North Korean Economy Watch

KCNA
4/5/2007

A carrot approach being taken by the imperialists serves as a lever to carry out their appeasement strategy. This is a very crafty and wicked plot to create illusion about them by appeasing and deceiving their opponents in a bid to benumb their anti-imperialist spirit and completely disarm them ideologically and morally.

Rodong Sinmun Thursday observes this in a signed article.

It goes on:

The above-said approach may bring consequences as dangerous as open aggression by force of arms.

One should not interpret the above-said approach as a sort of change in the aggressive nature of the imperialists. The carrot approach of the imperialists which is bound to be accompanied by appeasement tactics and smiling diplomacy is designed to do harm to their opponents at a slow pace till they prove ineffective in face of their moves for domination and end up collapsing.

It is the aim sought by the imperialists in the above-said approach to create illusion about them and thus put other countries under the yoke of domination and subjugation and gratify their interests.

The imperialists, while acting an “apostle of peace” by abusing the wish of humankind for a peaceful free world, are craftily working to confuse the spirit of people and cause them to harbor illusion about imperialism.

They are intensifying economic domination and subjugation of other countries by such levers as “aid”, “cooperation” and “loan”.

This is eloquently proved by the reality of those countries which have been put under the yoke of political subjugation after receiving the “aid” and “loan” offered by the imperialists as a “kind gesture.”

There will be disastrous consequences for those countries which abandon their revolutionary principle and meet the imperialists’ demand, taken in by glossy words uttered by them as part of their appeasement policy. Worse still, their wrong behavior may lead to the loss of their sovereignty. All countries should, therefore, be vigilant against the imperialists’ carrot approach and should not be tempted by it under any circumstances.

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From that time down to this day, SITC has been conducting research & development activities about fields of multimedia communication, image processing, audio & video processing, embedded application, educational application, multimedia contents and authoring tools, and the many powerful and good products were developed.

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Distribution ratio of technical personnel by fields

Strategy
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Yonhap
3/29/2007

A group of 143 South Koreans made a four-day visit to North Korea starting from March 22 to celebrate the opening of a North Korean digital library built with South Korean technology, a local foundation that has a leading role in the project said.

During their stay in Pyongyang, Rep. Im Jong-seok of the ruling Uri Party and other delegates attended the opening ceremony of the digital library at the North’s top school, Kimilsung University, on March 23 and toured the city’s landmarks.

The library’s computer network was built with aid from South Korea’s Hanyang University, the Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library and the Korean Foundation for South-North Economic and Cultural Cooperation, a private foundation for the promotion of such inter-Korean cooperation.

Kimilsung University is the first North Korean school to introduce the South’s advanced digital library system.

Jo Chol, vice president of the North’s university, said he hopes to see an exchange of teaching staff between the universities of the two Koreas, saying the exchange in academic fields will promote the improvement of inter-Korean relations.

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
3/28/2007

In the mid-80’s, “Lim Kug Jung” a novel written by the famous North Korean writer Hong Myung Hee was produced into a 5 part movie series in North Korea.

Since then, throwing stones has become a craze amongst North Korean men who are fascinated at a character “Bea Dol Suk”, who was proficient in throwing stones. During the peak, youths in their teens would imitate particular scenes from the movie, setting the trend of throwing stones.

Youths in North Korea enjoy throwing stones as a pastime, including the writer of this report.

As friends gathered at the riverside, they would search the ground for flat smooth stones and compete to see who could make the stone jump the longest. If any sparrows were found, men would aim for the bird, imitating the character Bae Dol Suk from the movie.

Movies in North Korea have an enormous influence over the people. Just like Lim Kug Jung was popular, the movie “Order-027” which portrayed the marksmanship of young North Koreans, also set a fad in North Korea.

‘Order-027’ was set in the Korean War and revolves around a North Korean battalion whom acted as spies after breaking into South Korea and their attempt to defect back to North Korea. The movie depicts an idealistic battalion full of strategic tactics and power, showcasing soldiers to be grand revolutionists.

After the movie was telecasted, North Korean teenagers throughout the nation, would copy the scenes from the movie “Order-027.” In particular, North Korean men were mesmerized by soldiers throwing daggers and forks in the movie.

It seems that trends set by movies or TV is similar in both the North and the South.

BBC
Greg Constantine
6/27/2003

In a basement office in Seoul, South Korea, Ms Kim stepped onto the stage and smiled to the audience.

She wore a light pink ballroom gown and lace gloves, and looked as glamorous as a 1950s Broadway star.

As the music began, a burst of feedback stormed out of the speakers.

But Ms Kim maintained her focus and never broke her smile.

She is a member of T’ongil Ye Sul Dan, a performing arts group made up of North Korean defectors.

The group consists of four singers, an accordionist, a playwright, a dancer, a classically trained pianist and an award-winning impersonator.

“Our goal is to help diminish the cultural gap between North and South Koreans,” said group member Choi Hee-soon.

“We need to educate people on the realities and the culture of North Korea, and promote cultural unification,” she said.

The group performs North and South Korean classics such as What is the Life?, Arirang, Touching Times and My Hometown.

 We want to share North Korean culture

Choi Hee-Soon, group member 

“In North Korea, there is no individual expression,” said Ms Choi, who studied music in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang before defecting to China.

“There is no such thing as private words or emotion. In North Korea, songs are shouted not sung. In South Korea, music is moving and touching. In North Korea we did not sing by ourselves for the pleasure of singing. We sang only for others,” she said.

“If I were to play in North Korea,” said Kim E-ok, the accordionist in the group, “it would be only to sing and to celebrate the birthdays of (former and current leaders ) Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il or for collectively-held events.”

“We would never be able to play at such a performance as this. But now we need to transcend the impression South Koreans have of us,” he said.

Since the Korean War in 1950, North and South have shared a dislocated Korean peninsula, while travelling on opposing political and social paths.

While South Korea has opened up to the world’s economies and diverse cultures, North Korea has closed itself off, leaving many South Koreans ignorant of contemporary North Korean culture.

This is largely due to the few opportunities citizens of North and South have for personal or cultural exchange.

According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, fewer than 1,300 North and South Koreans have taken part in inter-Korean exchanges related to culture and art since 1989.

But with an increasing number of defectors entering South Korea each year – 1,140 arrived in 2002 – and with the will of individuals such as the members of T’ongil Ye Sul Dan, North Korean culture has more exposure.

“You will be tired before you reach one mile/ Walking over the peak at Arirang”, sang Ms Kim at T’ongil Ye Sul Dan’s performance.

The Arirang folk song has become an anthem for people who dream of unifying and reviving, not just a culture, but an entire people.

Hanging next to the stage was a banner bearing the symbol of the T’ongil Ye Sul Dan group. It combined a globe with a picture of a united Korean peninsula.

Straddling the Chinese border in the north of the peninsula rests Paekdu Mountain and Cheonji Lake, The Lake of Heaven.

More than 500 miles away, in the south of Korea, rests a lake on Halla Mountain on the island of Jeju.

“The purpose of T’ongil Ye Sul Dan,” said Ms Choi, “is to educate South Koreans so they are prepared for the time when the waters from the north and the waters from the south travel freely from one mountain to the other. We want to share North Korean culture.”

Check out his revolutionary platform on Youtube

Promo for the World Festival of Youth and Students

Daily NK
Han Young Jin
3/16/2007

“I ordered trees to be planted. Why are the mountains bare!”

North Korean authorities released a publication on the 6th which summarized that, “We must work hard in forestry in order to make our country beautiful.” This order was made by Kim Jong Il on March 6th 2002 to authorities, the state, military and the elite. 5 years on, authorities now honor and remember the words spoken by the dear leader through a propagandist publication that is published whenever the state deems necessary. The content of this publication was also revealed on the official North Korean website “Uriminzokkiri (amongst our nation).”

The document usually contains the comprehensive ideologies and theories made by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il that need to be passed on to the people.

Following are a few of the decrees found in the publications.

“The nation is experiencing economic difficulty due to coupling natural disasters and imperialists who are trying to isolate us. Trees are growing sporadically in the hills and mountain regions. The mountains are also becoming barren….”

“For the past few years, I have been telling you to work hard afforestation and have encouraged you at every opportunity.”

“However, an forestation has not met the criteria of authorities and is not going according to plan.”

Kim Jong Il’s Analysis

What Kim Jong Il is trying to say is that, “The reason afforestation is not working is because of the people’s reckless slash-and-burn cultivation, as well as the inefficiency of officers unable to block it.”

After the food crisis in ’95, people uprooted vines and trees to suffice their underfed diets, as well as cultivating illegal farms for food. Further, to save themselves from freezing to death, people used trees as firewood.

At the time, people were desolate, battling between life and death. If, however, these people were controlled and prohibited from such actions at the time, defectors say that many of those people would not be alive today.

The destruction of mountains Kim Jong Il argues resulted from cunning imperialists isolating North Korea and the severe natural disasters that continued to plague the country. Yet, there is no evidence to support this claim.

The international community did not enforce pressure to the extent that North Korea could not resolve its problem of firewood. Rather, after the 1994 Geneva Agreement, 50,000 tons of fuel was provided annually. Despite this, Kim Jong Il always redirects the responsibility of lack of energy on the international community and the failure of public welfare on the U.S.

Even evidence to support that natural disasters caused a downfall to the economy has become obscure. It is true that North Korea was hit with drought and flood during 1995~1997, however there has not been any major natural disasters since this time and in 2002 when these decrees were first made. Instead, North Korea should have re-planted much of the mountain trees, though reality is not the case. Rather, Kim Jong Il is blaming the failure of national construction and forestation on mother nature.

Without resolving the food crisis, the mountains will remain bare

Every year, for about a month during the spring (early March~April) and fall (early Nov~Dec) seasons, North Korea enters a time of national construction where the rivers and waterways are cleared and trees planted. This national construction first began in March 1996.

North Korea has aimed to plant a billion trees and has been planting this number of trees every year. Following 10 years of national construction, what is the current state of North Korea?

If national construction had worked as planned, North Korea’s mountains should be dense in trees. However, the cause of North Korea’s mountains being so bare is evidence that the food crisis has not yet been solved.

North Korean authorities ordered citizens that they had the right to eat the tree saplings and cereals as it had been cultivated on the mountains which were illegal grounds. On the other hand, the people are continuously angry as trees are overtaking the land in which their grains should be planted. As a result, whenever a tree has grown a certain height, people uproot the trees and plant a smaller sapling in its place. In the end, though the idea of planting trees has been fulfilled, the mountains are still barren.

Ultimately, it seems that North Korea’s empty mountains will continue until the food issue is resolved.

Asia Times
Sunny Lee
3/14/2007

North Korea is well known for its nuclear ambitions. But it is relatively little-known fact that the country is a hidden outsourcing mecca for the international animation industry, producing such well-known movies as The Lion King.

Even while North Korea has been under US-led sanctions that include a ban on commercial trade, several US animated films have allegedly been outsourced to the country, according to Beijing-based businessman Jing Kim, who says he was involved with American animation producer Nelson Shin’s filmmaking business in the Stalinist pariah state.

Shin, a 67-year-old Korean-born American, is best known for the television cartoon series The Simpsons, which was actually drawn in Seoul by a team of animators led by him since its premiere in 1989.

Shin and Kim first met in Singapore in 1999 at an international animation film fair, where Kim led the North Korean delegation. There, Shin asked Kim to help him to connect with the North Korean animation industry, Kim said.

China-born Kim, 47, has been doing business with North Korea for nearly 20 years and owns a restaurant in Pyongyang. Through his company in Singapore, where he holds a resident permit, Kim used to sell North Korean products to South Korea during a period when direct commerce between the two ideologically opposed neighbors was not possible.

After seven years of cooperation with North Korea’s state-owned SEK Studio, employing as many as 500 North Korean animators out of its staff of 1,500, and 18 visits to the country, Shin finally completed Empress Chung in 2005, a famous Korean folk tale about a daughter who sacrifices herself to a sea monster to restore her blind father’s eyesight. It was the first cartoon jointly produced by the two Koreas.

Apparently, however, according to Kim, Empress Chung was not the only film made by North Korean cartoonists. Shin, who heads Seoul-based AKOM Production, a unit of KOAA Film in Los Angeles, allegedly outsourced to North Korea part of the animation contracts that his firm had originally received from the United States.

On one occasion, for example, North Korean animators employed by Shin came to Beijing from Pyongyang to work exclusively on several US animation movies, staying there for months, according to Kim.

When asked whether any of the movies were actually broadcast in the US, Kim said, “Oh, a lot, a lot. The ones that I participated in were as many as seven.”

But Kim declined to name the US films, citing the sanctions imposed on North Korea. “If the names of the US companies are known, they will be screwed,” said Kim.

Kim said “many people will be hurt” if he went into details, adding, “We worked very carefully.”

When asked whether the US film companies involved actually knew that their cartoons had been made by North Koreans, Kim said: “They don’t want to know. If they knew, it wouldn’t be fun. After they make contracts with the South Koreans, they just assume that it is made there. They only care about the delivery [of the products] and their quality. It is too much for them to ask where they were actually made. We don’t have the obligation to tell them, either. The only thing they claim is the copyright.”

However, Nelson Shin denied the allegation. “There were no American cartoon movies made in North Korea,” Shin said from Seoul. “As far as I know, there were some Italian and French movies made in North Korea. But I am not aware of any American cartoons made in North Korea.”

Shin also noted the technical difference of production origination between “made in” and “made by”. He took the example of The Lion King. “It’s a Disney film. However, if Disney Europe, not the Disney company in the US, gave North Korea the production order, then it is not a deal placed by an ‘American’ company.”

Kim in Beijing, however, said his cooperation with Shin led them to employ eight North Korean animators in 2005 to come to Beijing, where the North Koreans stayed for six months, from June 10 to November 18. That was followed by a second group of North Korean animators, who came to Beijing and stayed for much of 2006, returning to Pyongyang on December 27-28, according to Kim.

When it was noted that Kim mentioned all these dates without referring to any written memo, he tersely said: “That’s how I make my living.”

Kim said he didn’t pay the North Korean artists in person for their work. Rather, he wired US$170,000 to North Korea directly for their 2006 assignments.

Kim said most North Korean animators are highly educated, including graduates from the prestigious Pyongyang College of Arts.

Animation involves the grueling job of grinding out tens of thousands of drawings for a single 22-minute cartoon. “They worked without complaint,” Kim said, while also praising the quality of their work. He said hiring North Korean artists meant that the usual company benefits, such as medical insurance, welfare and overtime, did not need to be provided.

“It’s a system that is doable,” Kim said.

North Korea’s cartoon industry has become quite sophisticated as a result of its cooperation with France and Italy in their animation projects since 1983. North Korea’s animation skills now rank among the world’s best, experts say.

“They are highly talented. That’s something I can say,” said Shin in Seoul.

South Korea itself was once the largest supplier of television animation in the world during its peak in the 1990s, churning out more than 1,000 half-hour episodes. However, its status has since declined with the rise of labor costs there, pushing animation companies to find alternatives such as India, the Philippines and North Korea. The Chronicles of Narnia, for example, used Indian animators for some characters. It’s unclear how much North Korea contributes to the world animation market today.

Meanwhile, when asked about the similarity of cartoon characters between Empress Chung and the ones seen in recent US animation movies, Shin said, “It’s inconvenient to talk about it on the phone.”

However, Shin said he is working on a new joint North-South Korea animation movie called Goguryeo, the title a reference to an ancient Korean kingdom that existed until AD 68. He expects it will take about two years to complete.

(updated): Youtube is a great time killer…recently I found these North Korean cartoons that I recommend…

                      
   Squirrel & Hedgehog                    Ammunition Pencil   
     (Part 1), (Part 2)

                      
Racoon, Dog, and Wolf                   The Frog Guard
                      
The Buzz of Bee Paradise
     (part 1), (part 2)

Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
2/20/2007

In July 1997, the five most important government agencies of North Korea published a joint declaration which informed the North Korea populace and the entire world that the country was introducing a new calendar. The year 1912 became the First Year of Chuche. The reason? This was the year Kim Il-sung was born.

The decision allowed the occasional use of the Christian-era years, but these four-digit numbers would accompany the new official chronological designation only when deemed necessary. Thus 2006 AD is the Year 95 of the Chuche Era. In other words, Kim Il-sung’s birthday replaced that of Christ in the official North Korean calendar.

The world has seen other attempts to break with old calendar traditions. In France of the 1790s, the revolutionaries began to count years from the proclamation of the French Republic. In South Korea of the 1950s, the government tried to implement the so-called ‘Tangun Era.’ None of these attempts succeeded for more than a few decades.

However, the decision to introduce the Chuche Era was just one of the many manifestations of Kim Il-sung’s posthumous “personality cult.”

Indeed, the memory of the North Korea’s founding father is treated in Pyongyang with the utmost respect. Obviously, this was the intention of the dead founder when he chose to transform his country into the first communist monarchy in world history.

He saw what had happened to Stalin and Mao’s posthumous reputations, and arranged the transition of power within his family, so the new leaders have a vested interest in keeping the old man’s memory intact.

First of all, Kim Il-sung is to remain the country’s only president.

After his death, the President’s office was left vacant _ and is meant to remain vacant forever. Kim Il-sung is North Korea’s “eternal president” while Kim Jong-il runs the country not as president, but merely as “chairman of the national defense committee.”

Kim Il-sung’s body has been embalmed and left on public display in a special glass-covered coffin. Actually, in this regard they follow an established _ if bizarre _ communist tradition. Lenin’s body was treated in such a way in 1924 (against his own clearly expressed will), and since then many other communist leaders have had their bodies left on public display _ also often against their will.

However, the sheer size of the North Korean mausoleum is impressive. In other Communist countries, bodies of the dead leaders were held in specially constructed and relatively small _ if impressive _ buildings.

The North decided to transform the entire Presidential Palace into the mausoleum and major center of Kim Ilsung’s posthumous cult.

The construction of Kmsusan Palace began in 1974, and in 1977 it was presented to Kim Il-sung as a present for his 65th birthday. In Kim’s lifetime, the imposing building, with floor area of 35,000 square meters, was strictly off-limits to the public, but in recent years it has become the center of a government- sponsored pilgrimage.

Of course, portraits of Kim Il sung are everywhere, albeit often accompanied by images of Kim Jong-il and his mother Kim Jong-suk. From the late 1960s, the North Korean bureaucracy has developed intricate rules to determine where and how Kim Il-sung’s likeness would be displayed. I’ll probably say more about these rules later, but now it suffices to say that every living room, office, and entrance to every official building, as well as every railway carriage, has been adorned with the portrait of the leader from the 1970s.

After 1980, the portrait of his son has complemented that of the father.

The currently approved portrait of Kim Il-sung is officially known as the ‘sun image’ (taeyangsang in Korean). Here the Great Leader is depicted as smiling kindly at his subjects, and he is dressed in the Western suit and necktie that he actually preferred in the last years of his life (prior to 1984 Kim had worn a Mao suit).

These portraits are mass-produced by the ‘Mansudae Creative Group,’ a special workshop whose sole purpose is to design and manufacture portraits and statues of the Great Leaders.

An important part of Kim Ilsung’s posthumous glorification is the numerous “Yongsaengtap,” or “Towers of Eternal Life.” Their name reflects the official slogan: “Kim Il-sung will live with us forever!” These towers have a shape, slightly reminiscent of ancient Egypt’s obelisks, and they are decorated with slogans on Kim’s alleged “eternal presence” in his realm.

As of 1997, there were 3,150 “Towers of Eternal Life” nationwide. They are normally erected at crossroads, and every major town is required to have one. Most of these structures are relatively cheap and easy to build, but some of them are quite elaborate and expensive.

The tallest of all towers is, of course, located in Pyongyang. It has a height of 92.5 meters _ just a bit lower than the Chuche Tower, one of the city’s major architectural monuments.

However, Kim Il-sung’s cult is now giving way to the cult of his son, who has successfully become the new supreme ruler of the country.