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Archive for May, 2016

New economics university opens in Pyongyang. With online courses!

Thursday, May 12th, 2016

By Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

This is an interesting piece of news, not least given the almost complete lack of concrete economic policy coming out of the 7th Party Congress (aside from the 5-year plan). Two points to note: First, the university will apparently use “e-teaching” which presumably means online courses. Does North Korea have the technological infrastructure to disseminate online teaching on a broader scale? Second, it seems like the university will focus on business and management training rather than national economics per se. IFES reports:

While currently under the most stringent international sanctions imposed following its fourth nuclear test, North Korea opened a new university in Pyongyang focused on nurturing economic experts.

The Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korean press in Japan, reported on April 28 that the new university held its opening ceremony on April 1, 2016.

‘Pyongyang Economy and Technology University’ (평양경제기술대학 Pyeongyanggyeongjegisuldaehak) is the new name of the already existing ‘Pyongyang Professional School of Statistics’ (Pyeongyangtonggyejeonmunhakgyo), an institution previously established for the same purpose.

According to the news report, the institution established departments and classes accordingly as it aims to train experts on practical technology in economy for factories and companies. The curriculum is said to be practical, comprehensive, and modern, and to emphasize on-site education and research on the current economic situation.

The news report also mentioned that the university has improved its educational conditions and environment, and that it has commenced initiatives to improve the quality of its staff as well as informatization of the practicum for its major subjects.

The university offers a library for e-books and audio-visual classrooms for foreign languages, and it has informatized and databased teaching methods, administration for academic affairs, etc.

Song Sam-Sung, the president of the institution, stated that the university plans to develop a new initiative to distribute e-teaching plans prepared by the university’s employees to professional technical universities throughout the country.

The university first opened in October 1969 as a vocational high school and was developed to become ‘Pyongyang Professional School of Statistics’, which was equivalent to a technical college. It was restructured into a professional-technical university beginning last year.

Full article here:

New Economics University Opened in Pyongyang to Nurture Economics Experts
Institute for Far Eastern Studies
2016-05-09

(Update 2016-05-12)

The original article from Choson Sinbo is available here, though you need to go through a very simple registration process to get login details.

The website Tongil News also writes about the school here.

(Update 2016-05-18)

I found another article in Korea Today (no. 5, 2016) about online teaching in North Korea. This one is about online courses taught at Kim Il Sung University.

Photo credits: Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein.

Posted in Education | Comments Closed

New Party Central Auditing Commission inaugurated

Wednesday, May 11th, 2016

According to the Pyongyang Times (2016-5-10):

The First Plenary Session of the 7th Central Auditing Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea was held on May 9.

The event was attended by the members of the Party Central Auditing Commission who have been elected at the Seventh WPK Congress.

There was an election of the chairman and vice-chairman of the Party Central Auditing Commission.

Choe Sung Ho was elected chairman with Pak Myong Sun as his deputy.

According to the Ministry of Unification, the Party Central Auditing Commission, as its name suggests, inspects the party’s financial management.

This is interesting because this story originated in KCNA, though no pictures were released. However, the KCNA story was picked up by the Pyongyang Times, and this second version does contain pictures indicating that Kim Jong-un ran the meeting (See pictures at the top), even though he is not mentioned in the text of the article.

I am not sure of the meeting room location or where the Auditing Commission is physically located, but the meeting did not take place in Conference Hall No. 1 next to the Central Committee Building, Kim Jong-un’s official office.

Kim’s meeting at the Auditing Commission has not been reported in the Rodong Sinmun, the KWP newspaper, to the best of my knowledge.

The cheap and fast analysis suggests that as this is Kim Jong-un’s first committee meeting following the party congress, he is making a priority of understanding/controlling party finances in an effort to be a more assertive party leader (he was just named party chairman after all). Following a thorough party audit, Kim will be in a better position to allocate party financial rents to key supporters as well as to critically engage other cadres over party operations.

Posted in Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, Kim Jong Un, Political economy, Worker's Party | Comments Closed

New power plants operational before KWP congress

Wednesday, May 11th, 2016

The Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station No. 3

Pictured above (Yonhap): The Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station No. 3

Pictured Above (Google Earth): The dam is too recent to appear on Google Earth imagery as of publication, but here are the locations of Paektusan Hero Youth Power Stations Nos 1-3

According to KCNA (2016-5-21):

Paektusan Hero Youth Power Stations in Full Operation

The Paektusan Hero Youth Power stations, built in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a symbol of youth power, are now running at full capacity to supply electricity to the area of Mt. Paektu.

Kim Hyong Dok, chairman of the Samjiyon County, Ryanggang Province, People’s Committee, told KCNA:

Now is the dry season, but the stations have generated much electricity for industrial establishments, public cultural establishments and residential quarters in the county.

They are greatly helpful to the county’s economic development and the improvement of its population’s livelihood.

Academician, Prof. and Dr. So Pyong Hwa of Hamhung University of Hydraulic Engineering, said:

Electricity from the stations is also supplied to its neighboring Pochon and Paekam counties and Hyesan City.

It is very gratifying to see the safe conditions of hydraulic structures and generators at the stations. And it is better to read the mentality of their employees resolved to contribute to the province’s economic development and the improvement of its inhabitants’ livelihood with increased electricity production.

According to KCNA (2016-3-31):

Dam Project of Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station No. 3 Completed

Members of the youth shock brigade of the DPRK finished the dam project of the Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station No. 3 on March 31.

Members of the shock brigade and other builders vied with each other to mount the dam to greet the historic moment of the completion of the dam project.
At 10 a.m. they made a report on the completion of the dam project to supreme leader Kim Jong Un, looking up to the sky above Pyongyang.

The project started on January 13.

The completion of the dam project in a matter of less than three months represents a heroic epic which could be created only by the heroes of the youth power who grew up under the care of the peerlessly great men of Mt Paektu and a miracle they worked as young people of heroic Korea by bringing about a great leap forward by doing 10 years’ work just in one year.

Kim Jong-un visited on April 23.

Yonhap reports that its hasty construction meant the dam was not properly constructed, and it is already leaking.

The Paektusan Hero Youth Power Stations 1 & 2 were formally known as the Paektusan Songun Youth Power Stations. The Paektusan Songun Power Station No. 2 was submitted to the UNFCCC program.

It is still too early to tell, but it appears that power from these three plants will be going to Samjiyon and maybe Hyesan.

Wonsan Army-People Power Station

Above (Google Earth): The wonsan Army-People Power Station Dam, canal, and two hydro power stations.

Above (Rodong Sinmun)

According to Rodong Sinmun (2016-5-2):

Large-scale Wonsan Army-People Power Station has been built in Kangwon Province.

The power station has provided a foundation for generating the electricity necessary for developing the economy and improving the living standard of the people and solving the issues of household water, industrial water and irrigation water in the province.

An inaugural ceremony of the power station took place on April 29.

Present at the ceremony were Pak Pong Ju, O Su Yong, officials concerned, builders and working people.

A message of thanks from the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was delivered.

The message appreciated the builders of the power station and supporters for building another monumental edifice representing the era of the Workers’ Party by dint of self-development and self-reliance as a laudable present to the Seventh Congress of the WPK.

Pak Jong Nam, chief secretary of the Kangwon Provincial Committee of the WPK, in a speech called upon the officials, working people and builders of the province to create a fresh Mallima speed in their worksites in the same spirit as was displayed in the construction of the power station.

At the end of the ceremony the participants went round the power station.

This project was submitted to the UNFCCC for consideration.

Posted in Dams/hydro, Energy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Nobel Prize winners visit PUST

Saturday, May 7th, 2016

According to a press release put out by PUST, Professor Aaron Ciechanover (Chemistry 2004), Professor Finn Kydland (Economics, 2004), and Dr. Sir Richard Robert (Medicine, 1993) visited the campus in Pyongyang.

You can read the press release for additional information.

While in Pyongyang, the laureates made some [misguided] comments on US sanctions. According to Deutcsh Welle:

Nobel medicine prize winner Richard Roberts, Nobel economics prize winner Finn Kydland and Nobel chemistry prize winner Aaron Ciechanover have described how United Nations sanctions and a lack of internet access are hampering North Korean scientists.

Speaking to reporters following their visit to Pyongyang, the three laureates from Norway, Britain and Israel called for a rollback of many of the international restrictions that have been placed on the Communist state.

“You don’t pressurize via making people sicker,” said Ciechanover: “That’s not the right way to go.”

Roberts described how North Korean academic institutions suffered from a lack of modern scientific equipment. He said restrictions on internet use prevented most scientists from collaborating with colleagues in other countries, or accessing the latest scientific literature.

“So this embargo is really hurting the scientists in some major ways, and I think that’s a great shame,” Roberts added.

He said there was a strong desire for more international exchanges. During the trip, at least two North Korean students were invited to the West.

The Western scientists visited hospitals, universities and research institutes in Pyongyang and met with students and academics. They described clean and modern facilities – a stark contrast to other accounts, which describe the country as brutally impoverished.

The trip, which has been described as an exercise in “silent diplomacy,” was planned more than two years ago with help from the International Peace Foundation (IPF). In turn the Vienna-based organization received an unsolicited email from the Korean National Peace Committee.

Notice that Kydland, the economist, is not quoted in reference to the sanctions. UN Sanctions do not impede economic or social progress so much as North Korea’s actual economic, trade, and investment policies. North Korea has only itself to blame for the state of its economy. Finally, there is no UN embargo on the DPRK, only targeted sanctions on entities that all members of the UNSC agree are involved in the country’s weapons programs. The US, but not UN, has imposed an embargo of “dual use goods” going to the DPRK, but this is aimed at the country’s military, and applies to countries other than the DPRK.

The doctors also demonstrated an ignorance of socialist health economics when they visited the Okryo Children’s Hospital. According to the New York Times:

But the laureates suggested Saturday that the United Nations sanctions imposed on the North because of its nuclear program should be eased. At the Okryu Children’s Hospital in Pyongyang, a showcase medical center that Kim Jong-un visited during its construction in 2013, Mr. Ciechanover said that there were 300 beds and a capacity for 300 outpatients, but that doctors administered only about 60 tests a day, a low figure that he attributed to the sanctions. Doctors faced shortages of medicine and took the view that “you give only what you have to,” he said.

The United Nations sanctions do not apply to medicine, but they restrict the North’s access to foreign currency, and the government is known to channel its limited resources toward the military.

Also, some BBC reporters covering the PUST visit were expelled.

Here is coverage on KCTV.

Posted in Education, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology | Comments Closed

Why agricultural reform may appear on the Worker’s Party Congress agenda, and why it might not

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

By Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

At this time of writing, the 7th Party Congress of the Korean Worker’s Party is only one day away. In the runup to the congress, as is natural, there has been much speculation about what the congress content will actually be. Most analyses seems to believe that personal and institutional decisions will be at the center, but there have also been speculations that policy proclamations may be made in areas such as agriculture.

This post is not an attempt at forecasting, an often fruitless endeavor. Rather than predictions, this post offers a few reasons why agricultural reform may be on the agenda for the congress in some shape or form, and a few reasons to believe the opposite.

Why agricultural reform may show up…

The first thing to note is that the North Koreans themselves rarely (or never) use the term “reform” to describe economic policy changes. If such changes are announced, they will probably be called “improvements” or simply “changes”. In any case, the arguably strongest reason to believe that liberalizing policy changes may appear on the congress agenda is that they seem to be working, at least from the perspective of the North Korean government.

Recall that last summer, North Korean press touted the efficiency of the small work-team structures and similar management policy changes in agriculture. Contrary to recent reports about reduced harvests due to the drought, North Korean media claimed that harvests were going up. Earlier, in 2012, journalists were invited to farms to hear farmers themselves speak about the policy changes, a clear indication that the regime was comfortably and formally toying with the rules. At least for some farmers: it is very possible that the reforms were rolled out on a trial-basis, and that they later got stuck in the bureaucratic mills or were deemed too radical. In sum, North Korean media outlets themselves have touted the reforms as successful, and though media reports do not amount to official policy proclamations, they are often good indicators for what’s going on behind the scenes.

…and why it might not.

On the other hand, agriculture has been conspicuously absent from several major publications and proclamations about policy priorities and successes over the past year. For example, agriculture only showed up once in the slogans the regime published earlier this year, while industry received several central shout-outs. Reforms or policy changes in agriculture were not mentioned at all. There are also reasons to doubt that agricultural reforms really did have a strong impact on harvests in 2015 — the increase in harvest output began earlier than state media started mentioning reforms.

Moreover, reports on economic output which the regime published only a few days ago only mentioned agriculture almost in passing. The reports only spoke about how farmers had diligently met their quotas for gathering fertilizer, and did not mention policy changes:

Farming preparations were brisk on the agricultural front, resulting in a 1.7 and 2.8 times growth in the securing of hukposan and microbial fertilizers and an over 1.3 times increase in the acreage of field carpeted with humus soil.

[…]

The production of homemade fertilizers and their transport, tractor overhauling and maintenance and other farming preparations are nearing completion thanks to the devoted drive of agricultural workers across the country.

[…]

Such successes are reported from railway, agricultural and other industrial sectors.

It’s socialist economics as usual, in other words: people work hard according to the planned quotas, and fulfill them because the state told them to do so. Moreover, the Washington Post’s report on Wednesday from a collective farm near Pyongyang did not mention any talk of policy changes in agriculture.

None of this sounds like the propaganda buildup one would expect in the weeks before a grand policy announcement. At least we won’t have to wait too long before we know.

Tags:7th Party Congress
Posted in Agriculture, Economic reform, Political economy | Comments Closed

BBC journalists staying in “Beverly Hills” of Pyongyang (UPDATED)

Monday, May 2nd, 2016

UPDATE 1 (2016-5-11): When this blog post was published, I had assumed that the BBC journalists were in the DPRK to cover the seventh party congress, but they were not. These BBC reporters were covering a trip by three nobel prize winners to PUST and other places in North Korea. A second BBC crew was covering the congress. The BBC crew mentioned in this blog post below was expelled. The second BBC crew covering the congress was not affected. This explains why this crew was kept in different residential quarters than other reporters covering the congress who stayed primarily in the Yanggakdo and Koryo Hotels.

ORIGINAL POST (2016-5-2): A BBC reporter took a picture of “Guesthouse No. 24” in the housing compound supposedly under control of the International Department of the KWP:

This area is in Pothonggang District near the new “General Satellite Control Center” (and the Pyongyang City branch of the Ministry of State Security).

The article mentions that other journalists are staying here as well, but it is unclear just who all is there at this time.

Presumably Pyongyang’s hotels are filled with people that western journalists would like to interview for their stories on the historic KWP Congress this week, so this would be a nice, comfortable and isolated place to keep foreign journalists under control.

Anna Fifield reports that journalists covering the congress are being spread across town. Some are in the Yanggakdo Hotel and others are in the Koryo Hotel.

It is still unclear where the local delegates to the conference are being kept. Here is what Rodong Sinmun had to say:

Senior Party, State, Army Officials Visit Lodging Quarters of Participants in WPK Congress

Senior party, state and army officials Tuesday visited the lodging quarters of the participants in the Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

Senior party, state and army officials Kim Yong Nam, Pak Pong Ju, Choe Ryong Hae, Choe Thae Bok, Pak Yong Sik, Yang Hyong Sop, Kwak Pom Gi, O Su Yong, Kim Phyong Hae and Kim Yong Chol and officials of party and armed forces organs visited the lodging quarters to meet the participants.

They referred to the fact that all service personnel and people of the DPRK have waged a dynamic struggle for the final victory in building a thriving socialist nation, registering special events and achievements by leaps and bounds one after another under the guidance of Marshal Kim Jong Un.

They called on all the participants to play a vanguard role in the drive to implement the idea and line of the Party in the future, too, bearing deep in mind the undying exploits the peerlessly great men of Mt. Paektu performed for the founding and development of the Party.

If I had to guess, I would say 4.25 Hotel in Mirim, but who knows at this point.

Posted in Hoteling, Worker's Party | Comments Closed

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