North Korean Economy Watch

According to Yonhap, North Korean Soju has finally (again?) landed in New Jersey (h/t One Free Korea):

The first shipment of North Korean-made liquor to the United States has arrived in New York and will go on sale as soon as it clears customs, the importer said Wednesday.

Tang Gap-jeung, head of Tang’s Liquor Wholesale, which is in charge of U.S. distribution, told Yonhap that 1,660 boxes of Pyongyang Soju arrived Tuesday. Each box has 24 bottles of liquor made from corn, rice and glutinous rice flour. (Yonhap)

This is not the first time that someone has tried to import North Korean soju into the US (part 1 of the story here).  Unfortunately, that effort came to an end when the entrepreneur who launched the venture was arrested for being an unregistered South Korean spy (again, h/t One Free Korea).  The fate of the soju went unreported.

Mr. Tang is probably not importing the “adder soju” (with a dead snake in the bottle), which is absolutely vile, but worth the money just to keep in the liquor cabinet for show.  Adder soju aside, North Korea can make some tasty liquor, so if you want to try something new this weekend, here is where you can pick some up (call first and make sure the shipment has cleared customs):

Tang’s Liquor Wholesale of NJ
530 Church St
Ridgefield, NJ 07657
(201) 313-8800

The full story can be read here:
N.K. liquor import arrives in New York
Yonhap
4/23/2008

According to the Daily NK:

An inside North Korean source relayed that North Korean authorities have stepped up its regulations of  “home-brewed wine production and sales” with the purpose of eradicating the food waste by citizens.

Party Inspection Units are looking for all kinds of food waste (marriages, sixtieth-birthday anniversaries, sacrificial rites, and dinners among leaders), but liquor producers and distributors are on the list of targets.  Propaganda is being fed to local workers, extolling them not to waste food, and in order to minimize any bribery or favoritism, inspectors are being called from neighboring provinces.

Those prosecuted in the inspections have been levied fines and all of their liquor and materials confiscated (and I really doubt they are pouring it down drains).

Read the whole story here:
North Korea’s Inspection of Home-Brewed Wine by the Party
Daily NK
Jung Kwon Ho
4/9/2008

Where do North Koreans get their alcohol?  The Daily NK has the scoop:

North Korean citizens started producing/distributing home-brewed liquor in 1987 after the prohibition of the production and sale of liquor in North Korea was lifted. 

Liquor made in the home of an average North Korean citizen consists of ingredients such as corn or rice and malt. The yeast cultivated from rice powder is combined with porridge prepared from the powder and fermented in a vat. After 12~14 days, the rice porridge and the yeast will produce a chemical reaction and will turn into a thick porridge, which is called “liquor porridge” in North Korea.

Refrigerating the steam from the cultivated liquor porridge and turning it into fluid produces liquor. North Korean citizens enjoy over 40% of alcohol content-liquor and approximately 800ml of liquor is produced from a kilogram of corn. A bottle of liquor (500 ml) is close to the price of a kilogram of corn, so selling liquor made from this produce can bring in a small profit.

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s Inspection of Home-Brewed Wine by the Party
Daily NK
Jung Kwon Ho
4/9/2008

Reuters has a write up of my favorite North Korean beverage, Taedonggang Beer:

North Korea’s quest to produce decent beer began in earnest in 2000 when it started talks with Britain’s Ushers brewery about acquiring its Trowbridge, Wiltshire plant that had ceased operations.

The North Koreans took apart the brewery that had been producing country ales for about 180 years, shipped it piece by piece to Pyongyang and reassembled it under the banner of its Taedonggang Beer Factory.

By April 2002, it was up and running. In June 2002, the North’s leader Kim Jong-il, known for his fondness of expensive brandy and wines, went on a brewery tour.

“Watching good quality beer coming out in an uninterrupted flow for a long while, he noted with great pleasure that it has now become possible to supply more fresh beer to people in all seasons,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.

Taedonggang beer, named for a river that runs through Pyongyang, is a full-bodied lager a little on the sweet side, with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Still not the choice of locals:

Taedonggang is one of several brews in North Korea and it has quickly become the top brand, according to foreigners living in the reclusive country.

Park Myung-jin, of distributor Vintage Korea which used to sell the beer in the South, said the North’s leader Kim wanted a showpiece brewery.

“They used the best quality material without thinking of the production cost,” Park said. He stopped selling the beer in the South in 2007 due largely to a sudden price hike.

The North taps into overseas markets for ingredients, Park said. It has abundant supplies of fresh water because its hobbled factories do not produce enough to cause pollution problems.

Beer is not the drink of choice for most North Koreans, who prefer cheaper rice-based liquor that packs a big punch.

Dont expect to see it in your local pub:

But do not expect to see Taedonggang or any North Korean beer invading overseas markets any time soon.

North Korea may have solved the riddle of making a robust beer but it has not completely solved the problem of bottling it.

The brewery has occasional trouble sealing bottles properly and the glass it uses is fragile.

The transport system in North Korea is also a mess, making it unlikely that the beer can become one of the few legitimate exports from a country shunned by the developed world for its defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons and a human rights record cited by the United States as one of the world’s worst.

The full article can be found here:
North Korean beer: great taste, low proliferation risk
Reuters
Jon Herskovitz
3/9/2008

At its height, North Korea’s socialist infrastructure was responsible for the vast majority of the people’s standard of living.  Ration coupons and large purchases (such as for a car or refrigerator) were all provided through one’s employer.  This is because society was vertically integrated, with state-owned companies and ministries providing a broad array of social services that are handled by a variety of agents in a capitalist society (food, housing, education, childcare, health care etc..). There was little room for markets, or even prices, in people’s lives.

Although this system only worked for North Koreans in large urban areas, and excluded those in smaller villages and the country side who were much more dependent on themselves, for the vast majority of North Koreans today that system (or social contract) is a distant memory.  Out of fiscal necessity it has been chiseled away over the years, and as a result the scope for individual entrepreneurship in both the public and private spheres is increasing.  I do not want to give the impression that capitalism is running wild, but when compared to the past, the control of the North Korean state over the lives of its people is diminished.

One practice which has been retained to some degree, however, is the distribution of gifts or special provisions on the birthdays of the two leaders, Kim il Sung and Kim Jong il.  The scale of one’s gift, however, allegedly depends on one’s rank in society.  A common farmer might get a new pair of socks.  A senior Worker’s Party official probably receives a good deal more.  One estimate puts the value of these special gifts at USD$20m. 

The origins of these gifts are mixed.  Some are donated by foreigners.  Some are imported by the leadership.  Others are made domestically by the people themselves.

According to a story in today’s Daily NK, creeping marketization - bringing with it an increase in price and quality discrimination,  has left many North Korean consumers less than impressed with this year’s gift offerings:

A North Korean source in Shinuiju said in a phone conversation on the 17th, “When looking at the goods provided this time around, the quality has gone up as a whole in contrast to the past. However, the citizens did not attach too much significance to the ‘Great General’s gift’ as in the past.”

The source relayed the public sentiment as “Goods more valuable than his gifts are all over the place in the jangmadang. A portion of the people has said, ‘Special provisions are not necessary. Just do not regulate the markets.’”

In Shinuiju, a bottle of luxury liquor, 2kg of tangerine, and two pheasants were provided to the party organization through the “special provision’ and a bottle of liquor and a modest amount of fruits such as apples and tangerines were given to regular organizations. The People’s Units received a bottle of liquor, a toothbrush, and a bar of soap and pre-school and elementary school students received five pieces of gum, two rice crackers, two packs of chips, and one pack of candy.

The source added, “Those receiving the ‘title of hero’ and the Secretaries in charge of the county parties were given boxes marked with the label ‘gift,’ but its contents are uncertain.”

Another source in Hoiryeong in a phone conversation on this day said, “A bottle of liquor, a bar of soap, and a bottle of toothpaste were provided through the February 16th holiday provision and the children received a pack of candy, two packs of chips, a pack of pea candy, two packs of rice crackers, and seven pieces of gum.”

He also expressed discontent, saying, “It is pitiful to have to wait in line in front of the stores through which provisions are handed out for a mere bottle of liquor and soap.”

In the Hyesan, Yangkang Province region, laborers working at state enterprises were given 3kg of Annam rice (wild rice) and a bottle of liquor and oil were given to average households.

North Korea, in time for Kim Jong Il’s birthday in 2007, provided around 10 food items and daily necessities, including liquor and beer, cider and rice tally, oil, chips, and gum, to civilians.

In 2007, 200g of chips, 200g of candy, 100g of rice snacks, and five pieces of gum were given to elementary school students. Due to the shortage in foreign currency, special provisions were not offered to average civilians.

A caveat to this story is that all of the data points are from the large cities on the Chinese border.  These cities have benefited the most from trade with China and in all likelihood are the most “ideologically contaminated” in the DPRK.  

Source:
Jangmadang Goods Are More Valuable Than the General’s Gifts
Daily NK
Choi Choel Hee
2/21/2008

Yonhap
1/11/2008

An inter-Korean joint-venture chicken franchise will open its first store in Pyongyang early next month, the head of the franchise’s South Korean partner said Friday.

The store set to open in early February will provide a food delivery service using motorbikes for the first time in the communist country, Choi Won-ho, president of the South Korean company said.

No North Korean restaurants offer food delivery service now, according to defectors from North Korea.

Fried, grilled and steamed chicken dishes as well as draft beer are available for delivery, he said, adding the food will be prepared in the North Korean style.

“I recently received a photo of the store’s interior design from our North Korean business partner, Rakwon General Trading Corporation, along with the offer to open the first store before the 66th birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il,” Choi told Yonhap News Agency by phone. “After opening, I will use radio and newspaper ads to promote the business.”

Kim’s birthday, which falls on Feb. 16, is the most festive holiday in the North.

The North Korean company will provide land, some 20 low-cost workers, chicken, and draft beer. The early-stage investment, equipment, cook and spicy chicken will come from the South Korean chicken franchise called “Matdaero Chondak,” Choi said.

The first “Rakwon” chicken restaurant in Pyongyang will have the capacity of seating about 200 people, he added.

The businessman said he will visit North Korea next week to discuss the opening of the store.

“I hope the business will thrive enough so that we can open store No. 10 in Pyongyang,” he added.

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
9/17/2007

The ethics of youth regarding sex has always been a noticeable issue in all societies. It is the same in North Korea. The fear of the youth misdemeanor is worried by both South and North Koreas.

The North Korean defectors claim that the most frequently asked question since they’ve been here was whether North Korean youth also dated.

North Korea is a place with people as well. Like all other societies, personal problems of love, hate, conflicts and atonement exist. However, due to the restriction of freedom, there is also limitation on human relationships that cannot be made single-handedly.

The North Korean youth also date. While it was forbidden to date back in the 1960s and 1970s, with the changing era, the restriction on dating has disappeared as well.

According to the North Korean defectors, the trend of dating by the youth has initiated in the main cities of North Korea from the late 1980s.

The normalization of the teenagers’ dating was from the 1990s. The coeducational school became the wildfire that incurred the trend of public dating for all middle school students in North Korea.

The differentiation of girls and boys school was changed by the single statement of Kim Il Sung.

“It is quite distressing that there is a barrier between North and South, why should we have a barrier between men and women,” encouraging all differentiation of gender to disappear in all schools nationwide. Hence then, the official names of differentiating gender on official school names have disappeared.

According to a North Korean defector Park Myung Gil (pseudonym), “In middle school, in the age of 16, it is very important for students to have a girlfriend and also participate in the gang fight.” Unless you were stupid, these two things were very important for all students.” 1990s was an era where gang fights between schools and villages were rampant.

Month-long Farm Supporting Activity Is another Factor

Park stated that, “When we go onto farm supporting activity, it is easier for us to date the female students. The fellow students would pay a visit to the dormitory of the girl until she said yes.”

Middle school students in the age range of 14 to 15 go out to the field to help farming. They go out for 40 days in spring and 15-20 days in the autumn to participate for the farm supporting activity. It is during this phase that they learn how to smoke and drink.

They gather around to drink and smoke after their fieldwork is over at night time. When you don’t participate in this night gathering, you become isolated and rejected from the crowd. Although this is supposedly done in secrecy, the teachers, even when they are aware of this, turn a blind eye to the students.

While there are many similarities between the North and the South Korean students, there are also many differences. The North Korean students drink with their teachers. They usually take a bottle of alcohol to their students and drink with them out of good will. While it is hard to imagine such things happening in South Korea, the students do not get in trouble for drinking in North Korea.

When these students participate in the long term farm supporting activity, there are accidents that follow. There are many cases of female students’ impregnation after their field-work term.

The current teenagers of North Korea are surely much more free and independent. As a result of China-North Korea trade, with the influx of cheap VCR disseminated nationwide, this would play a crucial role in liberalizing the minds of these youth. However, the sentiments felt by their parents, regardless of that be North or South, must be along the line of anxiety and worry.

Choson Ilbo (hat tip One Free Korea)
7/20/2007
 
A Korean American businessman has been arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of hiding his activities as a spy for the South Korean government, AP reported Thursday. According to court documents obtained by the wire agency, Park Il-woo, also known as Steve Park, was a legal resident in the U.S. for the past 20 years and conducted business with North Korea. Park provided information he obtained from his frequent trips to North Korea to the South Korean government in return for payments.

U.S. law requires anyone acting as an agent of a foreign government to register with the U.S. government and disclose the nature of the activity. The FBI met with Park three times to ask about his activities between 2005 and 2007. But each time, Park denied his contacts with or knowledge of certain South Korean officials. Park was expected to appear in court Thursday afternoon.

PR Newswire
7/19/2007

To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Yusill Scribner of the Office of United States Attorney Michael J. Garcia, Southern District of New York, +1-212-637-2600

NEW YORK, July 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Park Il Woo, a/k/a “Steve Park,” was arrested today on charges that he repeatedly lied to FBI agents about his activities in the United States on behalf of the Republic of Korea (commonly known as South Korea), from 2005 to the present, announced Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Mark J. Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Agents also executed a search warrant at Park’s Manhattan residence simultaneous to the arrest. According to the complaint and search warrant affidavit, incorporated by reference in the complaint:

Park, 58, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, engaged in conduct in the United States on behalf of the South Korea by, among other things, obtaining information from officials of another foreign government and providing that information to South Korean officials in exchange for payment.

For example, during a recorded telephone call, Park relayed to a South Korean official working in Manhattan that officials of the other foreign government had asked Park to help them obtain certain items, including insecticides and anesthetics. However, the complaint alleges, on three occasions in 2005 and 2007, Park gave false information to FBI agents regarding his contacts with or knowledge of certain South Korean officials.

For example, on March 20, 2007, FBI agents showed Park photographs of certain South Korean officials working in Manhattan, and Park stated that he did not know two of the officials. Park then drove directly from that FBI interview to a restaurant in New Jersey, where he met with one of the South Korean officials he claimed not to know.

Park is scheduled to appear this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis in Manhattan federal court. Mr. Garcia praised the efforts of the FBI for their efforts in this continuing investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer G. Rodgers and Stephen A. Miller are handling the prosecution.

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint and documents incorporated by reference are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

Korea Times
Jung Sung-ki
5/2/2007

A North Korean-made distilled liquor of soju is expected to make a foray into the U.S. market as early as this month, the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, reported Wednesday.

The report said the “Pyongyang Soju’’ made by a factory in the North Korean capital has been exported to the U.S. since early last month through the Korea PyongYang Trading U.S.A. owned by a Korean-American Park Il-woo, 59.

Park and his business partner visited the North last month for the shipment of about 64,800 bottles of soju in three containers, it said.

“If the customs procedures go as scheduled, the soju will be sold at U.S. stores, marketplaces and restaurants as early as late this month or early next month,’’ Park was quoted as saying.

“The North Korean government shows a positive response to this business in that its product is to be exported to the U.S., which has long been considered as a hostile country, through legal procedures,’’ he said. “I think this will serve as a good opportunity to improve the relations between the two countries in the future.’’

On April 9, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il held a ceremony for Park when the soju shipment took place at the port of Nampo on the west coast, the report said.

Park received approval for the import of the North Korean-made soju from the U.S. government last July, according to the report.

The North Korean liquor will be first sold in the eastern states including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland with the help of Tang’s Liquor Wholesale, a liquor agency, it said.

N.K. soju to debut in U.S.
Korea Herald
Lee Joo-Hee

Americans will soon be able to get a taste of North Korea, in the form of soju - a traditional Korean rice liquor - that will debut in the U.S. market this month.

Steve Park, a South Korean-American businessman, said 2,520 boxes of Pyongyang Soju with a lowered alcohol content of 23 percent left for the United States last month.

“The North Korean government is pretty hyped about having its products exported to the United States through formal customs process,” Park was quoted as saying by Hankook Ilbo, a South Korean news daily.

Park, who runs Korea Pyongyang Trading USA, has been devoting a lot of time trying to get U.S. approval to bring in the North Korean beverage.

“When calculating the customs process, I believe Pyongyang Soju will be able to go on sale in the eastern region of the United States at the end of this month or early next month,” Park said.

“It can be a positive sign for the trust level of the two countries that the United States approved the import of liquor that usually requires a strict customs process,” Park was quoted as saying.

Park has completed producing a poster and advertisements to promote sales of the soju.

Park immigrated to the United States in early 1980s and has been involved in businesses with North Korea for the past 10 years.

He most recently visited North Korea’s Nampo Port between April 4-12 to oversee the shipment of the products.

Pyongyang Soju is the representative soju of North Korea and is made with corn, rice and glutinous rice flour. It has been exported to Japan and China.

The total shipment of Pyongyang Soju to the United States includes some 60,000 bottles.

The items received permits from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Food and Drug Administration, the news reports said.

Addendum: From the KFA forum:

Korea Pyongyang Trading U.S.A. Inc.
98 Thayer Street, Apt. 1B
New York NY 10040-1108

Daily NK
Kim Young Jin
4/16/2007

The North Korean authorities ordered that the holiday gifts given to North Korean citizens for 4.15 Kim Il Sung’s birthday, Sun Day, be distributed by each provincial body.

The leader of a people’s unit Mr. Choi of a district in Hyesan, Yanggang said in a phone conversation with Daily NK on the 13th, “The order came from the center to supply liquor and sweets through the body.”

He said, “A ‘4.15 subdivision committee’ has been organized in each province and has been going down to the commercial offices and food factories to directly inspect production.” The committee is a team that exists for the people who were temporarily transferred from party and political organizations for the seasonal production of sweets for distributing to children on Kim Il Sung’s birthday

This order’s intention can be interpreted as North Korean authorities trying to raise the holiday atmosphere by sparking competition among the provinces to celebrate Day of the Sun as “the year of victory in Military First Ideology.”

”The manager who cannot even provide one bottle of alcohol is not entitled”

However, the central party provided the order without a realistic plan of action, leaving it in the hands of factory and enterprise offices.

Another well-informed source stated that, “The central party has sparked a competition amongst the provinces to see which municipality provides more.”

On the 80th birthday anniversary of Kim Il Sung in 1992, when the “Supply Diversification” competition was kindled, the news spread that Junchun Commercial Office in Jakang, to where Jung Chun Sil (a member of Supreme People’s Committee) belongs, supplied 13 kinds of socks, candles, matches, and alcohol, but most of the provinces stopped after passing out one bottle of drink.

The well-informed source also stated that more than one bottle of drink could not be distributed this time. Soju is an item which cannot be left out from the holiday provision. Each provincial organization was known to bluff. “Factory managers who cannot provide at least one bottle of drink should forfeit their positions.”

At a food factory producing drinks, 10 hours of electricity was provided and the factory entered production round the clock, but it still had difficulty due to the lack of electricity and raw materials.

Demand-driven supply is also insufficient. After supplying drinks produced at this factory to organizations of influence, coal and mine workers, and laborers who work in dangerous jobs, there is not enough for all citizens.

As a result, authorities are asking factory and enterprises offices themselves to provide the laborers. Most factories are ordering from individual home-brew traders.

Failure in “gift” production for children

In the midst of this, it has been known that units which have taken charge of production of gift-use sweets are in a state of panic.

A part of the provinces used corn taffy and substituted corn instead of flour because of the lack of candy powder (sugar). Also, provisions had to be completed by April 13 to 14th, but the production line could not operate due to the lack of electricity, so goods could not ensure within the planned time.

Until the early 1990s, the central party promised flour, sugar, and other materials, but due to the worsening of financial difficulties, it decreed that provinces themselves take care of these goods. After the 65th birthday anniversary of Kim Il Sung in 1977, North Korea provided sweets to pre-school students who are at least five-years old to 11-year old elementary school students as a way of boosting their devotions but under the pretext of “gifts.”

Defector Mr. Kim reflected, “I can remember, after going up one by one to receive gifts, approaching the portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il and bowing. In 1970-1980, the snacks and sweets were at least 10 different kinds, but now, there is only corn snack and one package of candy.”