North Korean Economy Watch

From the Korea Times:
Andrei Lankov
9/10/2006

Recently I was talking to a Westerner who has been working in Pyongyang for quite a long time. Describing the recent changes, he said: “Once upon a time, one had to come back from an overseas trip with a truckload of cigarettes. Now my North Korean colleagues want me to bring movies, especially tapes of South Korean TV dramas.’’

Indeed, North Korea is in the middle of a video revolution which is likely to have a deep impact on its future.

What killed Soviet-style socialism? In the final analysis, it was its innate economic inefficiency. The state is a bad entrepreneur, and the entire history of the 20th century testifies to this. The capitalist West outproduced and outperformed the communist East, whose countries were lagging behind in many regards, including living standards.

Thus, the communist governments had to enforce the strict control of information flows from overseas. There were manifold reasons to do so, but largely this was done exactly because the rulers did not want commoners to learn how vastly more prosperous were people of similar social standing in the supposedly “exploited’’ West.

But people learned about it eventually, and once it happened, the fate of state socialism was sealed.

In the USSR and other countries of once communist Eastern Europe, uncensored information was largely provided by a short-wave radio broadcast. The BBC, the Voice of America and Freedom Radio were especially popular. The USSR was a more liberal place than North Korea, so Soviet citizens could easily buy radio sets in shops.

As far as I know, Moscow never considered a ban on short-wave radio sets in peacetime-perhaps, because in a vast country such a measure would prevent a large part of population hearing the news. The government occasionally resorted to jamming, but it was not always efficient as it could only work around major cities.

In North Korea, where the radio sets are sold with pre-fixed tuning, their role is less prominent even if some North Koreans do listen to foreign broadcasts.

However, North Koreans found another way to access foreign media. If the Soviet Union was brought down by the short-wave radio, in North Korea the corresponding role is likely to be played by videotape.

As with many other great social changes, this one began with a minor technological revolution. DVD players have been around for quite a while, but around 2001 their prices went down dramatically. Northeast China was no exception. Local Chinese households began to purchase DVD players, and this made their old VCRs obsolete. The Chinese market was instantly flooded with very cheap used VCRs that could be had for $10 or $20.

Many of these machines were bought by smugglers who transported the goods across the porous border between North Korea and China. They were re-sold at a huge premium, but still cost but some $30 to $40.

This made VCRs affordable to a large number of North Korean households. In the 1990s, they would have to pay some $200 for a VCR-a prohibitive sum with the average monthly salary hovering around $5. A $35 VCR is within reach of many (perhaps, most) North Korean households, even if they have to save a lot to afford one.

Against the dull background of the official arts, the VCRs were a vehicle for accessing good entertainment. Needless to say, people do not buy these expensive machines to watch the “Star of Korea,’’ a lengthy biopic about the youth of the Great Leader! Since the only major producer of Korean language shows is South Korea, it is only natural that most programs come from Seoul via China. The South Korean soaps are a major hit.

In a sense, the much-talked “Hallyu’’ or “Korean Wave,’’ a craze for all things Korean across East Asia, is a part of North Korean life as well. Young North Koreans enthusiastically imitate the fashions and parrot the idioms they see in South Korean movies. And this does not bode well for the regime’s future.

Of course, the moviemakers did not deliberately pursue any political goals, and their plots involve the usual melodramatic stories of love, family relations and escapist adventure. They are not even produced with a North Korean audience in mind. But the movies reflect the life of South Korea, and this image is vastly different from what the official North Korean media say.

I do not think that the North Koreans take what they see in the movies at face value. They know that their own movies grossly exaggerate the living standards in their county, so they expect moviemakers from other countries, including South Korea, to do the same.

Thus, they hardly believe that in the South everybody can eat meat daily or that every Seoul household has a car. Such an improbable affluence is beyond their wildest dreams.

But there are things that cannot be faked _ like, say, the Seoul cityscape dotted with high-rise buildings and impressive bridges. It is gradually dawning on the North Koreans that the South is not exactly the land of hunger and destitution depicted in their propaganda.

It became cool to look Southern and behave like Southerners do. This is yet another sign of coming change, and I do not think that these changes are likely to be as smooth as many people in Seoul would like them to be.

From the Donga:
9/5/2006

“Problems can arise anytime you do business in North Korea since there is no market order. However, when business partners disregard agreed-upon deals, it is impossible to conduct any new business. Someone who betrays others can always betray me. Now, who will be willing to trust North Korea and make new deals with it?”

Upon hearing the news report yesterday that North Korea sold the rights to build a large-scale resort including a golf course within the Gaesong Industrial Complex to South Korean real estate developer Unico, despite the fact that Hyundai Group currently holds the rights, one executive of a large company was assured that North Korea was not a trustworthy investment partner.

“If the South Korean government fails to have a control over ‘lawless’ North Korea, the entire business with North Korea can fall into a crisis,” he worried.

During the Kim Dae-jung administration, Hyundai Group began its North Korean business led by then-chairman Chung Ju-yung. It has invested more than $1 billion in North Korea, including $450 million (about 510 billion won by then exchange rate) illegally transferred to the North as a price for holding the inter-Korean summit in 2000. In the process, the company had to go through a major management crisis and the tragedy of Chairman Chung Mong-hun’s suicide.

At such a great cost, Hyundai earned from the North “seven business rights,” which include the rights to provide electricity, railway, tourism, and a dam. With regards to the 3-phase Gaesong Industrial Complex project, it obtained a certificate with which it is allowed to use the land for 50 years.

Nevertheless, Hyundai is gradually being excluded in North Korean businesses except for the existing Geumgang Mountain tour and the first-phase Gaesong Industrial Complex development. There are even rumors that North Korea is in the final stages of negotiation with Lotte Tours over tourism business in Gaesong and Baekdu Mountain, excluding Hyundai that has the business rights in those areas.

Now that North Korea is found to have sold the rights to use 1.4 million-pyeong of land in Gaesong to Unico at the price of $40 million, there is a greater sense of crisis in Hyundai.

It is needless to say that North Korea bears the largest responsibility for the recent trouble.

However, some point out that the South Korean government has been too lukewarm in its response to the problems with the North, out of fear that inter-Korean relations might suffer. They argue that such an attitude only encourages North Korea’s “derailment.”

“Hyundai Asan’s deal with the North over the second and third phases of the Gaesong Industrial Complex development and Unico’s deal with the North can cause overlaps or conflicts. Thus, the companies will have to negotiate over the matter,” said Goh Gyeong-bin, director-general of the Social and Cultural Exchanges Bureau at the Unification Ministry, yesterday when the news on Unico’s North Korea deal was reported.

“The Ministry of Unification never approved Hyundai Asan of its North Korea business to build a golf course in Gaesong. I believe a double deal is possible here just like it is in the private area,” he added.

This implies that the extraordinary business of inter-Korean economic cooperation is being recognized as an ordinary area of private autonomy where private business partners must resolve problems through self-negotiations.

However, everyone knows that Hyundai’s North Korea business did not start out as a mere private business activity. “The government has drawn no clear line in North Korean business, allowing companies to recklessly engage in such business only to encourage North Korea to develop bad habits,” one executive of an economic organization pointed out.

“In order to effectively manage business deals with unpredictable North Korea, the South Korean government must provide clear trade rules and guidelines. Considering the extraordinary nature of North Korean business, relying on the private sector’s autonomy will only extend uncertainties,” professor Hong Ki-taek of ChungAng University emphasized.

From the Joong Ang Daily: 

Kaesong golf course under consideration
9/5/2006

North Korea is in talks with a South Korean company other than Hyundai Asan Corp. for a golf course business in Kaesong, the Unification Ministry said yesterday.

Hyundai Asan, a Hyundai Group affiliate, holds an exclusive right to do business in North Korea.

According to the ministry, Unico, a real estate developer based in Daegu, signed an agreement with North Korea’s Asia Pacific Peace Committee to rent two sites near Kaesong Industrial Complex to build golf courses.

Under the contract, the North Korean committee will lease the two sites, one in the southwest and the other in the north, for $40 million over the next five decades.

Along with the golf courses, Unico plans to establish hotels and other entertainment facilities, said the ministry.

However, the same sites are part of the 16,337 acres of land that Hyundai Asan was allowed to use after reaching an accord with the North in 2000. The Korean company is in the middle of building an industrial complex on 816 acres.

Building golf courses on the sites Unico made a deal on was on Hyundai’s agenda for next year.

“The right to run a golf course business there belongs to us, as we forged the contract first,” said a senior executive from Hyundai Asan.

The company began consultations with Unico yesterday over the golf courses in the North, according to the source.

“If Unico comes up with an appropriate business proposal, we can let the company be a business partner,” he added.

A high-ranking manager from Unico said the company pushed ahead with the project as North Korea explained Hyundai Asan has the right to businesses in Kaesong Industrial Complex only.

The Unification Ministry said it would consider approving the golf course business in North Korea only if North Korea, Hyundai Asan and Unico reach a compromise.

From Daily NK:
Only Job in the World… North Korea, ‘Person Who Removes Fuses on Radios’
9/5/2006
Ha Tae Kyoung, Open Raido for North Korea

In order to stop the inflow of foreign information entering North Korea, irrespective of how a person obtained a radio, they must report ownership to the People’s Safety Agency (police). This radio is then locked onto North Korea’s official and only broadcasting channel. To fixate the channel the solder is completely removed. So to speak, the only radio station that North Koreans can legitimately listen to is this fixated broadcast.

The majority of the time, this radio station broadcasts songs about the leader and as a result is very boring. Even the TV like the radio is uninteresting as it is fixated on one channel and similarly broadcasts songs about the leader. However, this is not to say that there are many books in North Korea. A defector from Pyongyang once said that there are only 3 bookstores in Pyongyang. Even at these bookstores there are few books and of the few, the books are related to Kim Il Sung propaganda. Furthermore, tapes, movies and drama DVD’s are scarce. No wonder North Korean people find it difficult to spend their leisure times pleasantly.

Recently, the number of people listening to foreign radio programs during their leisure times has increased. Firstly, in order to listen to foreign radio programs the wires fixed onto the radio frequency must be removed. Thus experts are called to open the fuses and as a result, this job is becoming more and more popular. To remove the fuses it costs about North Korean 18,000won. This roughly converts to US$6~7. Taking into consideration that an official North Korean public servant earns about 2~3,000won ($0.67~1) a month, this is a substantial amount.

The reason that the fee is this expensive is not because of high technical skills that are involved in opening the fuses but because of the risk that leads to punishment. Lately in North Korea if a person is caught listening to foreign broadcasts, not only is the radio confiscated but the person is sentenced to 1~3months of forced labor. Compared to the past where people were sent to gulags, the punishment has eased dramatically. One of the reasons that punishment has eased is because of the increasing number of listeners to foreign radio.

Nonetheless the punishment for a person who opens fuses would undoubtedly be significantly greater than a person who listens to the radio. Hence the fee to remove the fuses continues to rise.

When will the day come where North Korea will be able to freely listen to foreign radio programs? Would change come during the time Kim Jong Il is in power? The more desirable condition would be where North Korean people can freely listen to foreign radio programs and the job of removing fuses vanishes. If this case is difficult to achieve in the near future, accordingly it would be better to anticipate North Korean authorities alleviating the punishment on people listening to foreign radio broadcasts. Then, at least the fee of removing fuses would substantially reduce.

From the Daily NK:
Park Hyun Min
8/30/2006

North Korean authorities are nervous about South Korean missionaries sending the Bibles via balloons to the North.

Recently, a South Korean missionary organization obtained a (North) Korean Workers’ Party document under a title of ‘Countermeasure Against Enemy’s Evil Activities of Infiltration of the Bibles to Our Country via Balloons.’

The document, which is suggested to be distributed by the Central KWP to the provincial party organization bureau and municipal party guidance bureau, is started with a phrase ‘Here is the Party’s decision, signed by the Dear Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il on June 30, 2004.’

It is stated in the document that ‘the enemies are planning to disseminate the Bibles to brainwash our people with religious idea by means of balloons.’ Also, the document orders every party organization, as soon as it receives the document, to educate party members and workers about the text.

According to the document, ‘activities such as keeping the bible found in balloons or disseminating it are acts of treason,’ and ‘education of the people not to participate in treacherous activities is to be carried out aggressively.’

The document proves North Korea’s anti-religious policy that has been continued since Kim Il Sung’s instruction of criticism on religion for being ‘reactionary and unscientific one that paralyzes class consciousness.’

Moreover, the document articulates “every Party cell must do interim assessment on its activity follow our Great General (Kim Jong Il)’s June 30 instruction against the enemy’s vile plan to distribute small radios and July 17 instruction against the enemy’s plot to disseminate religion to our country via balloons.”

This is the third document containing anti-religious message from North Korea since Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League Central Committee’s anti-religious education material reported by DailyNK last October, and the lecture document on ‘fight against the enemy’s plot to spread religion inside’ released by Good Friends, a Buddhist human rights organization in Seoul, this April.

Even though it is revealed through a series of such inside documents that North Korean regime is violating religious freedom, the country has been advertising its religious freedom to the outside. Last year when the Untied States pointed out North Korea’s suppression of religion, Pyongyang promptly responded with a statement, criticizing rather the United States is the worst violator of religious freedom.

Despite North Korea’s harsh policy against religion, ‘bible distribution movement’ and ‘radio distribution movement’ by South Korean human rights organizations and missionaries are effective to some extent and North Korean regime seems on alert over those activities.

From the Joon Ang Daily:

Ties sour at North’s China border

Signs of discontent between those two closest of allies, China and North Korea, have begun to appear. Last month, despite Chinese urging, North Korea fired off a test salvo of seven missiles. Although the tests were generally considered to be a bid for international attention, they provided Japan with more domestic ammunition to change its constitutional bar on warfare as an instrument of national policy, a development China does not see as in its interests.

Some suggestions of those cooling ties can be seen in this Chinese border city. Recently, about 40 North Korean women were waiting in front of the customs office in preparation for returning to North Korea. One of the women said Chinese authorities had order the women, who had worked at a stuffed-toy factory, out of the country.

“We received a three-year approval originally to work there, but after less than a year we are going back,” the woman said. Customs officials said the women were working illegally, but other people here were skeptical. One noted that many Russians have no problems because of a lack of work papers. “When relations between China and North Korea were good, there were no problems,” one said. “These incidents are in line with the cooling ties in light of the North Korean missile launch.”

In all, about 300 North Koreans have been told to leave Dandung for their homeland. The head of a trading company here, who has been dealing with North Korea for 10 years, said another 300 North Koreans will be sent home from Dandung within a month.

A source in Beijing said the Labor Ministry headquarters told its subordinate offices earlier this month not to issue work permits to North Koreans who carry passports and visas issued to government officials. “In the past, these people were allowed to work, and given the fact that they already have a visa, this measure is probably a retaliatory move by Beijing,” this source said.

A South Korean trader with ties to the North and China said that custom checks at the border have been increased, resulting in longer delays in shipping goods. The Dandung Customs Office said concerns about drug trafficking was the reason for stepped-up measures, an explanation that some residents here say has no precedent.  

From the Daily NK:
8/17/2006

National Defense Commission’s Inspection Task Force Dispatched to Sino-Korean Border
By Kim Young Jin, Yanji of China
 
An inspection task force under the National Defense Commission (NDC) is deployed on the Sino-Korean border in order to review border security and to check defection from North Korea to China.

Kim Choon Il (a false name), a 36-year-old defector living in South Korea since 2003, said on Wednesday that in a telephone conversation with his family in North Korea on Tuesday, he was told that NDC’s inspection team came to the border area since the end of last July and inspection became much tighter.

Kim also said that the inspection task force, cooperating with local Workers’ Party office, National Security Agency, and police, blocked the Sino-Korean border.

This inspection task force is under the control of the highest state organ NDC, which surpasses the power of other previous inspection squads organized under the lesser authority.

Since the task force is directly responsible to Kim Jong Il, it is expected that the task force is granted some specific inspection guideline.

The NDC inspection squad was deployed after the UN resolution on North Korean missile crisis was passed. Also it was immediately after a flood killed thousands and created hundreds of thousands victims who lost their homes.

Dispatch of the inspection team is a measure against infiltration of outside ideology and culture and also to prevent massive defection due to recent internal and external crises.

North Korean authority sent a party inspection team to the border area in 1992 after China and South Korea normalized diplomatic relationship. Also, as the number of defectors increased since then, another inspection team under the combined control of five departments (army, security agency, prosecutor’s office, police and party) was sent.

NDC’s dispatch of an inspection task force represents the highest authority’s distrust of previous inspection teams’ activities. It’s been pointed out that due to corruption and bribery previous inspection squads were unable to root out crimes.

According to inside sources, NDC inspection task force’s primary mission is to thwart defection, leak of documents, infiltration of outsiders, guns trafficking and any other anti-socialist activities. It is confirmed that in Sino-Korean border area not only drug and counterfeit dollar bills but also guns and ammunition are smuggled.

The informant also reported that it is ordered illegal defectors and their families to be deported, and infiltrators from outside and missionaries to be executed publicly.

According to Han, a defector living in Inchon, South Korea, who is aiding North Korean refugee in China, among those who suffered flood, an increased number of them wants to escape to China or South Korea.

From the Daily NK: 

N.Korea Urges the Public to Help Disabled Veterans

Last Saturday, Chosun-Shinbo, bulletin of Chochongryon that pro-North Korean residents’ league in Japan introduced Mansudae Art Troupe’s members who are helping disabled veterans in an article titled ‘supporting honored (disabled) veterans is people’s duty.’

In North Korea, disabled veterans are called ‘honored veterans’ and various aid policies for them are provided.

According to the bulletin, Mansudae Art Troupe’s singer Kim Jeong Sil visits her neighbor Moon Sung Jun, a special-level honored veteran, and entertains him.

Another member of the Art Troupe Jo Choon Ok is helping Kim Eun Sik, a former female volunteer soldier during the Korean War. These benevolent activities by Troupe members are neither forced nor those of pity or for reputation but proof of communist morals, said Chosun-Shinbo.

North Korea’s state media often report honored veterans support activities in order to spread awareness for disabled veterans.

‘Honored veterans’ are classified into four levels, which are special-level, level 1, level 2 and level 3. And veteran’s pension is distributed according to the level.

Spreading awareness for honored veterans through state media

Special-level veterans are those who received serious wound and are unable to move freely by him/herself. Level-1 veterans lost their sight or hand. Level-2 and level-3 veterans are fortunate enough that they suffered only minor injuries.

Since the Korean War, North Korean government has paid much attention to the living condition of disabled veterans and built factories for the veterans, including Mangyongdae Honored Veterans Fountain Pen Factory, Sariwon H.V. Sewing Factory, Hamheung H.V. Supplies Factory.

In the eighties, many women married with honored veterans. For those who married with special-level veterans, Kim Jong Il’s personal gifts and thanks were given. Wives of honored veterans enjoy huge social benefits but, at the same time, they suffer hardship in their personal lives.

For example, most of them serve their disabled husbands as a nurse. Moreover, those who get married with impotent veteran cannot have normal sexual lives. And sometimes those problems resulted in divorce among honored veteran couples.

Since the mid-90s, the number of disabled veterans increased as the army took part in construction of major infrastructure projects. Usually at building sites, safety is neglected and engineers depend on primitive construction tools. Thus accidents are frequent and more veterans are disabled.

North Korea, suffering a disastrous economic crisis, cannot keep up its generosity for disabled veterans. So the state media introduce personal volunteers for disabled veterans and call upon the North Korean public to help the veterans.

The Daily NK compared pupoluation statistics from the Population Resource Bureau.

Here are the statistics on North Korea.

Here are the statistics on South Korea.

Here is the story:

North Korea’s infant mortality reaches 21 for every 1000 due to the country’s poor medical system.

A non-profit demographic institute Population Research Bureau (PRB) reported on Thursday that, as of mid-2006, North Korea’s population is approximately 23.1 million and it is expected to increase to 25.8 million in 2025 and 26.4 million, an increase of 14% from now, in 2050.

North Korea’s birth rate is 16 per 1000 people and death rate is 7 for every thousand, and the natural population increase is 0.9%.

North Korea’s infant mortality (21 for every 1000), which is far higher than that of South Korea (5 for every 1000), implies the North’s weak health care system. The average life expectancy is 71 years, 68 for men and 73 for women. Urban population rate is 60 percent.

According to the report, this year’s world population is 6.55 billion and expected to reach 7.94 billion in 2025 and 9.24 billion, 41 percent more than now, in 2050.

Meanwhile, the primary reason for North Korean infants’ death is respiratory infection and diarrhea. And a third of total North Korean infants are suffering serious malnutrition.

From the Daily NK:

Pyongyang Residents Secretly Watch KBS 9pm News
“On the Second-Hand TVs Imported from Japan” 
By Kwon Jeong Hyun, Dandong of China
8/14/2006

It was found that Pyongyang residents in North Korea have secretly watched KBS 1 TV on high-fidelity receivers smuggled from China and TVs made in Japan.

The North Korean government has prohibited the North Korean people from watching South Korean TV programs. In order to prevent TV or radio waves from South Korea, it has done blanketing. Yet, it has been know that such control have not prevent the North Korean people from secretly watching KBS 1TV programs including 9pm News, and rather such trend has been spreading all over Pyongyang.

On the 30th last month, Kim Jin Ho(pseudonym, 42) staying in China to see his relatives said that, “Receivers smuggled through trucks from China are sold at 120 to 150 yuans (45,000 to 56,000 won of North Korea)at Jangmadangs “, adding “Quiet many people watch South Korean TV programs in Pyongyang”.

Kim told that, “Because of control of the government, people can not see soap dramas. They just usually watch 9pm news to know the trends of the world”, and “Family members and friends talk about them together”.

Kim said that receivers to receive the South Korean TV programs are 3m high and have two-edged looked like bones of fish. Kim said he is watching through the receivers only at night. The receivers are called ‘yagi receiver’, which are usually used as territory receivers. Given that the yagi receivers that have been used in the 70’s and 80’s are impossible for satellite broadcasting, people have received KBS program waves over the truce line.

Park Gi Chang(pseudonym, 34) from Pyongsung, South Pyongan province, said that, “Now if one does not know the trends of the outside world, he or she can not join the conversation” and “We can know about what the North Korean government did”. However, Park said that because of the strict control of the government, we have to be careful.”

Park said that, “I have watched KBS programs on a receiver purchased at Jangmadang after I saw my relatives seeing the programs in Pyongyang.”

Because North Korean TV standard is PAL(Phase Alternating Line) different from NTSC(National Television System Committee), we can not still see the South Korean program on the North Korean TVs. Seeing South Korean programs is possible only on the TVs made in Japan and China. Japanese TV standard is NTSC.

In addition, recently it was known that PAL and NTSC TVs are imported from China and Japan.

North Korean has imported TVs made in Hitachi, Japan since the 80’s in bulk. Some second-hand TVs had often been imported into North Korean, which were replaced by receivers only for North Korea.

A staff in charge of KBS broadcasting transmission said that, “No-person head end or transmission tops around the truce line area send electronic waves, which are possible to reach at Pyongyang”, and “it is surprising that we do not send electronic waves toward North Korea. But Pyongyang residents have received them”.

A researcher at a electronic waves research center under the Ministry of Information and Communication stated that, “Generally, waves sent towards Seoul reach at Cheonan or even Dangjin, the nearly southernmost part of S.Korea”, and “given the nature of waves, North Korea can not prevent the waves from South Korea”.

Kim Gi Hyuk, defector Producer of Free North Korea Broadcasting, said that, “I can remember that in Hoicheon, South Pyongan province, I watched a news announcing that Hwang Jang Yop came to South Korean as a political asylum, and saw a South Korean car advertisement through the receiver”, and “on the rainy day, the waves were better caught in the receivers”.

A staff of VideoLap, a video specialized company, said that, “If TVs’ standard is PAL, screens turn into black so we can not totally watch programs. However, sometimes the TVs work well”.

A government official briefly mentioned, “I heard that some North Korean people watch South Korean TV programs”.

The North Korean people have gotten world news on the broadcastings such as RFA or Korean Social education broadcasting. Furthermore, VCD and TV programs have been spreading. It has made the North Korean people free from informational isolation of the past.

From the Washington Post:

New North Korean movie is proletariat pleaser
By Jon Herskovitz
8/11/2006

The king of the summer movie box office is none other than North Korea’s Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, or at least that is what the communist state’s official media has been saying this week.

The biggest movie sensation of the season has been the film made under Kim’s wise leadership called “Diary of a Student Girl,” the North’s KCNA news agency said.

“(It) is screened before full houses in Pyongyang every day, evoking lively response from people of all walks of life,” it said.

Unlike the big movies from Hollywood this summer, there are no pirates, animated cars or mutants making a last stand in the North Korean movie billed as a “close companion of life.”

North Korea’s student girl works with her younger sister in pursuit of scientific endeavors. Through their work they overcome hardships, better understand their parents and are instilled with pride in the nation and its military-first policy.

Even before it was released, official media said it would be listed as a masterpiece.

Minister of Culture Kang Nung-su praised the film as “the fruit borne under the wise leadership of Kim Jong-il, a great master in art,” KCNA reported.

And audiences indeed loved it: “The viewers make up their mind to live as the heroines do, saying that they want to see the film again,” the official agency said.

North Korea has made numerous movies that are low on special effects but high in messages that support the state’s communist ideology.

Kim’s official biography says the man known as the “Dear Leader” is an accomplished director who has made several award-winning films.

Kim is also suspected of kidnapping a South Korean director and his actress wife in order to boost North Korean cinema. Those close to him say he has a collection of thousands of movies.

North Koreans do not have a lot of choice when it comes to entertainment. Their radios have to be set to the official state station and they can get thrown in jail for watching foreign movies or listening to Western music.

As for Kim himself, it was not certain if he has sat through the latest movie. According to official media, he has not been seen for several weeks following Pyongyang’s decision to defy international warnings and test-fire seven missiles on July 5.