North Korean Economy Watch

Josh points out this table from the UNHCR (originally published by RFA):

Click image for larger version.

UPDATE: In 2004 Germany’s Goethe Institut opened a reading room in Pyongyang (see Choson Sinbo article below). This week it was closed. According to Deutsch Welle:

After five and a half years in operation, the Goethe-Institut in North Korea has said it will close its reading room in the capital city of Pyongyang due to censorship concerns.

The institute, a non-profit organization that promotes the study of German language and culture in 91 countries, opened the reading room in June 2004. It was the first and only Western cultural institution to establish itself in the communist country.

Raimund Woerdemann, director of the Goethe-Institut in Seoul, told Deutsche Welle that, contrary to an agreement made with the North Korean government, access to the center was often hindered.

“The building in which the reading room was located was often locked from the front,” he said. “There was a permanent construction site in front of the back entrance: not a welcoming situation.”

To his knowledge, there has never been an Internet connection in the Pyongyang center, said Woerdemann, and attempts to establish an Intranet connection with other North Korean educational institutions were interrupted on multiple occasions.

The reading room is slated to close in summer 2010. Woerdemann added, however, the Goethe-Institut would make an effort to maintain positive relations with North Korea through participation in the North Korean-German Friendship Society, the Committee for Cultural Relations Abroad and other partnerships.

Criticism from Berlin

The decision to close the reading room has met with strong criticism from the German parliament. Phillip Missfelder, parliamentary foreign policy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU issued a statement Wednesday, calling the closure “a bitter experience and a big disappointment for everyone who has stood up against resistance to cultural exchange and for the gradual opening of communist North Korea.”

The move represented “the end of an important aspect of German foreign policy in the areas of culture and education, which was a ray of light in the darkness of the repressive, totalitarian government in North Korea.”

In the statement, Missfelder said the CDU parliamentary group takes the closure “very seriously” and would make every effort to reverse the decision.

The center in Pyongyang was founded with the aim of reducing the information deficit in the country, offering unrestricted access to the Internet and free press, networking with South Korea and other countries, and promoting literature.

The Pyongyang reading room has been removed from the Goethe Institute’s web page, although not all of the links have been removed.

The reading room was located near Tae Mun and the DPRK’s Ministry of Culture in Pyongyang here.

UPDATE 1: According to Korea.net, the Goethe Institut plans to expand Pyongyang reading room:

On the sidelines of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) conference last week, a German cultural institution reaffirmed its commitment to promote freedom and democracy in North Korea.

The Goethe Institute, an NGO sponsoring German language and culture worldwide, said it is ready to expand its collection of media resources in North Korea.

The institute opened a reading room in Pyongyang in 2004 where North Koreans can freely access a variety of German media, including books, newspapers, and music. The content is completely uncensored and accessible to all North Koreans. That was the condition under which Goethe Institute agreed to open the reading room, said Jurgen Keil, director of the Goethe Institute in Seoul.

“The reading room has been received very positively by North Koreans. We hope that it can contribute to normalizing North Korea’s relations to the outside world,” Keil said.

The efforts mirror a similar German diplomatic strategy in the 1970s when then West German Chancellor Willy Brandt pursued a policy of “Change through Rapprochement” of easing ties with East Germany through a series of reconciliatory measures.

Former President Kim Dae-jung made reference to this strategy when he formulated the South Korean “Sunshine Policy.”

Claudia Lux, IFLA president-elect, stressed that “knowledge is always a step toward freedom.”

Keil added that many North Koreans can speak German. Until German reunification in 1989, a great number of North Koreans were living and working in East Germany.

North Korea was eager to establish the reading room in order to boost its international diplomatic profile, even though the content available there undercuts the strict censorship imposed by the country.

The reading room in Pyongyang currently holds 4,000 items. Keil said it plans to gradually increase the number to 8,000 in the coming years.

ORIGINAL POST: From the Choson Sinbo (August 14, 2004):

A library of German science books was opened in central Pyongyang on June 2, as the first institution where people can freely read foreign books.

The library was opened in cooperation between Pyongyang’s DPRK-Germany Friendship Association and Germany’s Goethe Institute.

The library has 4,000 scientific books in natural and social sciences and leading German newspapers and magazines. In addition, the library has various kinds of movie tapes, music CDs and cassette tapes and audiovisual education aids for German language study.

It is the first time that the DPRK has opened a library of scientific books of a specific Western country.

An official concerned with the library said that the institute aims at introducing advanced science and technology of Western countries and at promoting mutual understanding between the DPRK and Germany by spreading Germany’s scientific books in the DPRK.

The library introduces German books to libraries of domestic universities and research institutes while allowing people to freely read German books, newspapers and magazines. It lends books to users.

Accepting users’ requests the library orders books from the Goethe Institute, a nongovernmental cultural organization of Germany. Pyongyang’s counterpart offers requested books to the library free of charge.

The library has plenty of natural science books, such as books of medical science, information technology, geology, physics, architecture, chemistry and biology. In addition to natural science books, there are books of German literature, art, philosophy and books of social science including law and history.

According to an official concerned, main users of the library are university students, researchers and scholars.

Officials said that a delegation of the Goethe Institute plans to visit Pyongyang in September to provide 4,000 more books to the library. The Goethe Institute also plans a training course for librarians to staff the library.

Kim Mun Ik, 57, an official of the Association of External Cultural Liaison, said, “The DPRK is not an ‘exclusive country.’ The library is a clear indication that we have been open to the outside, receiving foreign things as far as these are useful for us and now we are making every effort to develop relations with foreign countries, even with Western countries.”

Although the article did not offer much new or probing analysis, there were a few data points that I thought it was important to highlight: 

Despite its isolation and prisonlike feel, the Kaesong Industrial Park is booming with construction. The park’s operator, a South Korean developer, Hyundai Asan, hopes to expand it into a minicity over the next 12 years, with high-rise apartments and hotels, an artificial lake and three golf courses.

By that time, the company hopes there will be about 2,000 factories here employing 350,000 North Koreans and producing $20 billion worth of goods a year.

That compares with a manufacturing output of only $366 million in the first half of this year, according to South Korea’s unification ministry.

In the six months through June, the flow of goods in and out of the industrial park accounted for 42 percent of the $881 million in trade between the two Koreas, the ministry said.

and

[…] 72 smaller South Korean companies have already built factories here, looking to tap the North’s supply of low-cost, Korean-speaking labor. So far, only one foreign company has come [–German auto parts maker Prettl Group is building a factory. Two Chinese companies will begin operations soon[, b]ut most companies here continue to be smaller South Korean firms, producing low-tech goods, from frying pans to running shoes, largely for domestic consumption.] (NKeconWatch combined two different paragraphs here)

The piecemeal brand of change is seen in the experiences of SJ Tech, a South Korean maker of car and cellphone parts that built a $4 million factory here four years ago. The company’s first North Korean employees had never even seen a keyboard, much less a computer, said Yoo Chang-geun, SJ Tech’s president. SJ Tech has spent so much time teaching them things like machinery operation and management concepts that Mr. Yoo jokingly calls his factory “North Korea’s first business school.”

But the North Koreans were eager learners, sketching keyboards on paper to teach themselves typing. Now, SJ Tech’s 430 North Korean employees have learned enough to run the factory without South Korean supervisors.

In a telling sign, they have also changed their haircuts to look more like their South Korean colleagues.

Andrei Lankov seems optimistic on the project’s political goals, stating “When North and South Koreans can interact on a daily basis, it is a chance for the North Koreans to see with their eyes that their own propaganda doesn’t make sense.”

A few described how the South Korean-run industrial park was improving lives by paying its workers the equivalent of about $60 a month, three times the average salary in the rest of Kaesong. […]

The South Korean government, which spent more than $150 million subsidizing the park, provides low-interest loans and insurance to companies to offset the risks of investing in the unstable and still hostile North.

Mr. Yoo of SJ Tech said his North Korean employees’ monthly salaries of $75, in contrast to the $2,000 he pays South Koreans, made investing in North Korea entirely worthwhile, despite any risks.

The article seems to take worker compensation claims at face value, but in reality Kaesong workers do not take home their allotted wages.  The DPRK government keeps most of them in taxes and administrative fees.  However, other non-monetary benefits make the jobs highly envied among North Korean workers.  Rumor has it that North Korean workers pay hefty bribes to get these jobs. 

Read the full article here:
Big Dreams for North Korean Industrial Park
New York Times
Martin Fackler
8/20/2008

UPDATE: Herald Tribune/Joong Ang have update and photo of reunion. 

In February 2007 the Joong Ang Daily reported the sad story of Renate Hong, and East German citizen who married a North Korean student at Jena University named Hong Ok-geun.  Shortly after their marriage, Mr. Hong was called back to the DPRK in 1961, and the couple eventually lost touch. 

Early last year, North Korea verified that Mr. Hong was still alive in Hamhung, though remarried and with a new family.   Ms. Hong, still in Germany with two children born of the short relationship, never remarried.  

The couple was finally able to exchange letters with the help of German authorities. When the first arrived from Mr. Hong, it was the first time in 44 years that Renate had heard from her husband since her last letter came back with an “address unknown” stamp in 1963. 

The DPRK government initially denied requests for a reunion, but this week the couple, as well as their children, were allowed to meet in Pyongyang.  According to the Hong family and diplomatic sources in Germany, Renate Hong, 71, and her two sons arrived in Pyongyang on July 25.  This will be the first time the two sons, now 47 and 48, will see their father. 

Read more here:
Joong Ang Daily
Ryu Kwon-ha
2/13/2007

North Korea allows a separated couple to reunite after 47 years
Joong Ang Daily
Ryu Kwon-Ha and Ser Myo-ja
8/5/2008

German travels to NKorea to reunite with husband
Associated Press(Via Huffington Post)
8/5/2008

UPDATE 4: Circus gets coverage in Dutch media.  Story here.  You Tube video of the circus performing in Pyongyang here.

UPDATE 3: Video report of the performance in the Netherlands here. (hat tip to NOS)

UPDATE 2: Werner found out the information for Germany:

In Frankfurt / Germany they will perform from 4th to 28th Sept.

For place, time and tickets please look at:
http://www.ticketcenter.de/Sonstiges/The-Great-Flying-Circus-Nordkorea/Tournee-03248.html

UPDATE 1: Thanks to a reader for finding the information and posting in the comments:

It appears they are going to perform in Amsterdam’s Koninklijk Theater Carré from 08/01/2008 to 08/31/2008. Tickets can be ordered at this URL: http://wereldzomerfestival.theatercarre.nl/actiesite.php. 

ORIGINAL POST: According to Yonhap, the Pyongyang Circus Troupe will be touring Germany and the Netherlands for the next three months, showing off their 10 signature stunts.

From the article:

Formed over 50 years ago, the troupe is one of North Korea’s foremost cultural groups, making a visit to South Korea in 2000 on the eve of the first inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.

“This is the first time the troupe is giving a solo performance in Europe,” the paper said, adding the tour will help improve relations between North Korea and European nations.

I imagine this is the circus that performs on Kawngbok street in Pyongyang.  There is a second “Korean People’s Army Circus” in Moranbong district.

I do not know where they will be performing, or where to get tickets, so if anyone out there can find out, please let me know.

Read the full article here:
N. Korean circus troupe to tour Europe: report
Yonhap
7/26/2008

North Korea has requested that the German Red Cross continue providing medical aid beyond ithe 2009 deadline.

The request was made when Rudolf Seiters, president of the German Red Cross, visited Pyongyang on April 22-26 and met with Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly to discuss his group’s overrall programs to aid the communist state.

The German group has sent medical kit that includes pain-killers, antibiotics and nutritional injections, as well as medical equipment such as blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes to some 2,000 local hospitals and clinics across North Korea since April last year. About 8.8 million North Korean residents benefited from the aid, Koch said.

The German government has provided 4 million euros (US$6.2 million) worth of aid to the North every year since 1997, the spokeswoman added.

Read the full article below:
German Red Cross asked to continue helping N.K.: report 
Yonhap
5/1/2008

Last August I posted an excerpt from Andrei Lankov’s book, North of the DMZ, on the preservation of Kim il Sung’s body in Kamsusan Memorial Palace.  This year, the Daily NK (here and here) provides some new information on Kim il Sung’s imposing presence on the North Korean landscape.

First some statistics:

1.  There are approximately 70 Kim il Sung statues in North Korea (large statues a la Mansu Hill in Pyongyang).

2.  There are approximately 30,000 plaster busts.

3.  There are approximately 140,000 monuments and memorials

4.  There is allegedly one Kim Jong il statue in Pyongyang (although the Daily NK is the only source I have ever heard make this claim). 

5.  The first Kim il Sung statue was at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School on 10/24/1948.  The second was in front of the Changjeon School in 1949. The most recent is at Kim il Sung University in 1996. 

Apparently all of the statues are made of bronze, but are coated in a gold paint every two years to prevent them from corroding.  The gold paint is allegedly imported from Germany (Can any German readers/speakers find out which German company supplies the paint?  How much? And at what cost? ).   

All of the likenesses of the Great Leader are exclusively constructed by the Mansudae Art Studio’s “Number One Works Department”  in Pyongyang.  The workers in this group are tested annually by a deliberation committee so they can be certified to work on Kim statues, etc.  These individuals are the only ones legally allowed to reproduce the leader’s image in North Korea.

Once a Kim statue is completed, it is transported by numerous agencies (security, party, and artists) to its destination where it is erected.  Lamps are supposed to shine on the statues from 10:00pm until 4:00am.  Local citizens are charged with keeping the area around the statue tidy (which can be verified on Google Earth).  In the event of an emergency (such as a war), many statues allegedly have dedicated bunkers in which they can be stored.

As has been chronicled before on this website, North Korean embassies generally secure their own  operating funds.  Although this might seem odd to western observers, it is an innovative model that has its benefits (i.e. the embassies earn a profit and economic considerations play a large role in determining whether an embassy is worth the cost).  There is also a downside to this model, and that is that more than one North Korean diplomat has been caught in some sort of shady smuggling or tax avoidance scheme.

The staff at the DPRK’s embassy in Germany, however, have been quite entrepreneurial in managing their real estate holdings.  They are converting their old offices into hotel space:

The Cityhostel Berlin will initially have 37 rooms at a charge of 20 Euros ($31) per head a night, Sankei reported. A reception with a grand piano is being built and a Korean restaurant is due to open in May, the newspaper said.

The embassy buildings, occupying 8,160 square meters (87,788 square feet), were built in the 1970s during the Cold War and are located in old East Berlin, Sankei said. Staff numbers at the embassy were cut after the Cold War ended and the building being converted was previously leased to corporations, Sankei said.

Update 4/5/2008:
From the Daily Telegraph:

A spokesman for the North Korean embassy dismissed the reports as Japanese propaganda, however.

“The rumours about this hostel are based on Japanese media reports, but they are not correct,” the spokesman said.

“The Japanese media are very much influenced by their government and they probably gave out this wrong information because they are our enemies.”

but…

On its website, City Hostel notes that it signed a contract in December to occupy the building, which it describes as “formerly the consulate of North Korea”.

Read the full articles here:
North Korea Converts German Embassy Into Hostel, Sankei Reports
Bloomberg
Hideko Takayama
3/25/2008

Enjoy your stay… at North Korean embassy
Daily Telegraph
Harry de Quetteville
4/5/2008

According to Business Week German auto parts manufacturer, Prettl, became the first non-Korean firm to start building a plant inside a joint inter-Korean factory complex in North Korea–breaking ground Wednesday.  Kim Min-kyung with the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee claims the factory will be open in December and employ 550 North Koreans.

Other facts:

Two Chinese companies also signed contracts last year to run factories in the area but have not started construction, Kim said.

A total of 69 South Korean companies are currently operating in the zone, employing some 23,220 North Korean laborers, according to the management committee.

The full article can be found here:
German firm breaks ground in North Korea
Business Week
3/5/2008

Daily NK
Yang Jung A
7/24/2007

The North Korean Embassy in Berlin has leased its premises of the building in order to pay for its expenses, the Sankei Shimbun reported on the 24th.

According to the newspaper, an 5 stories building, 8160㎡ in area was leased out by the North Korean Embassy to a total of 15 companies including a design company and psychology association.

The North Korean Embassy did not publicize any external advertisements. However, a Germany affiliate is apparently conducting all the paperwork at an office located at the entrance of the building, the newspaper informed.

During the Cold War, North Korea constructed a large scale embassy in Berlin for propaganda and ostentation like other socialist blocs at the time.

However, with the fall of East Germany and the amalgamation with West Germany, the majority of socialist forces receded including the North Korean embassy. Now there are only a dozen or so employees working at the embassy and 70% of the building vacant.

The area is on lease for 8 Euros per ㎡ which is considerably cheaper than other locations in the busy area of Brandenburg Gate which costs at least $10~15 Euros.