2010, that’s when it will be fully safe to start building from the inside.”

How the building will be divided up is not yet finalised the company says, but it will be a mixture of hotel accommodation, apartments and business facilities. Antennae and equipment for Orascom’s mobile network will nestle at the very top.

Mr Bichara denies reports that the company’s exclusive access to North Korea’s fledgling telecoms market is directly linked to the completion of the hotel.

But he says the job is a way of planting a rather tall flag in the ground. “We haven’t been given a deadline, we are not tied into doing it by a certain time,” he said.

“But when you work in a market like this, where we cannot sponsor things, a project of this kind is good to do – it’s word of mouth advertising for us, it builds good rapport with the people – on its own it’s a great symbol, one which cements our investment.”

Read the full article here:
Will ‘Hotel of Doom’ ever be finished?
BBC
10/15/2009

Read previous posts about the Ryugyong’s construction below: (more…)

BBC Monitoring Service
October 13, 2009
Source: The Standard website, Nairobi, in English 13 Oct 09

Text of report by Ally Jamah entitled ” Kenya gets into ties with North Korean republic” published by Kenyan privately-owned daily newspaper The Standard website on 13 October

Kenya has established diplomatic relations with North Korea.

North Korean Ambassador Pak Hyon Jae presented his diplomatic credentials yesterday to President Kibaki at State House, Nairobi, before proceeding to a luncheon hosted by Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula at the Intercontinental Hotel. He, however, declined to speak to the media during and after the ceremony.

Also feted in the same luncheon were diplomatic representatives from Trinidad and Tobago, Niger, Qatar and Sierra Leone.

North Korean leader Kim Jong II never travels outside the country and maintains a strict centralized military state.  In the past 60 years, the country has been technically at war with the USA over its nuclear and military capabilities.

In his speech, Mr Wetang’ula expressed support for North Korea’s nuclear programme if peaceful and non-military, adding Kenya was also seeking nuclear technology to generate energy for its expanding economy.

“We welcome North Korea to Kenya, just as we welcome any other nations, because we have so much to exchange and  share,” he said. But Wetang’ula was quick to dismiss suggestions that Kenya could borrow nuclear technology from North Korea to generate energy for the country.

“If we need nuclear power we don’t have to go to North Korea alone, we are in friendly terms with many nuclear states, who are too happy to share with us,” he said. He said the University of Nairobi was doing good work in preparations to introduce nuclear energy into mass use in the country.

The North Korean mission will be managed from Kampala, Uganda, where the country maintains a full diplomatic presence. The USA, one of Kenya’s key allies in military and economic fronts, has no diplomatic relations with North Korea.

Here is the location of the North Korean Embassy in Kampala.
Here is their address/contact info:
10, Prince Charles Drive, Kololo
PO Box 5885
Kampala, Uganda
Phone: +256-41-2546033, +256-41-343424
Fax: +256-41-250224

UPDATE 2: (hat tip to a couple of appreciated readers) Park Soo-me reports on the proliferation of South Korean films in the DPRK:

“It’s safe to assume that a majority of North Korean residents have watched a South Korean film or a soap opera at least once,” said Kim, who left North Korea in 2004, and established a think-tank in Seoul called the “North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity.”

The group, which frequently communicates with their inside contacts in the North, recently broke revealing news that a group of North Korean students were caught watching “Haeundae,” a mega-hit South Korean disaster film locally released just over a month ago, at a computer lab inside a Pyongyang college.

The defector group cited an anonymous source in Pyongyang who told their reporter that the government is tightening a crackdown of digital files, as South Korean films smuggled through China are endangering the North’s dictatorial regime.

A student identified only as “Choi” said he had downloaded the film at his relative’s house in Cheongjin, a city about 50 miles from the Chinese border. He was arrested for promoting the ideology of his enemy state, not for circulating a pirated film.

Since the late 1990s, South Korean dramas and films were illegally traded in the North through local businessmen frequenting the Chinese borders. The phenomenon is not unlike that from the young Soviets in the 1970s, who secretly acquired rock ‘n’ roll records and American videotapes through its black market, despite the country’s ban on the cultural products of the capitalist state.

Last year, an insider from another defectors’ group based in Seoul broke news that DVD compilations of South Korean adult films and TV dramas are becoming popular in the North, as the sales of the average South Korean soap opera has declined in recent years. Such DVDs were found in a North Korean market in Cheongjin, the group said through its newsletter.

The situation in the North has gotten to the point where Oh Yang-yeol, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, published a paper on “Hallyu in North Korea: Now and Future.”

The term hallyu recalls the Korean wave of pop culture that hit Southeast Asia in the early 2000s. Oh’s paper stresses the spread of South Korean fashion, drama and music among the younger generation of North Koreans.

In a separate release by the Korean Institute of National Unification, experts have quoted North Korean defectors who have testified that South Korean melodramas like “Autumn in My Heart” and “Winter Sonata” have become a such hit in the North that a special squad was once organized to crack down on the violators.

But not all dramas smuggled into the North are soft, touchy-feely soap operas. Among the works that have been found and blacklisted by the Northern authorities include films like Park Chan-wook’s “Joint Security Area,” a story which is essentially built around a forbidden friendship between solders from the North and South who are stationed in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two countries.

On the distribution side, South Korean films and TV dramas are appearing in the North faster and with a broader reach, as evident in the recent case of “Haeundae.”

“In the past, it normally took up to six months for a South Korean film to arrive in the North,” Oh said. “Now, it takes little over a month. In wealthier neighborhoods in Pyongyang we start to see local girls imitating the hairstyle and fashion of South Korean celebrities who starred in the latest TV dramas.”

Irritated by the spread of hallyu — often referred to as the “yellow wind” in the North — authorities have tightened censorship regulations and house inspections to encourage “ideological discipline.” But there is a limit as to what they can do.

Although limited to a privileged few, more computer-savvy Koreans in Pyongyang are finding easier alternatives to enjoy pop culture from the outside world, making the North’s isolation more difficult. Internet access is limited to an Intranet for most people in the North. But USB drives are becoming more common among local college and middle school students, and frequent traffic between North Korea and China is increasing opportunities for cross-border smuggling of pirated films from Hollywood and Seoul.

Read the full story below:
Pop culture making inroads into North Korea
Hollywood Reporter
Park Soo-mee
10/8/2009

UPDATE 1: Although the Donga Ilbo previously reported that the DPRK was growing more tolerant of foreign films (below), Channel News Asia reports the DPRK is clamping down:

The student in Pyongyang was caught on September 5 while watching a digital copy of “Haeundae” with his dorm friends, the North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said in a newsletter posted on its website.

The student allegedly acquired a file of the film at a relative’s house in the northeastern port city of Chongjin and downloaded it onto his college computer, it said.

The case prompted authorities to launch an extensive probe aimed at preventing the spread of the movie, the group said, quoting a “correspondent” in the North.

The inspection revealed that tens of thousands of North Koreans have secretly seen foreign films, it said.

Defectors say South Korean pop songs and movies are popular in the isolated communist country, despite a steady campaign to weed out what state media has termed “decadent foreign culture and ideals”.

In December 2007, three North Koreans including a schoolteacher were sentenced to death for smuggling illegal adult films from China and South Korea, according to Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group working in the North.

ORIGINAL POST: According to the Donga Ilbo:

Recently, the North has televised the shows “International Common Sense,” “Animals in the World,” and “Foreign Culture,” programs which had been abolished long ago. Those programs even show the daily lives of Westerners.

A few days ago, a video clip was aired in which North Korean singers in military uniform played the guitar and sang Italian songs. When broadcasting sports, Pyongyang used to simply air competitions in which North Korean athletes participated, but when airing the IAAF World Championship in Athletics in Berlin last month, the North summarized footage of major events and televised them.

North Korea’s attitude toward foreign movies has also changed. CD-ROMs containing foreign movies have been manufactured by the state-run Hana Electronics, which has sold them across the nation. Most of the CD-ROMs include foreign movies aired by Mansudae TV, which serves Pyongyang only.

A CD-ROM is priced at 1,500 North Korean won (41 U.S. cents) and a DVD goes for 7,500 won (2.07 dollars). CD-ROMs of cooking game programs as well as those on the lives of famous soccer players such as Diego Maradona and Franz Beckenbauer are also on the market.

The North has also embraced world-famous animated films. The Disney productions of “Cinderella,” “Pinocchio,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Robin Hood” are available across the nation. The popular American cartoon “Tom and Jerry” is called “The Magic World of a Mouse” in the North.

The proliferation of foreign movies has also led to an increase in secret movie rental stores. Government-manufactured CD-ROMs can be rented out at 300 won (eight cents) per day and illegal movies can be borrowed at 500 won (14 cents) per day.

Yet most foreign programs broadcast in North Korea are created in China, which, in turn, has encouraged North Koreans to adopt the Chinese way of life. Mansudae TV routinely broadcasts Chinese soap operas like the drama “Unnamed Hero” and “Vertical Blow,” which shows the training of China’s special forces.

Despite the apparent liberalization of North Korean television, Pyongyang has toughened its punishment for those watching South Korean TV programs. In the past, punishment for watching a South Korean program was usually avoided through a bribe but the offense is now considered more severe than a drug-related crime.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea Growing More Tolerant of Foreign Movies
Donga Ilbo
9/19/2009

UPDATE:  Here is a longer version of this article in Foreign Affairs.

ORIGINAL POST: Andrei Lankov offers policy prescriptions for changing North Korea in today’s New York Times. Below are some excerpts from the article which is worth reading in full:

…Since outside pressure is ineffective, change will have to come from the North Koreans themselves. The United States and its allies can best help them by exposing them to the very attractive alternatives to their current way of life.

…To crack Pyongyang’s control over information and bring about pressure for change from within, truth and information should be introduced into North Korean society. As the Cold War demonstrated, cultural exchanges can be effective in transferring forbidden knowledge and fostering critical thinking. Exchanges can also bring young members of the North Korean intelligentsia into contact with the outside world. Away from police surveillance (and close to Internet-equipped computers), they would learn much about the true workings of the world.

Of course, the regime might be disinclined to support any initiative with subversive potential. But since the immediate-term beneficiaries of such initiatives would be self-interested members, relatives and clients of the ruling class, they would likely support opportunities for exchange and professional training even if they posed longer-term risks to the system.

The importance of encouraging North Korean rulers to support exchanges is one reason why talks with the regime are important, whether through the six-party structure or not. Although talks will not solve the nuclear issue, they can reduce the likelihood of confrontations and support an environment conducive to exchange and interaction.

…There are other ways to weaken the regime through the spread of information. As during the Cold War, radio broadcasts remain a reliable method of disseminating information, and an increasing number of tunable radios are being smuggled into North Korea. Videos and DVDs smuggled from South Korea are watched widely. It makes sense, then, to support the production of documentaries that inform North Koreans about daily social and economic life in South Korea, contemporary history and political matters such as reunification. And instead of continuing its current harmful ban in the sale of Pentium-class personal computers, the United States should encourage their spread inside North Korea.

Broadly, the U.S. government can take part in cultivating a political opposition and alternative elite that could one day replace the current regime. Due to many factors, those few North Koreans who are politically aware hardly constitute a community of dissenting intellectuals. An increasing number of North Koreans have doubts about the system, but they remain isolated and terrified. Washington should focus, therefore, on aiding the dissident community in South Korea, where some 16,000 North Korean defectors live.

Combining engagement, information dissemination and support for émigrés is the only way to promote change. This approach, however, might be a hard sell to most Americans. It is likely to bring about only incremental change — at least until the situation reaches a breaking point, which could be years away.

But Americans should recognize that there are no quick fixes. For two decades, Washington has searched for solutions, sometimes by way of concessions, sometimes by way of threats. Both approaches have failed and — given the goals of the North Korean regime — would fail again and again. Only low-profile and persistent efforts aimed at promoting change from within will make a difference.

Read the full article below:
Changing North Korea
New York Times
Andrei Lankov
10/13/2009

UPDATE 16: DPRK allotted 17,000 tickets for world cup, but uses only 200.  According to the Mirror:

Football-mad North Korea will get 17,000 tickets to the World Cup… but NONE of their fans will be allowed to go.

Despot Kim Jong-il will ­hand-pick just 200 of his ­pampered party officials to go to South Africa while ordinary people will be left at home.

And in a bitter blow to ­England’s travelling army of 30,000 fans, we will get 2,000 FEWER tickets than the ­dictatorship for group stages.

According to officials, Kim Jong-il, 68 – known to the ­Korean people as the Dear ­Leader – ­“proposed the tactics” which helped the little-known side finish second in their qualifying group.

But while he revels in his country’s ­qualifying for a World Cup for the first time since 1966, his countrymen are banned from flying to South Africa.

About 80,000 fans regularly watched the team’s qualifying campaign. But the 17,386 tickets the country will get for their games against Brazil, ­Portugal and the Ivory Coast are expected to find their way on to the black ­market.

It is not known whether Kim Jong-il will fly to the World Cup. But in April Kim Jong Su, ­of the North Korean ­Football Association, said: “The Great Leader gave in-depth ­guidance on the development of Korean football. He proposed the game’s tactics most relevant for the physiological characteristics of the Korean players.”

The official also said Kim Jong-il personally guided the team at the stadium during the crucial draw with Iran in April last year.

He added: “Perhaps there’s no other team in the world who would be fighting with the same dedication to please the leader and to bring fame to their ­motherland.”

The reason North Korea gets more tickets than ­England is because they are playing in two of South Africa’s biggest stadiums – Ellis Park in Johannesburg and Cape Town Stadium.

Each country gets 9.8 per cent of the stadium’s capacity.

As England are playing two of their group games in the smallest stadiums, their share is less.

UPDATE 15: According to Yonhap:

North Korea bestowed awards on players and coaches of its national football team for advancing to next year’s World Cup finals, their first entry in more than four decades, state media said Tuesday.

Yang Hyong-sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, awarded the merit citations and medals in a ceremony on Monday, said the Korean Central Broadcasting Station, an official radio channel.

The football players “brought glory to the homeland and encouraged our military and people who are in a great struggle to build a thriving nation,” the report said.

Among the award winners were Kim Jong-sik and Kim Jong-su, director and a vice director at the Commission of Physical Culture and Sports Guidance. They received merit citations of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung and current leader Kim Jong-il, respectively, it said.

The team coach, Kim Jong-hun, and players also received honorary titles of “people’s athletic” or “merited athletic,” the report said.

North Korea qualified for next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa for the first time since 1966. In that World Cup in Britain, North Korea beat Italy on the way to the quarterfinals before losing to Portugal.

Read the full article here:
N. Korea awards football team for advancing to 2010 World Cup
Yonhap
Kim Hyun
11/3/2009

UPDATE 14:  According to Goal.com Mr. Eriksson will not take the job.UPDATE 10/13/2009:  Sven-Goran Eriksson is in talks to manage North Korea at World Cup.  According to the Guardian:

Sven-Goran Eriksson and Peter Trembling are heading to east Asia this week to hold final talks on a deal that could see the former England manager become the coach of the North Korea team at next summer’s World Cup.

Trembling, the Notts County executive chairman, is understood to have been involved in talks with intermediaries representing the Football Association of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Those negotiations were with a view to securing the Meadow Lane director of football’s services on loan.

The process is now advanced enough for Trembling and Eriksson to be travelling to Beijing later this week on an eight-day trip. The club chairman is also expected to discuss Chinese business investment opportunities in Qadbak, the British Virgin Islands-registered investment vehicle that owns County.

A source close to the deal confirmed that the trip to east Asia is going ahead and did not deny that Eriksson’s stewardship of the world’s 90th-ranked team was under discussion. North Korea’s embassy in London suggested there might be an announcement in “two or three weeks”.

Read the full story here.

UPDATE 10/6/2009: The North Korean team has arrived in France for some scheduled friendly matches.  According to USA Today:

The [North Korean] government banned the [previous national] team from traveling abroad following defeats to both Japan and South Korea in the qualifying stages for the 1994 World Cup in the United States. The squad returned to the international stage in 1999 but skipped the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, and failed to qualify for the 2006 tournament.

Only a few North Koreans players have signed for foreign clubs and the 19 players reunited in Nantes all play at home.

According to Cadet, their trip in France was made possible by the French ministry of foreign affairs.

“They immediately understood that the purpose of their trip was just about football,” he said.

But the North Koreans will not be free to do as they please during their stay. Some outings as tourists are scheduled for them in Paris and in the Nantes area, but they always will stay together.

UPDATE 9/24/2009:  The North Korean football team will play three games in France this October.  According to the AFP:

North Korea’s footballers will play three matches in France in October as part of their build-up to the 2010 World Cup, the Asians’ first venture into Europe for 40 years.

The squad will be based near the western city of Nantes from October 5-15, the French organisers Sports Live Agency said.

North Korea, who last qualified for the World Cup in 1966 in England, will take on second division side Nantes at La Roche-sur-Yon on October 9 and the Congo national team on October 13 at Le Mans.

The date for a third game, probably against a French footballer’s union side, is being arranged.

The North Koreans secured their place in the 2010 tournament in South Africa with a 0-0 draw away at Saudi Arabia last June.

UPDATE 7/3/2009:  Kim Jong Il masterminded North Korea’s World Cup qualification? According to Russia Today (Successor to USSR Today–like Korea Today):

North Korean sporting officials claim that it was the invaluable tactical advice that the head of the state gave to the players that allowed them to win a ticket to South Africa in 2010, reports Choson Sinbo, a Japan-based newspaper published by the General Association of Korean Residents.

“The Great Leader gave in-depth guidance on the development of Korean football. He proposed the game’s tactics most relevant for the physiological characteristics of the Korean players”, Kim Jong Su, General Secretary of North Korean Football Association, said.

The official also said Kim Jong Il personally guided the team at the stadium in April last year.

According to the newspaper, the Great Leader’s involvement allowed the Korean footballers to show their own game and cope without copying the style of play of the leading Western teams.

Head Coach of the North Korean national squad, Kim Jong Hun, explains the main reason of his men’s success lies in their “exceptional spiritual strength and unity.”

“Perhaps there’s no other team in the world, who would be fighting with the same dedication to please the leader and to bring fame to their motherland,” Kim Jong Hun said.

Read the full story here.

UPDATE 6/21/2009: The North Korean team came home to a hero’s welcome.  Photos here and here.  The best is by far this one:

click for larger image

Too bad Kim Jong il could not meet them at the airport in person… 

UPDATE: The North Korean team is going to South Africa. From the Washington Post’s Stephen Goff:

North Korea secured its first World Cup berth since 1966. The other automatic qualifiers from Asia are Japan, South Korea and Australia. The Saudis will face Bahrain in a two-game regional playoff in September, with the winner facing Oceania champion New Zealand for a World Cup slot.

Why do I have a sneaking suspicion the North Koreans and Americans will land in the same group in South Africa next summer? Sort of like when the USA and Iran were “randomly” paired in 1998. (How many of you remember the USA-North Korea friendly at RFK Stadium in 1991? The Koreans won, 2-1.)

Other Notes:
1. The Bleacher Report offers a satirical take.

2. More coverage of the game here.

3. If you have not seen The Game of Their Lives, you probably should.  YouTube has a trailer here.

4. How come the Koreans get to send two teams to the World Cup? (joke)

UPDATE: 6/6/2009: DPRK draws 0 – 0 with Iran. South Africa still possible. According to the AFP:

North Korea inched closer to their first World Cup finals since 1966 with a gritty 0-0 draw against Iran on Saturday.

But it was not the result newly appointed Iran coach Afshin Qotbi was looking for, with their World Cup fate now hanging in the balance.

The draw edged North Korea level with South Korea on 11 points in Group B, but they have played two games more. The South take on United Arab Emirates in Dubai later Saturday.

Saudi Arabia, who do not play Saturday, have 10 points with Iran languishing on seven points and facing a home game against UAE next Wednesday and then a tough trip to Seoul on June 17 — matches they must win.

Despite the draw North Korea, at the centre of international criticism after its second nuclear test, appeared disappointed after the game in front of a full house in Pyongyang, with players slumping to the ground in frustration.

But ultimately it moved them closer to ending their long wait for another crack at the World Cup.

Time also covers some of the drama behind this game.

South Korea advances to the next round.

Read more below:
North Korea inch closer to World Cup finals
Associated Free Press (AFP)
6/6/2009

North Korea Wipes Out Iran (from the World Cup)
Time
Ishaan Tharoor
6/7/2009

Update 4/6/2009: KCNA publishes their full complaint to FIFA:

A spokesman for the DPRK Football Association, in a statement released on Sunday as regards the serious incident that happened at the football match of the final Asian qualifier of 2010 FIFA World Cup between the DPRK and south Korea held in south Korea, expressed the expectation that the FIFA would examine the whole process of the match and take an appropriate measure.

The statement says:

Main players of the football team of the DPRK could not get up due to serious vomiting, diarrhea and headache since the night on March 31, just a day before the match.

They were healthier than any others in ordinary days and they had their meals only in the place they put up. They were enthusiastic in the training till that day. It can be said that it was beyond all doubt that the incident was a product of a deliberate act perpetrated by adulterated foodstuff as they could not get up all of a sudden just before the match.

Moreover, the Oman chief referee was so seriously biased in refereeing at the match that he insisted the ball headed by our player into the goal mouth at about 6 minutes after the start of the second half of the match was not the goal. He also declared that the foul committed by the rival side about 3 minutes before the end of the match was our player’s though it was an obvious foul on the part of the rival side, thus resulting in the loss of our team.

It was something surprising that the Japanese refereeing supervisor tacitly connived at this shameless behavior though he was obliged to ensure the fair refereeing.

The match thus turned into a theatre of plot-breeding and swindling. It is as clear as noonday that it was a product of the Lee Myung Bak group’s moves for confrontation with the DPRK and a deliberate behavior bred by the unsavory forces instigated by it.

We sternly condemn the attitude of the Lee group, which runs the whole gamut of evil doings in violation of the noble idea of sports after betraying its fellow countrymen, as anti-reunification and treacherous moves to incite confrontation with the DPRK. We strongly urge the south Korean authorities to own full responsibility for such serious incident and promptly make an apology for what happened.

The DPRK Football Association will always remain true to the FIFA which regards friendship and peace as its mission and the sports idea. It once again vehemently denounces the south Korean authorities and the unsavory forces responsible for the incident and will closely follow their future acts.

UPDATE 4/4/2009: DPRK protest to FIFA over loss to South Korea:

North Korea protested to world governing body FIFA on Sunday that they were the victims of a South Korean plot which caused them to lose a World Cup qualifier 1-0 to their rivals in Seoul last week.

The North Korean FA said in a statement that their players’ food had been tampered with and that the referee was biased.

“The match thus turned into a theatre of plot-breeding and swindling,” the statement said.

“It is as clear as noonday that it was a product of (South Korean President) Lee Myung-bak group’s moves for confrontation with the DPRK (North Korea) and a deliberate behaviour bred by the unsavoury forces instigated by it.”

The statement said FIFA should “examine the whole process of the match and take appropriate measures” and called on South Korean authorities “to own full responsibility for such serious incidents and promptly make an apology”.

No one from FIFA was immediately available to comment. (Reuters)

UPDATE 4/1/2009: South Korea tops the DPRK in Seoul. Final score 1-0 . The Koreans hold first and second spots in Group B. Read more here and here.

Question: How many other countries would like to be divided so they can send two teams to the World cup?

UPDATE 3/29/2009: The North Korean team has arrived in Seoul for the April 1st inter-Korean qualifier match. According to Fifa.com, the DPRK have a June 6th game against Iran and a June 17th game against Saudi Arabia.

UPDATE 3/28/2009: North Korea looking good for a first World Cup appearance since 1966.

Pak Nam Chol and Mun In Guk gave North Korea a big push in the direction of South Africa on Saturday afternoon in Pyongyang by giving their team a 2-0 win over UAE in their 2010 World Cup qualification clash.

Group 2 rankings: 1: North Korea-10 2: South Korea-8 3: Iran-6 4: Saudi Arabia-4 5: UAE-1 (Goal.com)

UPDATE 1: FIFA has set the September 10 DPRK-ROK World Cup qualifying match in Shanghai (again). Pyongyang is still reluctant to raise the South Korean flag in Kim il Sung stadium. Someone please tell the DPRK foreign ministry that this does not reinforce the image of social strength that the North works so hard to cultivate. Read more here.

Goal.com makes the claim that these political decisions also hurt the team’s chances of winning.

FIFA is neutral, and it will not sanction the DPRK since both teams agree to play the game in Shanghai. More on their decision can be found here.

ORIGINAL POST: As reported earlier, North and South Korea were both drawn into Group 3 in Round 3 qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. North and South Korea tied 0-0 in both games against each other. However, due to Pyongyang’s refusal to raise the South Korean flag and play the South Korean national anthem, the initial Pyongyang home match was moved to Shanghai, where yours truly was able to attend. Pyongyang also tried to have the Seoul home match moved to another city or country before finally abandoning politics and just letting their boys play.

Well, FIFA has drawn groups for Round 4 qualifiers, and both North and South Korea have been chosen for Group 2. This means Pyongyang will have another opportunity to host the South Korean national football team—along with their flag and anthem. What are the odds that Pyongyang will actually host their home game this time around?

Matches are scheduled for September 10 and January 4, 2009. Venues TBD.

The Choson Ilbo recently posted an article which contained several interesting facts.  Quoting from the article:

A W35 million price tag for the Internet connection to transmit a five-minute piece of footage is only one of the endless list of inconveniences that make up daily life in North Korea (US$1=W1,163). Kristine Kwok, a reporter for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post who accompanied Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on his visit to North Korea on Oct. 4 to 6, recounts them in a story titled “Life in the Hermit Kingdom.”

“Accessing the Internet is a distant dream for North Korean citizens and an expensive luxury for visiting foreigners,” Kwok wrote. “Filing a news report of Wen shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il would cost a TV station the equivalent of HK$233,472. The North Korean Foreign Ministry eventually decided to pay all the Internet fees for the reporters –much to their relief.”

The report said North Korea’s 24 million people are barred from the Internet, with connections available only in some hotels, where sending a picture costs around W68,000 and a single email W3,400. North Korea has set up road blocks along the information super highway and is committing “robbery,” Kwok added.

The last time I visited the DPRK, I recall that emails and phone calls from the Yangakdo Hotel are exorbitant–also, there are no phone books available and switch board operators (yes, they still have them) are of no help. If you don’t know the number you need to call you have to get creative.  But, with prices like that you would think the DPRK would like more journalists to visit!

Also mentioned in the article is Pyongyang’s new fast-food Samtaesong Restaurant, which I blogged about here when it opened.  According to the article “Samtaesong” translates to “three big stars”.  I am going to go out on a limb and guess that those three stars are the “Three Stars of Paektu: Kim il Sung, Kim Jong Suk, and Kim Jong il.”  now you can show your loyalty to the three stars while eating a burger, which is much more pleasant than standing silently in line formation under the hot sun for hours on end while political leaders you have never met read long speeches to you.

Also, “The most expensive item on the menu is ‘crispy chicken,’ which costs 3 euros, while a hamburger costs between 1.2 to 1.7 euros. That is high given the fact that North Korea’s per-capita GDP was US$1,000 last year, but AFP said Samtaeseong sells 300 burgers each day.”

Read the full article here:
Int’l Press Gets Glimpse of N.Korea’s Daily Grind
Choson Ilbo
10/13/2009

Photo by Eric Lafforgue

North Korean claims record production gains through ‘150-day battle’
Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 09-10-12-1
10/12/2009

It has been boasted that North Korea’s ‘150-day Battle’ to boost the economy (April 20-September 16) resulted in record-breaking jumps in DPRK production numbers, and it has been suggested that that by 2012, some enterprises will “attain production numbers higher than the best numbers recorded at the end of the 1980s.” This claim was made by Ji Young-il, the director of the Chosun University Social Science Research Institute, which is run by the pro-Pyongyang “General Federation of Korean Residents in Japan.”

In “Professor Ji Young-il’s Monthly Economic Review: The 150-day Battle and Prospects for Building an Economically Powerful Nation,” an article in the federation’s newspaper, Choson Sinbo, the author wrote, “There are more than a few enterprises that have set production goals for 2012 at more than three times the current level of production.” He also claimed that some enterprises in the mining, energy and railroad transportation sectors had set goals of as much as 6 times today’s production numbers.

Professor Ji went on to write, “Basically, it is an extraordinary goal ensuring growth of 1.3-1.5 times (a growth rate of 130-150%) per year.” He also explained that surpassing production rates as high as those seen in the late 1980s is one of the fundamental markers on the road toward “opening the door to a Strong and Prosperous Nation.”

Citing North Korea’s “Choson Central Yearbook,” he gave production numbers in various sectors of the DPRK economy at the end of the 1980s: electricity, 55.5 billion kWh (1989); coal, 85 million tons (1989); steel, 7.4 million tons (1987); cement, 13.5 million tons (1989); chemical fertilizer, 5.6 million tons (1989); textiles, 870 million meters (1989); grain, 10 million tons (1987).

Director Ji claimed that during the recent ‘battle’, production in the metals industries was up several times that of the same period in previous years, while energy producers generated several hundred million kWh of electricity, coal production was up 150%, and cement and other construction materials were up 140%. He pointed out that in 14 years of the Chollima movement, beginning in 1957, during which socialist industrialization took place in the North, the yearly average production growth was 19.1%, and he stated that the annual growth of 9 to 10% in industrial production over the past several years was a noteworthy record.

Moving to the agricultural sector, Director Ji also noted that while overseas experts have critiqued this year’s harvest, there has been a definite breakthrough in grain production with land cultivation hitting previously unseen levels over the past several years.

Previous 150-day battle stories below:
(more…)

DPRK watcher Mike Madden (who has made many contributions to this blog) has finally gotten around to launching his own DPRK blog: North Korean Leadership Watch.  He has several good posts up already and I look forward to what else he is going to put together.