North Korean Economy Watch

Daily NK
Han Young Jin
6/11/2007

Recently, portraits of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Sook (Kim Jong Il’s mother) wearing military clothing are being sold at North Korea’s black market, Jangmadang.

“Good Friends” a North Korea support organization, published a newsletter which informed that a portrait of the “3 Generals portrait” was being sold for 7,500 North Korean won (approx. US$2.50) at Jangmadang.

The sale of the “3 Generals portrait” is actually prohibited. Then, how did portraits of the “3 Generals” end up on the black market? Is this a sign that the value of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Sook has plummeted to rock bottom? No way.

In the past, this portrait of “Baekdu Mountains 3 Great Heroes” or otherwise known as the “3 Generals,” was distributed to North Korea’s elite class. However, as the power of money slowly took a stance in North Korea, the “3 Generals” somehow managed to appear in the markets.

People purchasing the portraits are not the elite class. If a person visits the home and sees this portrait hung, they may get the impression that the household was closely related to the elite class. In other words, the home looks as if it has value or is important, hence the demand at the markets.

The sale of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Sook portraits in North Korea is a political offense. If a person is caught selling any portraits, they may end up in a political concentration camp.

However, as people thrive off trade and the value of money spreads throughout the nation, life continues abundantly as long as you don’t get caught. The fact that this item has appeared at Jangmadang just goes to show how much trade as prospered in North Korea.

Further, the source and owners of the portraits are the elite and with a little investigation one can unveil the corruption that is occurring amongst the upper class. As a result, as long as you do not spread rumors about the National Safety Agency and affiliated persons, authorities let you go unnoticed.

The painting is a family portrait with Kim Il Sung dressed as a Chief general on the left, Kim Jong Il dressed in a general’s outfit in the middle and then on the right, Kim Jong Sook dressed in a guerilla uniform.

The “3 Generals’ portrait” first appeared in 1997 about the time of Kim Jong Il’s 55th birthday. At first, the painting was distributed to officers of power including elite officials, generals, courts and the national security and safety agency. The portrait was not presented to average households and hence the “3 Generals” gained its elite status. “We have the 3 Generals in our home” children would say bragging to others.

Nonetheless, this portrait began to be sold on the markets illegally from 1997. This was a time where people died of starvation and Kim Jong Il went around proclaiming “Military First Politics.” Distributing the “3 Generals’ portrait” was all a part of Kim Jong Il’s propaganda for “Military First Politics.”

In the beginning, administrative officers bribed authorities with alcohol and cigarettes in exchange for the portraits. Factory managers would even exchange the goods in the factories and hang the portraits in their own homes. It was not too difficult to obtain the painting if you were closely affiliated to persons with any sort of power including the authorities, military or the government.

Since then, it was common to see the portraits in the homes of the rich. This portrait worth 3,000won in `97 has now escalade to 7,500won following the July 1st economic measure in 2002.

Sale of the portraits began at the place of manufacture Mansudae Art Institution (the national art academy, which is mainly creating works related to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il). The moment rations were suspended, workers at Mansudae Art Institution began to produce extra portraits and badges of Kim Il Sung, and as a means of survival traded these portraits in exchange for food. With ties to relatives in the country, manufacturers sold portraits of the 3 Generals through the back door.

In additional to this, it is common practice that badges of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are sold on the black market. There are many badges which vary according to class from badges in the shape of a flag (used by overseas North Koreans) to badges made for authorities and a special badge that was manufactured after Kim Il Sung’s death.

One badge, sold for 1,000won

At first the badges were distributed to elite officials and upper class and then slowly, more and more average citizens tried to obtain one. For example, in the mid-90’s it was rare to see the ‘couple badge’ in the country that it sold for 1,000~1,500won (approx. US$0.3~0.5) each. Accordingly, the cost of the badges has also been affected by market prices.

Dealers who sell the badges appear at the black markets wearing a black jacket. The portraits are hidden beneath the jacket and buyers haggle with the dealer for a good price.

However, not everyone likes the “3 Generals portraits.” A defector who recently entered South Korea said, “Only people who can afford the pictures are interested in buying the “3 Generals portraits.” Otherwise, the average commoner doesn’t care.”

Nevertheless, what would happen if Kim Jong Il found out that the portrait of the “3 Generals portraits” were being sold on the black market? Furthermore, what would happen if he found out that the portraits were being sold for a mere $2.50? He would most probably make an order to close Jangmadang.

If not for the living and trade of average commoners, it would be best for Kim Jong Il not to know this fact. It would be better for Kim Jong Il to be ignorant of this rather humiliating truth.

Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
6/10/2007

“I love foreign movies! They are free of ideology!” I’ve heard this comment more than once from North Koreans. What they mean is not that foreign movies do not have any ideological messages (something quite impossible, every movie has some message, even if the more subtle are usually not noticed by the audience). They mean that foreign movies are free from the overt boring propaganda statements which play such a prominent role in North Korean cinema production.

Revolutionary enthusiasm and the unremitting cruelty of the enemy _ the U.S. imperialists and their South Korean puppets _ have been the major topic of North Korean cinema for many decades. Of course, movie-goers are used to these ideological messages and somehow manage to filter them out, concentrating their attention on the depiction of ‘real life’ with its problems of relationships and families. Nonetheless, foreign movies are especially welcomed by the public, since their ideological content is less pronounced.

Once upon a time, in the 1940s and 1950s, foreign movies constituted the bulk of films screened in North Korean theaters. Most of those movies came from the Soviet Union, with an occasional film from another “fraternal country”. However, in the early 1960s, the split between Moscow and Pyongyang led to a nearly complete halt of those exchanges. The East European Communist regimes began to liberalize themselves, while an unabashed Stalinist nationalism (a.k.a juche) reigned supreme in the North, making its leaders suspicious of all exchanges with external regimes, including the communist states. The cultural exports of the increasingly liberal Soviet Union came to be perceived as a source of dangerous revisionism

Only in the 1980s were foreign movies re-introduced to the North, accompanied by films from India, China, and other “non-imperialist” countries. Soon it became clear that as far as box-office success is concerned, those films fared much better than the local productions.

No North Korean statistics have been released so far, but it seems that one of the greatest box-office successes in North Korean history was the ‘Pirates of the Twentieth Century’, a remarkably silly 1979 Soviet action movie about brave Russian sailors who use their martial arts skills to teach a lesson or two to those naughty pirates somewhere in the Pacific. The story line is utterly implausible, the acting ludicrous, but the martial arts and special effects are never far from the screen, and even semi-nudity is present (well, I am not sure if that episode survived the scissors of the North Korean censors).

The movie was a tremendous hit in the USSR where, in the early 1980s, to the great dismay of the high-brow audience, it was seen by one third of all Soviet movie-goers. Judging by available reports, the ‘Pirates of the Twentieth Century’ was even more successful in the North where it, in fact, became the first widely seen martial arts movie.

In an improbable twist, this genre, usually seen as quintessentially Chinese, was introduced to the North via Russia. Soon there were some North Korean copies around, where the goodies were smashing either the US Imperialists (‘Order No. 027,’ a story about North Korean commandos during the Korean War) or evil feudal landlords (‘Hong Kil-dong,’ a Korean version of the Robin Hood tale).

On more sophisticated note, Pyongyang movie buffs enjoy the romantic comedies by Russian director Riazanov, also a major hit with the Russian middle-brow audience (to which the present author proudly belongs himself!). The love stories, with a light touch of social satire, portray the middle classes of the late Soviet era.

Other Soviet hits were the intellectual spy thrillers based on novels by the prolific Yulian Semenov. The authorities love those films since they have a “correct” ideological message (the brave KGB agents dwarf the intrigues of the CIA or Gestapo). The common people like the same movies because they exhibit a level of sophistication impermissible in North Korean cinema. Semenov’s CIA agents, and even the Gestapo thugs, are by no means the one-dimensional “wolf-like Yankees” of the North Korean films.

Indian movies are popular as well. While nearly unknown in the West, the numerous studios of Bombay/Mumbai (“Bollywood”) churn out an astonishing amount of musicals and melodramas, to be enjoyed across South Asia and in some parts of the former Communist bloc. These movies are sugary, hyper-sentimental, with one-dimensional characters, predictable storylines, primitive dialogue, and no acting worthy of the name.

But they also have a lot of singing and dancing numbers, as well as stunningly beautiful sets and scenery. It’s escapism in its purest form, and this is probably what people north of the 38th really want. Perhaps, even the heavy doses of syrup in the storyline appeal to the North Korean public who, for decades, have subsisted on a diet of ideologically wholesome movies where the major emotion was love for the Leader (and, perhaps, hatred towards one’s enemies).

People are tired of the ideological messages _ especially if those messages are presented in a crude way. It seems that not only movie producers, hardly happy about ideology themselves, but even their supervisors are beginning to realize this in the most recent decade. The system is getting more and shallow, based on assumptions few people actually believe. But that is another story…

Yonhap 
6/3/2007

NKeconWatch: Joshua at One Free Korea is skeptical about the article below, read here.  As a side note, see how much lower health care prices can be if consumers are permitted to pay for it themselves. 

High-tech portal devices such as music players and cameras are almost ubiquitous in South Korea, but many may believe they are nowhere to be found in poverty-stricken North Korea.

Unlike the conventional wisdom, however, a growing number of North Koreans, though still confined to some privileged classes, listen to music with MP3 players and take pictures with digital cameras in their daily life, a North Korean souvenir shop clerk told Yonhap News Agency.

A group of South Korean reporters visited North Korea last week to cover a delegation from South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province which has been promoting agricultural exchanges with the communist government. The reporters were allowed to visit a department store and other attractions in the North’s capital, Pyongyang.

When asked what he was listening to with an earphone, the North Korean clerk answered plainly, “MP3 music files,” adding that he downloaded songs from the Internet.

When asked if he has a digital camera, the clerk replied, “I am using the same model Canon that you are carrying now.”

In terms of IT development, the reclusive North has been regarded as lagging far behind South Korea where almost all younger people take it for granted to use digital devices.

The clerk’s response does not provide any insight into the North’s IT sector, including how many of them use such digital devices, but experts say that they offer a glimpse into changes taking place in North Korea, though slowly.

Meanwhile, a North Korean restaurant worker said that many beauty-conscious North Korean women receive plastic surgeries to look prettier. “You can easily see a woman on the street who had a double eyelid operation,” he said.

Such eyelid plastic surgery costs around 0.7 euro in the North, slightly less than the average monthly salary in the country, he said.

Korea Herald
5/23/2007

North Korea’s first film bidding for buyers at the Cannes market provides a rare look at the fortress nation seen through teenage eyes, according to a news report.

“The Schoolgirl’s Diary,” one of only two films produced from Pyongyang last year, chronicles a girl’s life through her school years, grappling with peer pressure and family problems much the same as those the world over, AFP reported.

“It is not pure propaganda,” said James Velaise of Pretty Pictures, who snapped up distribution rights at the Pyongyang filmfest last September, a two-yearly event barred to US movie types but open to a handful of European and Communist nations.

“It’s the first time North Korea has been shown on the market,” Velaise told AFP. The film, which reportedly saw eight million admissions at home last year, or roughly one out of three North Koreans,will be released in France at the end of the year.

The movie, described by trade magazine Variety as “well-lensed,” debuts unexpectedly with schoolgirls in uniform carrying Mickey Mouse bags.

Freedom House
5/1/2007

North Korea comes in last place again: 197

Asia-Pacific Region: The Asia-Pacific region as a whole exhibited a relatively high level of freedom, with 16 countries (40 percent) rated Free, 10 (25 percent) rated Partly Free, and 14 (35 percent) rated Not Free. Nevertheless, Asia is home to two of the five worst-rated countries in the world, Burma and North Korea, which have extremely repressive media environments, as well as several other poor performers such as China, Laos and Vietnam, all of which use state or party control of the press as the primary tool to restrict media freedom.

Several bright spots worth noting include Nepal, where wide-ranging political change led to a dramatic opening in the media environment, and Cambodia and Indonesia, which also featured positive movement. Asia saw many negative developments in 2006, however, continuing the downward regional trajectory noted in last year’s survey. Coups and military intervention led to the suspension of legal protections for press freedom and new curbs imposed on media coverage in Fiji and Thailand. Intensified political and civil conflict during the year contributed to declines in Sri Lanka, East Timor and the Philippines. Heightened restrictions on coverage, as well as harassment of media outlets that overstepped official and unofficial boundaries, negatively impacted press freedom in Malaysia, China and Pakistan.

Joong Ang Daily
Lee Ho-jeong
5/7/2007

The wearing of the hanbok, the Korean traditional dress, is undoubtedly one of Korea’s most cherished traditions. Once worn everyday, it is now most commonly worn on special occasions, such as the Lunar New Year and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), or at weddings and funerals.

Although most people in Korea today wear western suits or sneakers and jeans, the hanbok has a special meaning for many Koreans and that is reflected in the high prices, particularly for some of the more elaborate examples.

Many experts say that Korean hanbok makers, in an effort to reconnect with the wider public, are researching ways to integrate the hanbok’s essential elements with Western fashion.

Bae Young-ja and Choi Hye-yool, authors of the book “The History of Korean Clothes,” said the hanbok, which consists of pants and a jacket, has its roots in the outfits of the Northern Altaic peoples.

(more…)

KCNA
5/4/2007

The Korean Documentary and Scientific Film Studio recently released the documentary “Grand Hydropower Base in Thaechon Area”.

The film vividly depicts historic facts showing that the Thaechon area has been converted into a huge power base under President Kim Il Sung’s grand nature-remaking plan and Kim Jong Il’s wise guidance. 

It presents scenes of Kim Jong Il forming a highly qualified construction team involving servicemen and wisely leading the construction of the power stations, visiting the area several times to solve all the problems and bestowing great loving care upon the builders. 

It also shows how heroically the builders including servicemen and youth shock brigade members worked to build the gigantic Songwon and Thaechon dams, excavate huge water tunnels and build five power stations. 

The film says that Kim Jong Il spoke highly of the strenuous fighting spirit, the working manner of self-reliance and the optimistic way of life displayed by the builders and set them up as the spirit of Thaechon.

Daily NK
Choi Myung Chul
4/19/2007

I defected at a young age and arrived in South Korea in 2004, where I was admitted into third of year of middle school. In North Korea, I had been attending school and was in second year high school.

At first, I found it difficult assimilating into a South Korean school. Social interests were different and the fact that 9 out of 10 South Korean children enjoyed going to an internet café and playing games was intriguing on its own. Though I find computer games challenging and fun today, back then it was hard enough trying to figure out a computer, let along mastering a game.

There are no opportunities to see computers in North Korea. That’s because no one owns a computer. Comparatively, North Korea is like South Korea in the 1970’s. I played outside with top spins, paper-flipping, slides and soccer. I also caught fish as our family lived in Hoiryeong nearby the Tumen River, though catching fish was not only a game but our means of survival.

At that time, the greatest obstacle to our play was hunger. When you run around and play, you need food to regain your energy. There were even times we had no strength to sit up and play. Rather we lay, slumped. During those times, we sat around day-dreaming. We would play truth or dare and pretend to smoke with cigarette butts we had secretly collected and talked nonsense while lamenting over our lives.

Satisfying hunger through the generosity of an affluent friend

We often had fights with kids from other schools. There was one incident where a child even got his head seriously hurt, but back then your friends were all you had. Even as we lay lifeless, I felt secure because of my friends.

Though I was starving, I even got to watch TV, that is during the short times our village was supplied energy. Though the majority of us were poor, one of my friends had a TV in his home, as his mother had done well at the markets. Even though only one station was broadcasting, the North Korea program, it was still very fun. I remember seeing one movie, “Order 027” which was about the People’s Army invading the Blue House (South Korea’s presidential building). The action wasn’t too bad, even interesting to a point.

Once in a blue moon, a friend would come into some money and then we would go to the markets to buy snacks. We bought bread made of corn powder and tofu rice. Even though the serving was small, my friend always shared his food with me.

Actually, all our friends did this. It was a time where we were all starving, yet we were willing to share our food, even half a corn cob.

Then one day, my mother left and I starving of hunger, left for China. On my way to Dalian in search for relatives, I was caught and forcefully repatriated back to North Korea. So I went looking for my best friend Hakjoo. Hakjoo and I had grown up together and had experienced so many things including severe hunger.

Offer to escape but offer denied

I informed Hakjoo of my plans and tried to persuade him to come. He replied, “Nevertheless, my homeland is here. If I died, I am going to die here. I cannot go with you.” We got into a huge argument and he said I had been brainwashed by capitalism.

Ever since we were little, we studied that Chosun (North Korea) was a socialist paradise and learned of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Song’s revolutionary history. Even at that time, many of us were ignorant of the outside world. My friend’s loyalty to the great leader stood firm and he denied leaving our motherland.

By the time I had seen and heard of China, my devotion to Kim Jong Il had disappeared. I tried to convince Hakjoo that China was rich in food and much more abundant than North Korea but, failed to persuade him. I remember him saying, “Still. How can I desert our leader and our motherland?”

Hakjoo did not agree with my dreams but he still wished me health and safety. He also promised me that he would not report me to the authorities and said, “Don’t worry. But you must go in safety. Do not get caught and be safe.”

North Korea is a society where each person regulates one another. It is a society where trust is nonexistent. However, I trusted that friend and because I believed that he would not report me, I was able to safely defect the country.

As I left, I said to me friend, “I will return without fail… I’ll see you then.”

That was ’98. I found my way to my relatives home in Dlian, worked as a farmer in China for 3 years and then at a restaurant for 3 years.

At first, I planned to live in China. I had no intention of coming to Korea as I felt it would then be harder for me to return to North Korea. However, I could not continue to live hidden as an illegal immigrant and in the end, I followed the footsteps of another friend in 2004.

Whenever I face a hard time I think, ‘If I came with Hakjoo, it wouldn’t have been so hard,’ If we had defected together, the hardships in China and the loneliness would not have been so bad.

No matter how difficult the task, that friend always pulled through. However, he is not here now and so all the decisions have to be made by me. It’s tough because there is not one person I can fully trust and be dependent on.

But I am going to live well. Every day, I have just enough to scrape by and though it’s not easy, I am attending university. When I return to North Korea one day, there are many things for me to do. My dream is to construct a company there and rebuild a North Korea that has fallen to devastation.

And above all, I study because I made a promise to my friend. When I return to my hometown, my aim is to meet my friend standing tall and proud.

Yonhap
4/14/2007

A festive mood was pervading North Korea Saturday as the birthday of the communist state’s late founder drew near, with a series of exhibitions and gatherings being held, the North’s state media reported.

Pyongyang has staged art, sports and dance events annually for the birthday of Kim Il-sung, which falls on April 15, and is also known as the Day of Sun. Kim died of heart failure on July 8 1994 at the age of 82, and his son Kim Jong-il took power afterward.

Art troupes from China, Russia, Japan, Kazakhstan, India and Indonesia staged performances in Pyongyang on Saturday, the third day of the country’s April Spring Friendship Art Festival, according to the North’s state media.

A flower exhibition for “Kimilsungia,” an orchid named after Kim, was opened Friday with the North’s and foreign officials in attendance. The exhibition will be run until Thursday.

The festive mood is expected to culminate when the North stages the pro-unification Arirang festival Sunday through May 20. It is one of the North’s major gymnastics events and is popular among both Western and South Korean visitors.

Foreign delegations also have arrived Pyongyang to celebrate Kim’s birthday, the state media reported.

An Indonesian delegation made a visit to the North’s Mansudae Assembly Hall on Friday and conveyed a present to the incumbent North Korean leader via Kim Young-dae, the North’s No. 3 leader. It also toured Mankyongdae, the birthplace of the late founder in a rural village near the North Korean capital.

A Russian delegation also paid homage to a Kim Il-sung statue at the Mansudae Assembly Hall, while a Mongolian delegation paid visits to art exhibition halls and other sites to commemorate the birthday.

KCNA
4/10/2007

A ten-day film show opened Tuesday on the occasion of the Day of the Sun. 

Films dealing with the immortal revolutionary exploits of President Kim Il Sung and personality of Kim Jong Il as a great man will be screened at cinemas and cultural houses in Pyongyang and other parts of the country during the period. 

Among them are documentaries “Honor of Our People Holding the Great Leader in High Esteem”, “They Are Together in the Course of the Great Songun Leadership” and “Under the Guidance of the Great Brilliant Commander” and feature films “Star of Korea” and “Mt. Paektu”.

An opening ceremony took place at the Pyongyang International Cinema House.

Kang Nung Su, minister of Culture, made an opening speech.

At the end of the ceremony the participants watched newly-released documentary “Finding Himself among the People All His Life” (Part 1). 

Similar ceremonies were held in provinces on the same day.