North Korean Economy Watch

1. The Leader’s so bright (I gotta wear shades). Only Kim Jong-il could give a talk to a packed auditorium while wearing sunglasses indoors…

2. As an frequent scuba diver, I was surprised to see this on North Korean TV this week:

I have not seen a dive suit like this outside of a museum.  Antique dive helmets in this style sell for well over US$1,000 and most are from Russia.  It seems like the DPRK could export its aging scuba gear, use the proceeds to buy newer/safer dive equipment, and have some cash left over.  The picture was taken at the Tanchon Port, which is being renovated.

3. Poor Pororo:

Back in early May, Pororo came out of the closet as a joint-Korean creation. With the implementation of new DPRK-US trade regulations (EO 13570), many were worried that the US was rolling up the welcome mat for Pororo videos—but he will be fine. OFAC explains why. Steve Park’s importation of Pyongyang Soju will also be fine.

4. North Korean Wave:

This week the DPRK launched a new television drama about its ladies national football team.  The show’s premier was announced on the KCTV evening news on June 18th and so far it has aired every day this week beginning on the 19th.  I have all of the episodes (so far) on my computer, and they are very fun to watch–even without subtitles.

The show appears to be shot on location at the ladies team’s training complex in Pyongyang (38.994877°, 125.811791°–right next to the Taedonggang Brewery):

And just as interesting, this show is the first example (of which I am aware) in which KCTV seems to directly engage in product placement advertising for a foreign-made product.  Here is a series of screen shots from the first four episodes:

The coach never takes off his FILA jacket. How long before all of the DPRK’s aspiring footballers want a jacket just like that one?

Interestingly, according to the FILA Wikipedia page: “Founded in 1911 in Italy, Fila has been owned and operated from South Korea since a takeover in 2007.”

I have uploaded a short sassy clip of the show to YouTube.  Watch it here.  Here is a story in Yonhap about the show (Korean).

Pictured above: A member of the DPRK TKD team trains a middle school student in Boston, MA.  See other photos here.

According to Yonhap:

A group of North Korean taekwondo athletes arrived in the United States Thursday (June 9) for a rare performance tour abroad amid hopes of a thaw in Pyongyang-Washington relations as the U.S. appears to be preparing for the resumption of food aid.

The 17-member team, which left Pyongyang on Saturday, arrived in San Francisco at 10:40 a.m. by way of Beijing.

This will be the second time the group has toured the US (The first time in 2007).  The web page for both tours (2007 and 2011) is here.  It appears the last performance is tonight in Delaware Valley.

A documentary on the 2007 tour will be released soon (web page here and trailer here). According to PRWeb:

This June, the North Korean National Taekwon-Do Demonstration Team perform for American audiences on the east coast. This cultural exchange follows their historic 2007 Taekwon-Do Goodwill Tour sponsored by Iowa resident, Woo-Jin Jung, which is being made into a documentary film called “Tong-il: Breaking Boards, Bricks, and Borders” by Texas filmmaker, Luan Van Le, and independent production company, LUV Films.

From June 11 through June 14, 2011, a 17-member North Korean Taekwon-Do delegation will travel and perform in Boston, MA, New York City, and New Jersey, for their 2011 TKD Goodwill Tour. Spearheaded by Grandmaster Woo-Jin Jung, a US citizen, it is a cultural exchange to promote peace between North Korea and the USA. Filmmaker, Luan Van Le, has been following Jung’s efforts for the feature documentary called “Tong-il” which covers Jung’s biography as well as the first 2007 North Korea/USA TKD Goodwill Tour.

The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice backed by the USA on the South Korean side and the Soviet Union on the North Korean side, leaving the peninsula divided to present day. The absence of a peace treaty leaves all parties in a technical state of war and hostilities. Through 2010, the diplomatic relationship between the USA, South Korea, and North Korea dove to an all time low and hinges on North Korea’s feared nuclear weapons program. Since the relationship between the USA and North Korea are vital to any eventual peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula, the TKD

Goodwill Tours are efforts to help jumpstart diplomatic endeavors through non-governmental people-to-people exchanges. The practice of Taekwon-Do espouses building a more peaceful world and Grandmaster Jung strives to exemplify the philosophies taught through this Korean martial art.

Luan Van Le was given permission by the North Korean government to travel and film in North Korea in June of 2007 and was given exclusive access to film the North Korean delegation through the October 2007 TKD Goodwill Tour, which traveled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cedar Rapids, IA, Louisville, KY, and Atlanta, GA, over two weeks. The 2011 tour is meant to introduce the North Koreans to new cities and audiences. LUV Films, the company responsible for the production of “Tong-il,” will be on-hand to record the New York segment. The documentary “Tong-il” is currently in the editing and post-production phase and is set to be finished this summer.

To learn more about the documentary go to http://www.tong-ilmovie.com and to attend the June event visit http://www.usnktkd.com.

You can learn more about the bizarre history of Taekwondo and North Korea here.

Accoridng to KBS:

A Russian company is facing charges of operating a gambling room in the North Korean embassy in Moscow.

The company, which leased the second and third floor of the embassy’s administrative building, has allegedly been running the illegal operation since December.

The North Korean embassy denied the allegations when reports surfaced last week. But signs of a gambling operation were detected in a recent investigation by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued letters of protest to ambassadors from North Korea and Belarus and demanded the casino immediately shutdown to prevent further violation of Russian law and bilateral agreements.

Read the full story here:
Russia Protests NK Embassy’s Casino Operation
KBS
2011-4-21

I still have not had time to pay much attention to this story, but here is the coverage by the major British media outlets:

The Economist:

SVEN GORAN ERIKSSON, a Swedish football manager of some repute, is a man known as much for his wide travels as he is for his colourful love life. After scoring great success in Italy, he managed the national teams of England, Mexico, and the Côte d’Ivoire. Even seasoned Sven-watchers however were surprised when he rocked up in North Korea in 2009.

This week it was reported that he had been there at the behest of one Russell King, a convicted conman, who had managed to convince a London financial institution, the government of North Korea, and Mr Eriksson himself that he was managing billions of dollars on behalf of the Bahraini royal family.

A report on the BBC’s investigative news programme “Panorama” (or, if you’re outside the viewing area) has it that Mr King, who is now believed to be on the lam in Bahrain, first convinced directors of small investment bank First London Plc to hand over 49% of the company to him, in return for his apparently colossal business. This done, he used First London to finance an investment in Notts County, a Midlands football club with a proud history, now plying its trade in the lower divisions.

Mr Eriksson, drawn in by the promise of shares in Swiss Commodity Holdings (SCH), a vehicle of Mr King’s, was duly installed as football director at County. He was joined there for a time by another fellow dupe, Sol Campbell, an ex-Arsenal and England star. Messrs King and Eriksson ventured to Pyongyang on SCH business, where they are reported to have made a deal with officials in the North Korean government to grant them exclusive rights to the impoverished nation’s gold mines. “I was in the palace and they were handing over to the North Korean government so-called shares”, Mr Eriksson told BBC’s investigative news programme “Panorama”. “They used my name”, he laments; there was even talk of him managing the North Korean football team.

Those who follow developments in North Korea tend to prefer casting Kim Jong Il as an evil genius—crazy like a fox—rather than as merely crazy. While there can be no doubting that he has it in him to run circles around America and China, the Dear Leader appears to be no match for a silver-tongued conman of Russell King’s stature.

The Guardian:

The Serious Fraud Office is looking into an elaborate scam that took in the former England football manager Sven Göran-Eriksson, former spymaster Sir John Walker and the North Korean government.

Investigators are also looking at how the same fraudster took control of almost half of a London investment bank without paying for the shares.

First London plc – the investment bank whose shares were listed on the Plus stock exchange and whose advisers included Tim Yeo MP and Air Marshal Sir John Walker, a former head of defence intelligence – subsequently went into administration with debts of £8.7m.

BBC Panorama has discovered that Russell King, a convicted fraudster, took control of 49% of First London by claiming he was managing billions of dollars for the Bahraini royal family. The case has been referred to the SFO – which only looks at the country’s highest value frauds – by the Financial Services Authority.

An FSA spokesman said: “In this case the acquisition of control occurred without the FSA having been given the prior notice which the law requires it to be given. Had it been given proper notice it would have been in a position to consider whether it should use its powers to object to and prohibit the change of control. The FSA subsequently identified a number of concerns and pursued a series of leads into what was an extremely complex corporate structure. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time due to confidentiality issues.”

The Panorama programme will show how King then used the name of the bank and its high-profile advisers to give credibility to deals.

They included an attempt to obtain funding for a new company that claimed to have assets worth $2tn and the short-lived takeover of the Football League’s oldest club. In 2009, King was behind a controversial takeover of Notts County which promised to bring millions of pounds of investment from the Middle East. The investment, which appeared to have been guaranteed by First London, never materialised and the club was left £7m in the red – but not before Eriksson agreed to join County as director of football. Nottingham police are investigating.

The coach’s contract included a clause entitling him to €11m of shares in a little-known company called Swiss Commodity Holding, which had been set up a few months earlier and was claiming to have assets worth $2tn from the exclusive rights to North Korea’s gold, coal and iron ore.

King persuaded the former England manager to visit the rogue state as part of an SCH delegation and Eriksson was present at a meeting with the North Korean leadership. “I was in the palace and they were handing over to the North Korean government so-called shares,” he tells the programme. “I asked them how much and what they told me was not millions, it was billions of dollars. They used my name. Of course they did. At the end it became a big, big mistake.”

Panorama’s investigation shows that King was secretly running SCH, which was considering a public listing.

Documents detailing SCH’s claims were prepared by First London plc. The investment bank also sent Walker, who sat on the bank’s advisory board, to check out King and his associates. The air marshal tells the programme: “What do I think of Russell King? Not a lot. He was good at chat, but that was his business. He was a con man. I was taken the same way Sven was taken. They just wanted names.”

King had gained control over First London plc shares after convincing the bank that he was managing billions of dollars of Bahraini cash by introducing some of its executives to senior members of the royal family. But Fawaz Al Khalifa, president of the Bahraini Information Affairs Authority, says King was lying about his royal connections: “He might have met members of the family here or there, but we have no financial connection to him or his company.”

King, who was jailed for insurance fraud in 1991, denies running Notts County, SCH or First London plc.

However, the programme has obtained dozens of emails and testimonies showing he was secretly pulling the strings, including some where he refers to himself as Lord Voldemort, the character from the Harry Potter books who can never be named.

First London plc’s parent company, First London Group plc, is still in business. In a statement, its lawyers said the failure to notify the FSA about the change in ownership was a mistake: “This was simply an error and not done for any ulterior or questionable motive. As far as our client is aware the FSA were satisfied that the information provided was in compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements. Our client is unaware of any investigation by the FSA or SFO into its activities so far as they relate to or involve Russell King.”

BBC:

The Serious Fraud Office is examining a con that took in Sven-Goran Eriksson and the North Korean government, BBC Panorama has learned.

Investigators are also looking at how the same conman stole a football club and broke a bank.

Convicted fraudster Russell King persuaded the former England manager to join Notts County FC as director of football and to visit North Korea.

Mr King denies any fraud and said he was just a consultant on the deals.

Mr Eriksson was appointed at Notts County in 2009 following a takeover that promised to bring millions of pounds of Middle Eastern investment.

“For me as a football man it was fantastic, building a club from the bottom of League Two and having the funding to do it, to be a Premier League club. It’s like a dream, so I signed. Big mistake,” he said of the deal.

Milk bill
The promised money never arrived and the club was left £7m in debt. Mr Eriksson says there were early signs that all was not as it seemed.

“I started to have doubts when they came and told me the milk bill has not been paid,” he said.

Mr King claimed his Swiss-based mining company had assets worth almost $2 trillion because it had the rights to North Korea’s gold, coal and iron ore.

He told Mr Eriksson the Notts County cash would come from that mining deal. He then persuaded him to join a delegation visiting Pyongyang.

“I was in the palace and they were handing over to the North Korean government so-called shares,” Mr Eriksson told Panorama.

“I asked them how much that was and what they told me was not millions, it was billions of dollars. They used my name. Of course they did. At the end it became a big, big mistake.”

‘Con-man’
Russell King’s business deals had credibility because they appeared to have the backing of First London plc, an investment bank with advisers including Conservative MP Tim Yeo and Air Marshal Sir John Walker, a former British spymaster.

The bank sent Sir John, a former head of defence intelligence, to check out Mr King and the Korean deal, but he was also taken in.

Sir John said of the deal: “What do I think of Russell King? Not a lot. He was good at chat, but that was his business. He was a con man. I was taken the same way Sven was taken. They just wanted names.”

Mr King also managed to get control of almost half of First London plc without paying a penny for the shares, after he convinced its bankers he was managing billions of dollars for the Bahraini royal family.

But Fawaz Al Khalifa, President of the Bahraini Information Affairs Authority, says that Mr King was lying about his royal connections: “He might have met members of the family here or there, but we have no financial connection to him or his company.”

First London PLC went into administration last year with debts of £8.7m and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been examining the deal that gave King control of 49% of its shares. The FSA has now passed its finding to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

“In this case the acquisition of control occurred without the FSA having been given the prior notice which the law requires it to be given,” said an FSA spokesman.

First London plc’s parent company, First London Group plc, is still in business. In a statement, its lawyers said the failure to notify the FSA about the change in ownership was a mistake that had been rectified:

“This was simply an error and not done for any ulterior or questionable motive. As far as our client is aware the FSA were satisfied that the information provided was in compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements.

“Our client is unaware of any investigation by the FSA or SFO.”

Lord Voldemort
Mr King, who was jailed for insurance fraud in 1991, denies any involvement in the running of Notts County or First London plc.

But Panorama has obtained dozens of emails and numerous testimonies that show he was secretly pulling the strings at Notts County.

King even referred to himself as Lord Voldemort, the character from the Harry Potter books who can never be named.

The club had been owned by a supporters’ trust, but Mr King persuaded the fans to sell it for just £1 after they met one of his supposedly wealthy benefactors in Bahrain.

Abid Hyat Khan was introduced as a Middle Eastern prince, but Panorama has discovered he is actually on the run from British police.

He absconded from the UK in 2008, when he was due to stand trial for allegedly stealing almost £1m. Khan denies posing as a prince.

The BBC’s Panorama show can be found here.

UPDATE 7 (3/15/2011): According tothe AP (via USA Today), North Korea’s gymnasts have been banned from the 2012 London Olympics:

North Korea’s gymnasts are still barred from the 2012 London Olympics as punishment for age falsification, despite the country’s reform efforts.

North Korea asked the International Gymnastics Federation for leniency last month after firing the outgoing president of its Gymnastics Association, its international director and her secretary, and banning them from gymnastics, according to a statement Tuesday from the FIG. North Korea also approved an identification and registration process for its gymnasts.

But FIG president Bruno Grandi said North Korea had failed to appeal in time, and he wouldn’t interfere with the governing body’s disciplinary procedures.

North Korea was given 21 days to appeal after the FIG issued a two-year ban from international competition in November, its second punishment for age falsification. The FIG imposed the current sanction, which lasts until Oct. 5, 2012, after finding that Hong Su Jong listed three different birth dates (1989, 1985 and 1986) in registering for international competitions from 2003 until this year, including the 2004 Athens Olympics.

North Korea has also banned Hong for life and ordered her to return all medals and titles “as the result of grave negligence and damage caused to the Association’s reputation,” according to the FIG release.

The FIG began investigating Hong after she entered last month’s worlds using the third different birth date of her career — 1989. She won the silver medal on vault at the 2007 worlds listing 1986 as her birth year. She competed in Athens using a birth year of 1985, which, if she was born in 1989, would have made her 14 or 15 — too young to compete. Gymnasts must turn at least 16 in the calendar year of an Olympics to be eligible.

North Korea was banned from the 1993 world championships after the FIG discovered that Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to help protect still-developing athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age has been 16 since 1997, and the FIG now requires gymnasts competing at most international events to have a license proving their age for their entire career.

UPDATE 6 (11/5/2010): According to the International Gymnast:

North Korea is suspended from international competition until October 2012 for age falsification and false registration, the International Gymnastics Federation announced Friday.

As IG reported in September, North Korean gymnast Hong Su Jong’s birth year has appeared over the years as 1985, 1986 and 1989. For the 2010 World Championships, the North Korean federation submitted Hong’s birth year as 1989, meaning she was underage at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

On Oct. 5, the FIG’s Disciplinary Commission provisionally suspended the North Korean federation for 30 days, leaving the country out of October’s world championships in Rotterdam. North Korea appealed but the FIG upheld the suspension, stating the federation’s offered excuses for the varying birth dates were not credible.

Hong’s case is the second age falsification offense for North Korea. The North Korean women were banned from the 1993 World Championships after the FIG discovered gymnast Kim Gwang Suk had been registered as being 15 from 1989-1991.

The FIG Presidential Commission followed the Disciplinary Commission’s recommendation to suspend North Korea for two years, from Oct. 6, 2010 to Oct. 5, 2012, and to forbid its participation “in any capacity in any competition or activity authorised or organised by the FIG, any Union, any National Federation, any club or in any international event.”

The FIG stated that Hong also is not allowed to compete in any domestic competition during that period of time.

“The FIG’s decision is a clear signal to those who would willfully disregard the current rules surrounding gymnast age. The health of its athletes and respect for the law are among the International Gymnastics Federation’s highest priorities,” the FIG stated.

The sanction includes not only the women’s team, but also North Korea’s male gymnasts and rhythmic gymnasts. Notably this affects male standout Ri Se Gwang, the only gymnast who has competed two vaults of the maximum difficulty of 7.2 (piked double front-half and Tsukahara double back with a full twist).

The latest birth date for Hong Su Jong — March 9, 1989 — confirms the long-held suspicion that she and her sister, Hong Un Jong, are twins. Hong Un Jong, whose date of birth has been listed consistently as March 9, 1989, won the gold medal on vault at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Hong Un Jong did not compete at the 2004 Olympics.

The FIG also hit the North Korean federation with a fine of 20,000 Swiss Francs (approximately $20,800). Several years ago, the North Korean federation was temporarily suspended from the FIG for being unable to pay its membership dues.

The FIG showed leniency, however, by not stripping Hong of the silver medal she won on vault at the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart for the infraction of “false registration.” Although a 1989 year of birth would have been made her age eligible in 2007, Hong was registered in Stuttgart using a passport that listed her year of birth as 1986. All passports are photocopied, the FIG told IG.

North Korea may appeal the sanction in writing within 21 days, the FIG stated.

UPDATE 5 (11/5/2010): According to AFP:

North Korean gymnast Hong Su Jong has been banned for two years by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) for lying about her age.

The FIG provisionally suspended Hong, a silver medal winner on the vault at the 2007 world championships, on October 6 after discovering she had registered for various international events claiming to be three different ages.

“The FIG’s decision is a clear signal to those who would wilfully disregard the current rules surrounding gymnast age,” the sports world governing body said in a statement on Friday.

“The health of its athletes and respect for the law are among the International Gymnastics Federation?s highest priorities.”

The ban runs until October 5, 2012, with the North Korean gymnastics federation ordered to pay a 20,000 Swiss Franc (15,000 euros) fine.

The gymnast and her federation have 21 days to appeal.

Hong had been registered with three different birth years for international competition over the past six years.

At the Athens Olympics in 2004 she was down as having been born on Match 9, 1985 but the date of March 9, 1989 was given for the worlds in Rotterdam last month which North Korea were excluded from competing in.

At the same time, she was registered with a date of March 9, 1986, birthdate at the 2007 world championships, where she won the silver medal on vault.

If Hong was born in 1989, she would have been ineligible to compete in Athens. Gymnasts must turn 16 in the calendar year of an Olympics in order to be eligible.

North Korea were banned from the 1993 worlds after FIG discovered that Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medallist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 years for three straight years.

UPDATE 4 (10/30/2010): FIG to decide DPRK case soon.  According to Intlgymnast.com:

The International Gymnastics Federation will decide with the next 10 days when North Korea’s gymnasts can return to competition following an age falsification case, an FIG spokesman told IG.

The FIG’s Disciplinary Commission has invited the North Korean federation’s representatives to hearings Tuesday and Wednesday at the FIG headquarters in Lausanne.

On Oct. 6, the FIG provisionally suspended the North Korean gymnastics federation for 30 days for suspicion of age falsification and false registration in the case of Hong Su Jong. The North Korean federation registered Hong, a 2004 Olympian, under three different birth years: 1985, 1986 and 1989. A birth year of 1989 — used to register Hong for the 2010 World Championships — would have made her ineligible for the 2004 Olympics.

While the FIG’s Disciplinary Commission investigated the case, the commission’s president acted to provisionally suspend the federation for 30 days, preventing the team from competing at last week’s world championships in Rotterdam.

The North Korean federation immediately appealed the suspension, but it was rejected, and the team was unable to take part in Rotterdam.

“The provisional suspension will expire on Nov. 8,” the FIG’s Philippe Silacci said. “The commission will made a decision prior to this date.”

At immediate stake is North Korea’s participation in the 16th Asian Games, which begin Nov. 13 in Guangzhou, China. The North Korean women were second as a team at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, where Hong Su Jong also placed third all-around and first on uneven bars.

The FIG’s Disciplinary Commission will present its findings to the FIG Presidential Commission, which will determine if further disciplinary action is warranted. It is doubtful that the FIG would issue a substantial monetary fine to the North Korean federation, which at one time was suspended temporarily for being unable to pay its FIG dues.

The Hong Su Jong case is North Korea’s second offense. The FIG banned the North Korean women from competing at the 1993 World Championships after gymnast Kim Gwang Suk was registered as being 15 in 1989, 1990 and 1991.

The FIG also could decide to strip Hong of the silver medal she won on vault at the 2007 World Championships, even though she was age eligible at the time, because of the “false registration.” If Hong Su Jong’s year of birth is confirmed to be 1989, it would mean she was registered using a falsified passport in Stuttgart, where her year of birth was listed as 1986.

Hong’s sister, Hong Un Jong, won the 2008 Olympic gold medal on vault. The latest birth date for Hong Su Jong confirms she and Un Jong are twins.

UPDATE 3 (10-14-2010): DPRK gymnasts barred from 2012 olympics.  According to the AP via USA Today:

North Korea will not be able to send teams to the 2012 London Olympics after international gymnastics officials rejected the federation’s appeal of a ban imposed because a gymnast falsified her age.

The International Gymnastics Federation said its appeal tribunal ruled Thursday that North Korean explanations did not justify lifting a provisional 30-day suspension handed down last week because of Hong Su Jong’s violation of age rules. The ban prohibits North Korea from competing at any international competitions, including the world championships that begin Saturday in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and are the first step in qualifying for the London Games.

The top 24 teams at worlds advance to next year’s world championships in Tokyo. North Korea still might be able to send individual athletes to London depending on whether more sanctions are imposed.

North Korea can make a final challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The FIG imposed its ban after finding that Hong had entered worlds using the third different birth date of her career. She listed her birth year as 1989, but FIG documents show that she competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 worlds using a birth year of 1985. She won the silver medal on vault at the 2007 worlds listing 1986 as her birth year.

If Hong was born in 1989, she would have been ineligible to compete in Athens. Gymnasts must turn at least 16 in the calendar year of an Olympics to be eligible.

This is the second time North Korea has been punished for age falsification. The federation was banned from the 1993 world championships after the FIG discovered that Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to help protect still-developing athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age has been 16 since 1997.

The FIG requires all gymnasts who represent their countries at most international meets to have a license that proves their age for their entire career.

UPDATE 2 (10-13-2010): The North Koreans have appealed their suspension.  According to International Gymnast Magazine:

After it was discovered that three different birth years had followed the March 9 birth date (1985, ’86 and ’89) of Hong Su Jong (pictured here) since she competed in the 2004 Olympics, the President of the FIG Disciplinary Commission provisionally suspended the North Korean federation as of Oct. 6, 2010, for 30 days. North Korean officials were given five days to file appeal, which they did on Oct. 11.

The appeal will be judged by the President of the FIG Appeal Tribunal within five days. The world championships in Rotterdam, which begin on Oct. 16, serve as a qualifying competition to the 2011 Worlds in Tokyo.

“If the decision is final and stands, [North Korea] could only participate with individual gymnasts in Tokyo,” FIG Secretary General Andre Gueisbuhler told IG.

Gueisbuhler also said that if the suspension is upheld, it would affect all gymnastics disciplines of the North Korean federation, men and women.

UPDATE 1 (10-7-2010): The North Koreans have been suspended. According to USA Today:

North Korea’s gymnasts have been suspended from the world championships starting next week because one team member’s age had been falsified.

The International Gymnastics Federation said Thursday it provisionally suspended North Korea’s federation and gymnast Hong Su Jong for 30 days, ruling them out of the worlds being held Oct. 16-24 in Rotterdam and any other international or national event.

North Korea which entered four women, including Hong, and two men to compete at the worlds can appeal to the FIG within five days.

The FIG’s disciplinary commission met Wednesday and noted that Hong’s entry for the worlds had her birth date as March 9, 1989.

FIG documents show that she competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 worlds using a birth year of 1985, and won the silver medal on vault at the 2007 worlds using 1986. American Alicia Sacramone was the bronze medalist on vault in 2007.

If Hong was born in 1989, she would have been ineligible to compete in Athens. Gymnasts must turn at least 16 in the calendar year of an Olympics to be eligible.

“The USA has always played very correctly and followed the rules. We would be very happy to see other countries doing the same thing,” said Martha Karolyi, coordinator of the U.S. women’s team. “From time to time, it’s frustrating to see some people are not playing by the rules. I’m very happy the FIG stands up and is trying to track down these mistakes.”

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to help protect still-developing athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age has been 16 since 1997.

North Korea was banned from the 1993 worlds after the FIG discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

Earlier this year, the International Olympic Committee stripped China of its team bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics for using an underage gymnast.

That case followed an investigation by FIG into unproven claims that some of China’s gold-medal team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics could have been as young as 14.

The governing body now requires all junior and senior gymnasts who represent their countries at most international meets to have a license that acts as proof of their age for their entire career.

ORIGINAL POST: According to the AP:

International gymnastics officials are investigating another case of possible age falsification, this time of a North Korean gymnast who listed three different birth dates.

North Korea and Hong Su Jong will be given a chance to explain the discrepancies at a hearing and in written statements, the International Gymnastics Federation said Saturday.

Hong’s birth date is March 9, 1989, on the entry list for the world championships this month in Rotterdam, Netherlands. But she had a March 9, 1985, birth date at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 world championships, and a March 9, 1986, birth date at the 2007 world championships, where she won the silver medal on vault.

If Hong was born in 1989, she would have been ineligible to compete in Athens. Gymnasts must turn 16 in the calendar year of an Olympics to be eligible.

…

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to help protect still-developing athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. North Korea was banned from the 1993 world championships after the FIG discovered Kim Gwang Suk, the 1991 gold medalist on uneven bars, was listed as 15 for three years in a row.

I think instances of cheating are fairly rare with North Korean teams though I do remember two other reports.  The first  is when North Koreans were caught cheating at the International Mathematical Olympics.  The second report is from the 2008 Olympics where two athletes tested positive for doping.

Read the full story here:
NKorean gymnast investigated for 3 birth dates
AP (Via USA Today)
10/2/2010

According to the Daily NK:

High level North Korean cadres are visiting a casino in the far northeast of the country, disguising their identities so as to avoid government regulations which forbid them from entering, a defector-led NGO has revealed.

Reporting the news, an NK Intellectuals Solidarity inside source explained yesterday, “Recently, cases of high level North Korean cadres disguising their identities to enter Orakjang Casino, which is in the Emperor Hotel in Rasun City, have been occurring frequently.”

The Emperor Hotel was established in 2000 by Emperor Group, a Hong Kong-based property developer. With around 100 rooms, bars, cafes, an indoor swimming pool, sauna, night club, sports center and a fine sea view, the hotel, which cost $64 million to build, employs around 500 people, including a number of North Korean women.

According to the source, while the hotel was regularly frequented by Chinese tourists and officials when it opened, it closed down at the end of 2004 after one official, acting independently, squandered a fortune in public funds there.

However, seizing the opportunity presented by Kim Jong Il’s visits to China last year, the hotel reopened and, according to the source, has recently been doing well off Russian traders, among others.

On this, the source explained, “One of the conditions placed on the opening of the hotel was that North Koreans would not be allowed to enter, and at the beginning their entry seemed to have been thoroughly prohibited,” adding that therefore, “However, as the number of Chinese traders going to the casino increased, so high North Korean cadres doing business with the Chinese and wealthy North Koreans disguising their identities also entered.

The North Koreans apparently pretend to be Korean-Chinese when they enter the casino, where some reportedly gamble away as much as $10,000 per day.

Because North Korean enterprises and factories are unable to operate properly due to a lack of raw materials and capital, average cadres and staff go to gamble mostly to relieve their boredom, the source explained.

Read the full story here:
Casino Luring in Bored North Koreans
Daily NK
Cho Jong-ik
1/27/2011

UPDATE 2: Apparently female graduates of the DPRK’s most prestigious university can look forward to careers as….Golf Caddies.  According to the Choson Ilbo:

He said there are about 30 female caddies at the complex in their 20s or 30s, many of them graduates of the prestigious Kim Il-sung University. “Caddies were beautiful and considerate,” he said. “After I finished playing golf, I came out of the shower at the club house, and there was a woman dressed in traditional Korean costume holding a towel. I instantly wondered whether there was another service waiting for me, but there was no 19th hole.”

UPDATE 1: Simon adds some interesting information in the comments section below.  Also, here are two additional stories about a golf tournament held back in 2004: story one, story two.

ORIGINAL POST:

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According to the Choson Ilbo:

North Korea will host its first ever amateur golf tournament for foreign visitors. London-based Lupine Travel on Thursday announced that together with China Youth Travel Service of Dandong, it is organizing the North Korean Amateur Open for golfers from around the world in Pyongyang from April 26 to 30.

Lupine Travel, which specializes in tour packages to unique destinations, is currently offering a five-day tour to the North through the website www.northkoreanopen.com.

According to the website, any amateur golfer who hits an average of 90 can take part. The package costs 999 euros, and includes visas, tournament entry, return train travel from China into North Korea, meals and accommodation.

Pyongyang Golf Complex, located near Taicheng Lake some 27 km from the capital, is the only golf course in the country for North Koreans. The Korea LPGA Pyongyang Open was held there in August 2005.

“The 18-hole, par 72 course covers 120 hectares with 45 hectares of green and is 7 km long. The course can service up to 100 competitors at a time and includes a service area covering 2700 square meters; including shops, restaurants, conference facilities and a sauna,” the website said. “When Kim Jong-Il opened the course in 1991, he shot a world record 38 under par on his first ever round of golf (including 11 holes in one).”

The Wall Street Journal’s Korea Real Time also covered the announcement.

North Korea has four golf facilities and one driving range.  Only three golf facilities are in operation and only two open to “the public”. Here are satellite images of all four (the last image was taken when the golf course was under construction): Pyongyang Country Club, Yangak Golf Course, Sosan Driving Range, elite three-hole range, and Kumgangsan (under construction in the image).

According to the Associated Press:

The Asian Football Confederation has fined North Korea $2,000 for failing to bring a player to an Asian Cup news conference.

The fine, announced Sunday, is the latest to be imposed on teams at the tournament in Doha, Qatar for violating the AFC’s media policy. Qatar has also been fined $2,000 for the same offence while complaints against Iraq and Saudi Arabia for failing to bring players to a news conference have been sent to the AFC’s disciplinary committee.

Read the full story here:
North Korea fined $2,000 for failing to send player to Asian Cup news conference
Associated Press
1/15/2011

According to the Korea IT Times:

Eunbyul 2010 is a “Go” game, or commonly known as baduk in Korean; a software program developed by North Korea and played in North and South Korea. Winner of the third Computer Go Competition UED Cup in 2009, defeating so many outstanding programs from all over the world, Eunbyul 2010 is maintaining 3-dan at cyberoro.com and also ranks number one in sales in Japanese computer Go program market.

Go was invented by Chinese emperor Yao around 2300 BC, and has been widely played in the three countries in Far East: Korea, Japan, and China. In North Korea, the game was previously considered ‘the bourgeoisie game,’ thus a taboo; however since the 1990′s, the government has promoted Go as a traditional game that dates back to the Three States era; in addition it highlights the game as a brain exerciser that helps children develop their intelligence and old people keep their brains from aging. North Korea classifies Go – also called brain combat or brain fight in the country- as a type of martial arts just like Taekwondo or Ssireum, the Korean wrestling. North Korea’s Go was controlled by Chosun Sports Association, but under the command from Kim Jeong-il in 1990s; it was transferred to Chosun Martial Arts Federation that had better training environment, and subsequently categorized as public sport; now Taekwondo Commission is in charge of the game. Cho Daewon, 22 and MunYoungsam, 33, both amateur 7-dan, are noted as the top players in the country.

The estimated number of Go players in North Korea was around 10,000 in 1994, and is currently over 30,000. North Korean government encourages children to play Go as they believe the game has a significant effect on improving many brain activities such as concentration, observation, memory, imagination, and structure perception. Go classes are organized at kindergarten and the government tries to promote the game by holding various Go competitions for children.

Along with their passion for the game, North Korea is also regarded as one of the world’s best developer of computer Go game. Since early 1990s, the university computer development group composed of Kim Ilseong University, Kim Chek Engineering College, etc. – has developed computer Go programs. In 1995, Eunbyul Computer Technology Trade Center which is now called Korea Computer Center (KCC) focused on making software programs for Go, chess, Janggi and the like. The Go software ‘Eunbyul 2010 (see the picture above)’ – was imported into South Korea and is now available to the public consumers (here).

Eunbyul 2010 is the latest version of Eunbyul 2006, which was released in 2006 drawing attention to the industry. It integrated Monte Carlo Method into the algorithm of the original 2006 version, substantially improving the level of performance. While Eunbyul 2006 was rated level 6 according to Korea Baduk Association’s system, its 2010 counterpart attained 2-dan after the battles with random user at Cyber Oro, the internet Go match website. The user won 54 and lost 46games – 31 victories and 25 defeats in 1-dan battles and 23 victories and 21 defeats in 2-dan battles -hence, with 54 percent of winning rate. The software also won the International Computer Go Tournament held last year in Japan, sweeping all the matches and, thus, proving to be the best of its kind in the world.

There are two types of engines in Go programs. Tree search system, in theory, takes more than 361 (factorial) searches for one match because it has to create a move by move searching tool to explore every path. There is Monte Carlo method engine, which randomly selects one of the undefeated moves after proceeding hundreds of thousands of simulated battles to the end. Despite the relatively higher performance (on amateur beginner’s levels), this method was difficult to be adopted for commercial use because it required computation by either supercomputer or tens of CPUs from parallel wired computers.

4OneBiz, the sales rights holder in South Korea, signed the contract with North Korea in June 2006 before beginning the sales in the South. In September the same year, the company held an 8-day workshop in which an engineer who spent over a decade on developing Go programs at KCC and a professional5-dan Go player participated in the activities. The main objective of the workshop was to decide whether they should improve the performance of the existing Eunbyul program or develop a completely new engine from the design. Ultimately, they chose the latter.

North and South Korea agreed to develop a whole new level of Go program engine that contains tactical data, which narrows down the potential moves to only a few, so as to make the next move in a simpler way. They also aim to make a program with optimal performance that is light and fast enough to be installed in a mobile device. South Korea provides an expert-levelalgorithm design whereas North Korean developers will take charge of creating a program based on the theory and basic algorithm. This new expert-level Go engine is already completed, and its automatic evaluator and situation-determination module are currently being supplied to a popular Korean Go website. Further use is currently under negotiation. One engineer who specialized in expert-level Go engine and gave up after spending more than 10 years on developing the engine once contended that “it is beyond human capability to develop an amateur-expert level of Go engine.”

However, the recent success can be largely contributed to the thoughtful collaboration between South and North Korea: i.e., the North Korean engineers spent more than a decade focused and devoted to Go engine development, and South Korea’s also has well-known competence in Go game. The incredible synergy was all thanks to the socialist system of North Korea where the engineers could stick to the Go engine development project for nearly 20 years regardless of its profitability; and also the capitalist South fostered the best Go players with its wealth and the professional Go player system. For those reasons, North Korea could have developed Eunbyul 2010, the best artificial intelligence Go program in the world.

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s Artificial Intelligence Go Software
Korea IT Times
Choi Sung, Professor of computer science at Namseoul University
1/4/2011

According to the Donga Ilbo:

A casino in the North Korean coastal city of Rason (formerly Rajin and Sonbong) that helps the North earn foreign currency officially resumed operations two months ago, a Chinese source said Monday.

China is known to have allowed its nationals to visit the casino, whose main customers are Chinese.

“Rason Casino is openly doing business and 30 to 40 customers visit every day,” the source based in Hunchun in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China’s Jilin province said Monday. “You can get a tourist visa for North Korea in a day in Yanji (China), which makes visiting a lot easier.”

In addition to those from Korean autonomous prefectures such as Yanji, casino patrons also hail from Harbin, Shenyang and Changchun in northeastern China. They arrive in Yanji, go through the Hunchun customs office 90 minutes away by car, and enter the North Korean village of Wonjong-ri.

They then travel for another 90 minutes by car to the casino. In Wonjong-ri, taxis wait for Chinese visitors who enter the North on foot.

The reopening of the casino was apparently possible thanks to China’s tolerance or cooperation. Formerly known as “Emperor Casino,” the facility was opened by Hong Kong Emperor Group in 2000 and closed at the end of 2004, when a Chinese official from a Korean autonomous prefecture was found to have gambled away a huge sum of public funds at the casino.

Beijing cracked down on gamblers and stopped its nationals from entering the North, and urged Pyongyang to close the casino. Back then, Chinese media reported that the casino earned at least 1 billion yuan (151 million U.S. dollars) per year.

The casino operator is reportedly based in Hong Kong, and probably Emperor Group.

Operations at the casino conspicuously resumed after August, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited Beijing and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed on the development of Rason.

Another source said, however, “In fact, the casino secretly resumed operations a year ago. It now openly attracts customers.”

Approximately 15 minutes away from downtown Rajin by car, the casino is also known to house a five-star hotel, room salons (high-class hostess bars), luxury restaurants and saunas. The source said, “Room salons have as hostesses young Russian, Chinese and North Korean women. Prostitution occurs openly.”

A satellite image of the casino can be seen here.

Read the full story here:
NK casino reopens after Kim Jong Il’s Beijing visit
Donga Ilbo
12/29/2010